In which the Author putteth a final conclusion to his work.
Every work to be perfect requireth to be placed in the ternary number,
that is to say, it must have a beginning, a middle, and an end; and for
the more perfect understanding of this, it is well we should know that
there are three ternaries in the General Universal of the world, and the
first of these we call "super-excellent," and we can find no certain
name to signify its perfection to us, for it is unknown of sensuality,
and common natures cannot understand it; but an obedient faith, with
great humility, rendered more lively by the grace of God, placeth in it
a steadfast strength. And therefore that philosopher and theologian,
Albert the Great,[N223] in the 1st chapter of the _Celestial Hierarchy_,
giveth three degrees of understanding by which God may be known.
And the first he compareth to the birds that fly by night, such as bats,
owls, and other such, whose sight can in no way endure the sun's
brightness; which also the prince of philosophers affirmeth in his
_Metaphysics_, saying that our understanding is such (compared to the
things that in their essence, as far as Nature runneth, are manifest) as
the eye of the owl or bat in comparison with the brightness of the Sun.
For such a vision have those who involve themselves in the desires of
the earth, placing all their affection in what they receive from the
images that are felt, and by this obstruct their understanding, so that
it knoweth nothing of the Divine Being. And in the second he maketh
comparison of the other birds that have a stronger sense and endure the
heat of the Sun, but when they regard its splendour their eyes do
constantly tremble; and in this manner do some act, who, withdrawing
themselves far from external objects follow after Speculation by
Understanding, and removing their minds far from Materiality see the
Deity from afar with trembling; but as they desire to understand with
human reason, it faileth them frequently and they fall into error, even
as fell a part of the great philosophers who were not illumined by the
light of Faith. The third vision is possessed by the beauteous eagles,
which can gaze with the organ of vision upon the resplendent orb of this
Planet, and by these we may principally understand those that read in
the book of life and know all things as far as their understanding
extendeth without other investigation. And so the men, who in the
knowledge of God wish to obtain entire strength, subdue themselves to
the Holy Gospel, and taking solace from what they understand, adore with
humble and great reverence that which by subtlety they cannot embrace,
and faithfully confess with the Doctor Saint Thomas in the ninth article
of the 10th question of the book called _De Potentia Dei_, that in God
there is one real circle wholly enclosed in a perfect ternary, because
He comprehendeth Himself and speaketh and begetteth an Eternal Word in
which He vieweth Himself and all things. And from the Father and Son
there is breathed forth a tender issue by which the Divine essence is
beloved and all that proceedeth from it. And so where was the
Commencement of Understanding, there the Loving Will maketh its End. And
we have an example of this in ourselves; for, if we consider what we
understand, a certain knowledge is generated in the soul, and then the
understanding offereth to the will that it may freely take what pleaseth
it most; and it, receptive of the tender object, inclineth by affection
to that by which the understanding was first moved.
In this manner is finished the circle which is super-spiritual and
infinite in height, and in itself cannot proceed beyond the ternary in
which it endeth. The second circular ternary is that of nature which
includeth in it all the creatures, and it may be imagined in this wise:
let us take some fountain that never faileth, from which a certain river
taketh its birth, and following its course according to the vigour that
it received in the commencement, it returneth to that fount at last from
which it originally proceeded. And so all things have their commencement
in the Lord God, the general cause and continuing in the Life they
receive from Him, they have their last end in that from which they had
their first beginning.
And by this ternary (which is in them of beginning, middle, and final
end), saith the Philosopher, in the book that he made in which he
discoursed of the Heaven and the World, that the ternary is the number
in everything, and that it encloseth in itself the like perfection and
middle and certain end, and that from it no creature is exempt. And on
this account it was anciently established that God should be praised as
a ternary.
The third ternary circle we call Moral, and it belongeth to the works
that are done by us, the which commence in the credit that the Lord God
willeth to give them, for He doeth them chiefly, and we are instruments
set in the midst, which He useth at His pleasure, working His will and
accomplishing them as He pleaseth; and for the confirming of this it is
written in the Gospel of St. Luke that if we do all that is commanded of
us, we may know that we are unprofitable servants, for we only perform
that to which we are constrained. And of a certainty all that we can do
is vanity, since it can be accomplished without us, and we deserve
nothing in it except as far as it pleaseth the Creator to grant us of
His mercy, by doing us the excellent favour of making use of us in His
actions, and willing that we be instruments in some of the things that
He doeth. And this pleaseth His goodness, because He findeth in us some
work of His by which we may earn a good reward. And therefore wise men
perceiving this infinite mercy, that maketh them to be what they are,
and understanding that all good works proceed from Him by His imperial
pleasure, confess that they deserve nothing for what they may do; and
they labour to fulfil this circle, so that their every act may terminate
in that beginning where it commenced.
* * * * *
And because you, most high and excellent Prince, among mortals, and
according to my thinking, most virtuous lord, chiefly for the sake of
thanksgiving didst order me, Gomez Eannes de Azurara, your servant and
creature, and through your munificence, Knight and Commander in the
Order of Christ, to compose this book, with good reason it seemeth fit
that in thanksgiving I should make an end of it. And since the Apostle
Saint Paul teacheth us in all things to give thanks to God, as is
contained in the Epistle which he sent to the men of Thessalonica; so,
making the circle of my work, I put the final term in that Helper who
was invoked by my will in the commencement; and I offer to the Infinite
Personal Ternary whatsoever thanks I can, for I have not the power to
give as many as I owe: firstly, to the Father super-essential, from whom
universally proceed all things, to Him I give thanks for the talent he
gave me to commence this work; and then to the Son super-spiritual, who
had no commencement of being, to Him I give thanks for the help He
bestowed on me to continue what I had commenced; and then to the Holy
Spirit super-natural, from whom we have all good things by His
benevolence, to Him I give thanks for the inspiration by which He moved
your Highness to lay this command upon me and not on any other of your
countrymen and subjects, of whom you could have had many. And jointly to
all the Three Persons who compose the Ineffable Trinity and
Super-essential Unity, our one only true Lord God, I offer thanks for
the ending, because all things have concluded better than I thought
before.
* * * * *
And this work was finished in the Library that this King Don Affonso
made in Lisbon, on the 18th day of February, being written in this first
volume by John Gonçalvez, Esquire and Scrivener of the books of the said
Lord King. And to this lord may the most infinite, benign, and merciful
God ever grant increase of good works and virtues better and better all
the days and years of his life, and give him the fruit of His blessing
that he may ever render Him thanks and praise, because He is his Maker
and Creator. In the year of Jesus Christ 1453.
DEO GRACIAS.
NOTES.
[_N.B.--The page references are to the Hakluyt Society's translation_].
[Endnote 1: (p. 2). _St. Thomas, who was the most clear teacher among
the Doctors of Theology_, i.e., St. Thomas Aquinas, greatest of the
Schoolmen ("Doctor Angelicus"); born at Rocca Secca, near Aquino, 1225
(according to some 1227); Professor of Theology at Cologne 1248, at
Paris 1253 and 1269, at Rome 1261, etc., at Naples 1272 (Doctor of
Theology, 1257). Died at Fossa Nuova, in the diocese of Terracino, 1274;
canonised 1323; declared a Doctor of the Church, 1567; author, among
many other writings, of the _Summa Theologiae_, the greatest monument of
Roman divinity. Aquinas completed the fusion of the re-discovered
Aristotelian philosophy with church doctrine, which in the earlier
Middle Ages had been hampered by the imperfect knowledge of Aristotelian
texts in the Latin world, but which had for some time been preparing,
_e.g._, in the work of Peter Lombard (d. 1164), and even earlier.
Aquinas also marks the temporary intellectual victory of the Church, in
the thirteenth century, over the free-thinking and disruptive tendencies
which had shown themselves so threatening in the twelfth. See K. Werner,
_Thomas von Aquino_, Regensburg, 1858-59; Feugueray, _Essai sur les
doctrines politiques de St. T. d'A._, Paris, 1857; De Liechty, _Albert
le grand et St. T. d'A._, Paris, 1880. Encken, _Die Philosophie des T.
von A._, Halle, 1886.]
[Endnote 2: (p. 3). _When the King John ... went to take Ceuta_, viz.,
in 1415, in company with his sons, Edward (Duarte), Pedro, and Henry,
and a force of 50,000 soldiers. See especially Oliveira Martins, _Os
Filhos de D. João I_ (1891), ch. ii; Azurara's _Chronica de Ceuta_; Mat.
Pisano, _De bello Septensi_; Major's _Henry Navigator_, 1868 ed., pp.
26-43; "Life" of the same, in _Heroes of the Nations Series_, ch. viii.]
[Endnote 3: (p. 4). _Duke John, Lord of Lançam._--On this Santarem has
the following: [The Duke of whom our author speaks was probably John of
Lançon, one of the Paladins of Charles the Great, concerning whose deeds
there exists a MS. poem of the thirteenth century in the Collection of
MSS. in the Royal Library of Paris (No. 8; 203). This reference cannot
be to John I, Duke of Alençon, seeing that it does not appear that any
history of his deeds was ever written].--S.]
[Endnote 4: (p. 4). _Deeds of the Cid Ruy Diaz._--[Here our author
probably refers to the poem of the Cid, copies of which were spread
through Spain from the twelfth century (see the _Coleccion de Poesias
castellanas anteriores al siglo_ XV, Madrid, 1779-90). In the time of
Azurara there was no _one_ chronicle of the Cid's deeds; see Herder,
_Der Cid nach Spanischen Romanzen besungen_ 1857(-59), who translates
eighty romances published on this subject; Southey's _Chronicle of the
Cid_, London, 1808].--S. See also _The Cid_ (H. B. Clarke) in _Heroes of
the Nations Series_; R. P. A. Dozy, _Hist. Pol-Litt. d'Espagne,
Moyen-âge_, i, 320-706; _Le Cid ... Nouveaux Documents_, 1860; J. Cornu,
_Etudes_, 1881 (_Romania_, x, 75-99); Canton Zalazar, _Los restos del
Cid_, 1883.]
[Endnote 5: (p. 4). _The Count Nunalvarez Pereira._--The "Holy
Constable," one of the Portuguese leaders in the Nationalist rising of
1383-5, which set the House of Aviz on the Portuguese throne. Azurara is
credited with the (doubtful) authorship of a work on the miracles of the
Holy Constable. See the Introduction to vol. i of this Edition, pp.
liii-liv, and Oliveira Martins' _Vida de Nun'Alvares_, Lisbon 1893; also
the latter's _Os Filhos de D. João I_, chs. i, ii; Major's _Henry
Navigator_, pp. 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 21, 78.]
[Endnote 6: (p. 5). _Pillars of Hercules_, or Straits of Gibraltar;
called by some Arabic geographers (_e.g._, Mas'udi) the Strait of the
Idols of Copper. The conquest of Ceuta in 1415 gave Portugal a great
hold over this "narrow passage," and in 1418 Prince Henry aspired to
seize Gibraltar, which would have made his country complete master of
the same, but his project was discountenanced by his father's
government. We may refer to Galvano's story of a Portuguese ship
starting from here, shortly after 1447 (?), being driven out to certain
islands in the Atlantic; to the Infant's settlement at Sagres being in
tolerable proximity; and to Azurara's (and others') reckoning of
distances along new-discovered coasts from the same. See Azurara,
_Guinea_, ch. v.]
[Endnote 7: (p. 5). _The Church of Santiago_, i.e., St. James of
Compostella, in Galicia.--[In this passage our author refers to the
celebrated diploma of King D. Ramiro about the battle of Clavijo, though
he does not cite that document, and also to the _Chronicle of Sampiro_.
On these two documents the reader can consult Masdeu, _Historia Critica
de España_, tom. xii, p. 214, etc.; tom. xiii, 390; and tom. xvi--Voto
de S. Thiago Suppl. 1.].--S.]
[Endnote 8: (p. 7). _Sentences of St. Thomas and St. Gregory_, i.e.,
of St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope (St.) Gregory the Great (A.D. 590-604).]
[Endnote 9: (p. 7). _Garamantes_, _etc._--Properly the inhabitants of
Fezzan--"Garama," or "Phazania" in classical language. Γαράμαντεσ ...
ἔθνοσ μέγα ἰσχυρῶσ [Garamantes ... ethnos mega ischyrôs] says
Herodotus (iv, 183). Yet like the Nasamones and other nations of this
part, they are apparently conceived of by H. as a people confined to a
single oasis of the desert. The Garamantes' land, H. adds, is thirty
days' journey from the Lotos Eaters on the North coast of Africa, which
is about the true distance from Mourzuk, in Fezzan, to Tripoli (see the
journeys of Captain Lyon in 1820, and of Colonel Monteil in 1892). The
oasis, ten days' journey beyond the Garamantes, inhabited by the
Atarantes or Atlantes, may be the Herodotean conception of Tibesti.
Compare the story, in Herodotus, ii, 32, 33, of five Nasamonians, from
the shore of the Great Syrtes, crossing the deserts to the south of
Libya to an inhabited region, far west of their home, with fruit trees,
extensive marshes, a city inhabited by Black People of small stature, a
river flowing from west to east containing crocodiles: probably either
the modern Bornu or one of the Negro states on the Middle Niger.
Pliny (_Hist Nat._, v, 5, §36) records the conquest of the Garamantes by
Cornelius Balbus in B.C. 20, when the Romans captured Cydamus (Ghadames
in south-west Tripoli) and Garama ("clarissimum oppidum," the Germa of
the present day, whence the name "Garamantes").
In the time of Vespasian the more direct route from Œa or Tripoli to
Phazania was discovered (Pliny, _l. c._). In the reign of Tiberius,
during the revolt of Tacfarinas in Numidia, the Garamantes supported the
rebel, and after his defeat sent to Rome to sue for pardon, an unusual
embassy, as Tacitus remarks ("Garamantum legati, raro in urbe visi").
From Fezzan, in later days (about time of Trajan?) started the
remarkable expeditions of Septimius Flaccus and Julius Maternus to the
"Ethiopian land" (Sudan) and Agisymba (Region of Lake Chad?) in the
south, which reached inhabited country after a march of three and four
months respectively across the desert (see Ptolemy, i, 8, §5, from
Marinus of Tyre, now lost except in Pt.'s citations). The original
conquest by Balbus is probably referred to in Virgil's _Æneid VI_, 795,
in the prophecy of Augustus' triumphs:--
"Super et Garamantes et Indos Proferet imperium."
_The Ethiopians ... under the Shadow of Mount Caucasus_ is an extreme
instance of the mediæval geography met with so frequently in Azurara, as
no African "Mt. Caucasus" has ever been identified, even as a barbarous
misnomer for one of the African ranges; while Ethiopia, however confused
the reference, always starts from the ancient knowledge of the Sudan,
and especially the Eastern or Egyptian Sudan (see below).
The Caucasus, here used, perhaps, like "Taurus," or "Alps," in the
general sense of "lofty mountains," was a great centre of mediæval myth.
Here was situated, according to most authorities, the wall of Alexander,
when with an iron rampart he shut up Gog and Magog, and "twenty-two
nations of evil men" from invading the fertile countries of the south
(see _Koran_, chs. xv, xviii; the Arabic record of "Sallam the
interpreter," sent to the Caucasus about 840 by the Caliph
Wathek-Billah; Ibn Khordadbeh, c. 880; St. Jerome _On Genesis_, x, 2,
and _On Ezekiel_, xxxviii-ix; St. Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, xx, 11;
St. Ambrose, _De Fide ad Gratianum_, ii, 4; St. Isidore, _Origines_, ix,
2; xiv, 3; and the _Commentaries_ of Andrew and Aretes of Caesarea _On
the Apocalypse_ of A.D. _c._ 400 and _c._ 540; _Dawn of Modern
Geography_, pp. 335-8, 425-434).]
[Endnote 10: (p. 7). _Indians of Greater and Lesser India_ is a
regular mediæval term for the inhabitants of India proper and of
south-western Asia, sometimes including Abyssinia. Another frequent
division was threefold: India Prima, Secunda, Tertia, or Greater,
Lesser, and Middle, as in Marco Polo, Bk. III, chs. i, xxxviii-xxxix.
Most commonly, Greater India means India west of Ganges; Lesser India
corresponds to the classical _India extra Gangem_, or Assam, Burma,
Siam, etc.; and Middle India stands for Abyssinia, and perhaps for some
parts of the Arabian coast, as far as the Persian Gulf. On this passage
we must also notice the following MS. notes:--
[α. _Garamantes, Ethiopians and Indians._--It must be understood that
these are three peoples, as saith Isidore in his sixth book [_i.e._, _of
the Etymologies_ or _Origins of St. Isidore of Seville_, _written c.
A.D. 600_], to wit, the Asperi, Garamantes and Indians. The Asperi are
in the west, the Garamantes in the middle, the Indians in the east. He
reckoned with the Garamantes, the Tregodites [_Troglodytes or
Trogodites_] because they are their neighbours. Alfargano [_Mohammed
Alfergani, or of Ferghanah on the Upper Oxus, a great Mohammedan
geographer of the ninth century, author of a "Book of Celestial
Movements" translated into Hebrew and from Hebrew into Latin, which also
described the chief towns and countries of the world_] placed Meroe,
which is Queen of the Nations, between the Nubians and the Indians. The
Garamantes are so called from Garama, which is the capital of their
Kingdom, and the castle of which standeth between Inenense and Ethiopia,
where is a fountain which cooleth with the heat of the day, and groweth
hot with the cold of the night. Ethiopia is over against Egypt and
Africa, on the southern part thereof; from the east it stretcheth over
against the west even to the Ethiopian Sea. And because much of the
people of these three nations are Christians, and because they desired
to see the world, they came to these parts of Spain, where they received
great gifts from the Infant, on account of which the author hath given
this description in his chapter thereupon.
β. _Caucasus._--This mount is so called from Candor, the which
stretcheth from India to Taurus, in its length, through various peoples
and tongues, and therefore is variously named. Some say that Mt.
Caucasus and Mt. Taurus are all one, but Orosius reproveth this
opinion.] On the fountain of Garama, cf. Solinus, xxx, i.]
[Endnote 11: (p. 7). _To visit the Apostle_, viz., St. James of
Compostella, patron saint of Spain, and traditionally the "Apostle" of
that country. Santiago de Compostella was once the capital of Galicia;
it lies 55 kilometres south of Coruña, on the north bank, and near the
source, of the River Sar, which flows into the Ulla. The town is built
round the Cathedral, which claims to possess the body of St. James. A
star was said to have originally shown the place of this relic, hence
"Compostella" (Campus stellae). The body of the great church was
commenced in 1082 and completed in 1128; the cloisters were finished in
1533. An earlier church of the later ninth century had been destroyed in
997 by the Arabs under the famous "hagib" Almanzor, who also restored
Barcelona to the Western Caliphate, and nearly crushed all the Christian
kingdoms of Spain. For centuries Compostella was the most famous and
fashionable place of pilgrimage, next to Rome, in Europe. It is referred
to in Chaucer, Prologue to _Canterbury Tales_, l. 466, in the
description of the "Wife of Bath:"
"At Rome she haddé been, and at Boloyne
In Galice at Saint Jame, and at Coloyne."]
[Endnote 12: (p. 8). _Ancient and venerable city of Thebes._--Here we
have again a MS. note.
[We must understand that there are two cities of Thebes--the one in
Egypt and the other in Greece. That in Greece was the selfsame which in
the time of Pharaoh Nicrao (_Necho_, _see Herodotus, ii_, _158-9:
Josephus Antiq. Jud._) was called Jersem, as saith Marco Polo, whence
came the Kings of Thebes who reigned in Egypt C I R (_190_) years. And
this was one of the places which were given to Jacob, by the countenance
of his son Joseph, when by the needs of hunger he went with his eleven
sons to Egypt, as it is writ in Genesis. And Saint Isidore saith in his
xvth book (_of Origins_) that Cadmus built Thebes in Egypt, and that he,
passing into Greece, founded the other and Grecian Thebes, in the
province of Acaya (_Achaia_), the which is now called the land of the
Prince of the Amoreans.]
It is not necessary to dwell on the additional confusion furnished by
this "explanation"--Thebes given to the Israelites (as part of Goshen?),
Cadmus building the Egyptian Thebes, Achaia for Bœotia, and so forth;
but the point really noticeable is that in Azurara's text the "dwellers
on the Nile who possess Thebes" came in here as "wearing the Prince's
livery:" _i.e._, the negroes of the Senegal are supposed to live on the
western branch of the Nile, which mediæval conceptions obstinately
brought from Egypt or Nubia to the Atlantic, and which Prince Henry's
seamen thought they had discovered when they reached the Senegal; just
as later in the Gambia, the Niger, and the Congo, other equivalents were
imagined for the Negro Nile of Edrisi, and the West African
river-courses of Pliny and Ptolemy. Cf. chs. xxx, xxxi, lx-lxii, of this
Chronicle.]
[Endnote 13: (p. 8). _Wisdom of the Italians ... labyrinth._--Here we
have another original MS. note. [Labyrinth is so much as to say anything
into which a man having entered cannot go out again (_so Prince Henry,
in Azurara, vol. i, p. 8 (ch. ii), has "entered a labyrinth of Glory"_).
And therefore, saith Ovid, in his _Metamorphoses_, that Pasiphaë, wife
of Minos, king of Crete, conceived the Minotaur, who was half man and
half bull. The which was imprisoned by Daedalus in the Labyrinth into
which whatsoever entered knew not how to come out, and whosoever was
without knew not how to enter. And of this Labyrinth speaketh Seneca in
the _Tragedy_, where he treated of the matter of Hippolytus and Phedra].
Azurara's reference to the distinctive virtues of the four great peoples
here noticed is interesting, especially from the fact that Prince
Henry's mother was an Englishwoman; that the Emperor (now a purely
German sovereign, though still in name "holy and Roman"), invited him to
enter his service (see ch. vi); that the Pope (like Henry VI (?) King of
England) made him similar offers; that his scientific and practical
connections with Italy were very important; and that his sister Isabel
was married to the Duke of Burgundy. "The wisdom of the Italians" was
nowhere more conspicuous at that time than in geography. Italians
initiated the great mediæval and renaissance movement of discovery both
by land and sea (cf. John de Plano Carpini, Marco, Nicolo, and Matteo
Polo, Malocello, Tedisio Dorio, the Vivaldi, the Genoese captains and
pilots of 1341, precursors of Varthema, the Cabots, Verrazano, and
Columbus). Italians also constructed the first scientific maps or
Portolani (existing specimens from 1300 show out of 498 examples 413 of
Italian origin, including all the more famous and perfect). Lastly,
Italians probably brought the use of the magnet to higher efficiency;
though they did not "invent" the same, it is likely that they were the
first to fit the magnet into a box and connect it with a compass-card.
"Prima dedit nautis _usum_ magnetis Amalphis."
Also, we may recall that the Infant Don Pedro, Henry's brother, brought
home from Venice in 1428 a map illustrating a copy of Marco Polo (see p.
liv of the Introduction to this volume), and that the most important
map-draughtsmen of the Prince's lifetime were Andrea Bianco, Fra Mauro,
and Gratiosus Benincasa. From 1317, when King Diniz appointed the
Genoese Emmanuele Pesagno Admiral of Portugal, and contracted for a
regular supply of Genoese pilots and captains, down to the Infant's
earlier years, when the Genoese tried to secure a "lease" of Sagres
promontory as a naval station, and even to the time when the Venetian
Cadamosto sailed in his service (1455-6), and Antoniotto Uso di Mare and
Antonio de Noli were to be found in the same employment, the connection
between Portuguese and Italian seamanship was very close--a relationship
almost of daughter and mother.]
[Endnote 14: (p. 9). _From the islands thou didst people in the
Ocean_, etc. ... _wood from those parts._
Here Azurara gives some references to the products raised in the
newly-colonised groups of "African Islands"--corn, honey, wax, and
especially wood, on which Santarem remarks:--
[This interesting detail shows that the wood (Madeira) transported to
Portugal from the islands newly discovered by the Infant D. Henrique,
chiefly from the isle of Madeira, was in such quantity as to cause a
change in the system of construction of houses in towns, by increasing
the number of storeys, and raising the height of the houses, thus
bringing in a new style of building instead of the Roman and Arabic
systems then probably followed. This probability acquires more weight in
view of the system of lighting at Lisbon ordered by King Ferdinand, as
appears from a document in the Archives of the Municipality of Lisbon.
So this detail related by Azurara is a very curious one for the history
of our architecture.]--S.]
[Endnote 15: (p. 9). _Dwellers in the Algarve_ (_Alfagher_), i.e., the
extreme southern portion of Portugal, including Cape St. Vincent, the
cities of Lagos, Faro and Tavira, and Sagres (off C. St. V.), the
special residence of the Prince himself. Later, the plural title
"Algarves" was applied to this Province, in conjunction with the
possessions of Portugal on the North African coast immediately fronting
the Spanish peninsula, viz., Ceuta, "Alcacer Seguer," Anafe, Tangier,
Arzila, etc.]
[Endnote 16: (p. 10). _Moors ... on this side the Straits and also
beyond._--Moors who on "this side the Straits" had "died" from Prince
Henry's lance might be difficult to find; but of "those beyond" the
reference is more particularly to the conquest of Ceuta, 1415; the
relief of the same, 1418; the abortive attempt on Tangier, 1437; and the
raids upon the Azanegue Moors between Cape Bojador and the Senegal, _c._
1441-1450. The African campaign of 1458, which resulted in the capture
of Alcacer the Little, cannot, of course, be included here.]
[Endnote 17: (p. 10). _That false schismatic Mohammed._--In the
ordinary style of mediæval reference, as followed by Father Maracci and
the older European school of Arabic learning. The progress of the Moslem
faith in North Africa was rapid in the Mediterranean coast zone, but
comparatively slow in the Sahara and Sudan. See Introduction to vol. ii,
pp. xliii-lix, and W. T. Arnold, _Missions of Islam_.]
[Endnote 18: (p. 11). _Duchess of Burgundy._--The Infanta Isabel,
Prince Henry's sister, was niece of a King of England, viz., as Santarem
says, of Henry IV, son of John, Duke of Lancaster. [By this connection
our Infant was a great-grandson of Edward III, and at the same time a
descendant of the last kings of the Capetian house, and likewise allied
to the family of Valois. The Infanta Donna Philippa was married to the
Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, on January 10th, 1429. She was not
only endowed with very eminent qualities, but was also of rare beauty.
She had great influence on public affairs. The Duke, her husband,
instituted the celebrated order of the Golden Fleece to celebrate this
marriage. This princess died at Dijon, December 17th, 1472. From this
alliance came many descendants. She was equally beloved by her brothers,
and especially by King D. Edward (Duarte), who, in his _Leal
Conselheiro_ (ch. xliv, "Da Amizade"), speaks of the great affection and
regret which he felt for her. The festivities which took place at Bruges
on her arrival were among the most sumptuous of the Middle Ages].--S.]
[Endnote 19: (p. 12). _The Philosopher_, i.e., Aristotle, in Azurara's
day regarded among Christians as the "master of them that knew." The
transformation of Aristotle into a storehouse of Christian theology was
a long process, which was perhaps most completely successful in the
hands of Thomas Aquinas.]
[Endnote 20: (p. 14). _As in his Chronicle_, i.e., _The Chronicle of
the Reign of Affonso V, the African_, attributed by Barros and Goes to
Azurara himself, and perhaps embodied (partially) in Ruy de Pina's
existing chronicle of the monarch. (See Azurara, Hakluyt Soc. ed., vol.
i, Introduction, pp. lxi-lxiii.) We must notice that a little earlier
(p. 13, top of our version), on Azurara's reference to Prince Henry as
an "uncrowned prince" (cf. Azurara, vol. ii, Introduction, p. xix).
Santarem remarks:
[This detail, recorded by Azurara, a contemporary writer, shows the
error into which Fr. Luiz de Souza fell in his _Historia de S.
Domingos_, liv. vi, fol. 331, by saying that the Infant was elected King
of Cyprus: an error which José Soares da Silva repeated in his _Memorias
d'El Rei D. João I_; whereas if the words of Azurara were not sufficient
to demonstrate the contrary, the dates and facts of history would prove
the errors of those authors. As a matter of fact, the kingdom of Cyprus,
which Richard, King of England, took from the Greeks in 1191, was
immediately ceded by that Prince to Guy of Lusignan, whose posterity
reigned in that kingdom till 1487; and as our Infant was born in 1394
and died in 1460, it was not possible for him to be elected sovereign of
a kingdom ruled by a legitimate line of monarchs. Besides this, in the
list of the Latin or Frank Kings of Cyprus, the name of D. Henry is not
found. It is to be presumed that Fr. Luiz de Souza confounded Henry,
Prince of Galilee, son of James I, King of Cyprus, with our Infant D.
Henry.]--S.
Also, on the words _Atlas the Giant_ (middle of p. 13 in our version),
there is another original MS. note:
[Atlas was king of the land in the west of Europe and of that in the
west of Africa, brother of Prometheus, that great wise man and
philosopher descended from Japhet, the giant. And this Atlas was
considered the greatest astrologer living in the world at his time. And
his knowledge of the stars made him give such true forecasts of matters
which were fated to happen, that men said in his time that he sustained
the heaven upon his shoulders. And as Lucas saith, he was the first who
invented the art of painting in the city of Corinth, which is in
Greece.]
On this Santarem remarks:--
[Here our author mixes up all the historical and mythological traditions
from Greek and Latin authors relative to Atlas. Diodorus Siculus and
Plato are not cited by Azurara, who, however, relates that Atlas was
king of the West of Europe and of the West of Africa; but he forgets to
say that he reigned over the Atlantes, as Herodotus says, and confounds
Prometheus with "Japhet," whose son he was, viz., according to
Apollodorus, Diodorus Siculus, and all the ancient writers. Diodorus
says in effect that Atlas had taught astronomy to Hercules, but our
author confounds the three princes of this name, and made a mistake in
citing Lucas de Tuy (continuer of the _Chronicle_ of Isidore of Seville)
as saying that Atlas was the first who invented the art of painting in
the city of Corinth. The origin of this art was unknown to the ancients.
It is true that Sicyon and Corinth disputed the glory of the discovery,
but the discoverer according to most of the ancient authors was
Cleanthes of Corinth and not Atlas, as Azurara says. According to
others, the discovery was due to Philocles the Egyptian.]--S.
The Atlas chain of N. Africa has been the subject of persistent
exaggeration. The Greek pillar of heaven (derived from Carthaginian?
seamen) probably referred to Teneriffe. No summit in the Atlas range
answers to the legend. Though Miltsin rises to 11,400 feet, neither this
nor any other peak can be supposed to represent the idea of towering
height embodied in the story. We may notice the enormous over-proportion
of the Atlas in some of the most important maps which Prince Henry and
his seamen had to consult (_e.g._, Dulcert of 1339, the Catalan of
1375). See Introduction, vol. ii, pp. cxxiii-iv, cxxvi.]
[Endnote 21: (p. 14). _Tangier ... the most perilous affair in which
he ever stood before or after_, viz., in 1437. The conquest of Ceuta
(aided perhaps by the earlier discoveries of Prince Henry's seamen) had
made some in Portugal eager for more African conquests, and in 1433 King
Duarte (Edward) on his accession was induced by his brothers Henry and
Ferdinand, against the opinion of his next brother Pedro, to take up the
project of an attack on Tangier. The Papal Court gave only a very
doubtful approval to the war, but on August 22, 1437, an expedition
sailed for Ceuta. Tetuan was captured, and on September 23 Prince Henry
began the siege of Tangier, but his attacks on the town were repulsed;
the Portuguese were surrounded by overwhelming forces which had come
down from Marocco, Fez, and Tafilet for the relief of the city; and on
October 25 the assailants surrendered with the honours of war, on
condition that Ceuta should be given up with all the Moorish prisoners
then in Portuguese hands, and that the Portuguese should abstain for 100
years from any further attack upon the Moors of this part of Barbary.
Prince Ferdinand was left with twelve nobles as hostages for the
performance of the treaty. The convention was repudiated in Portugal,
and Ferdinand, the "constant Prince," died in his captivity June 3,
1443. Like Regulus in Roman tradition, he advised his countrymen against
the enemy's terms of ransom,
"Lest bought with price of Ceita's potent town
To public welfare be preferred his own."
Camöens: _Lusiads_, iv, 52 (Burton).]
[Endnote 22: (p. 14). _Because Tully commandeth._--It is
characteristic of Azurara's school and time that he should declare his
preference for truthful writing because a great classic recommended the
same.]
[Endnote 23: (p. 15). _College of Celestial virtues._--Contrasted with
the previous reference, this gives a good idea of Azurara's mental
outlook--on one side towards Greek and Latin antiquity, on another to
the Catholic theology. The Christian side of the Mediæval Renaissance
had not, in Portugal, been overpowered by the Pagan. We may remember, as
to the context here, that on the capture of Ceuta the chief mosque was
at once turned into the Cathedral.]
[Endnote 24: (p. 16). _Districts of the Beira ... and Entre Douro e
Minho._ The three northern provinces of Portugal:--The Beira, comprising
most of the land between the Tagus and the Douro (except the S.W.
portion); the Tral (or Traz) os Montes, the N.E. extremity; and the
Entre Douro e Minho, the N.W. extremity of the Kingdom. Here was the
cradle of the state--for the principality granted in 1095 by Alfonso VI
of Leon to the free-lance, Henry of Burgundy, was entirely within the
limits of these provinces, and was at first almost entirely confined to
lands North of the Mondego, being composed of the counties of Coimbra
and Oporto.]
[Endnote 25: (p. 16). _The two cities_, viz., The citadel and the
lower town of Ceuta, which together covered the neck of a long peninsula
running out some three miles eastward from the African mainland, and
broadening again beyond the eastern wall of Ceuta into a hilly square of
country. The citadel covered the isthmus which joined the peninsula to
the mainland. East of the citadel was Almina, containing "the outer and
larger division of the city, as well as the seven hills from which Ceuta
derived its name," the highest of which was in the middle of the
peninsula, and was called El Acho, from the fortress on its summit. "On
the north side of the peninsula, from the citadel to the foot of this
last-mentioned hill, the city was protected by another lofty wall."
According to some, the old name of _Septa_ was derived from the town's
seven hills; it was ancient, being repaired, enlarged and re-fortified
by Justinian in the course of his restoration of the Roman Empire in the
Western Mediterranean.]
[Endnote 26: (p. 17). _A duke ... in the Algarve_, viz., Duke of Viseu
and Lord of Covilham. His investiture took place at Tavira in the
Algarve, immediately on the return of the Ceuta expedition. Together
with his elder brother Pedro, whom King John at the same time made Duke
of Coimbra, Henry was the first of Portuguese dukes. This title was
introduced into England as early as 1337, and the Infant's mother was
the daughter of one of the first English dukes, "old John of Gaunt,
time-honoured Lancaster."]
[Endnote 27: (p. 17). _The people of Fez ... of Bugya._--This Moslem
league of 1418 against Portuguese Ceuta comprised nearly all the
neighbouring Islamic states (1) Fez--the centre of Moslem culture in
Western "Barbary," a very troublesome state, politically, to the great
ruling dynasties in N.W. Africa--contained two towns at this time,
called respectively the town of the Andalusi, or Spaniards--from the
European (Moslem) emigrants who lived there--and the town of the
Kairwani, from Kairwan ("Cairoan"), the holy city of Tunis. The founder
of the greatness of Fez was Idris, whose dynasty reigned there A.D.
788-985. It was captured by Abd-el-Mumen ben Ali, the Almohade, in 1145.
It was also besieged in 960, 979, 1045, 1048, 1069, 1248, 1250. See Leo
Africanus (Hakluyt Soc. ed.), pp. 143-5, 393, 416-486, 589-606. (2)
_Granada_ was still a Moslem Kingdom, as it remained till its capture by
Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. It was now (1418) ruled by the
successors of Mohammed-al-Hamar, who in 1236 gathered the relics of the
western Caliphate into the Kingdom of Granada. In 1340 the Granadine
attempt, in alliance with Berber help from Africa, to recover southern
Spain for Islam, had been defeated in the great battle of the Tarifa, or
Salado (one of the first engagements where cannon were used); but
Granada still (in the fifteenth century) retained considerable strength.
(3) _Tunis._--Leo Africanus mentions its capture by Okba (Akbah) in the
seventh century A.D., by the Almoravides in the eleventh century, and by
Abd-el Mumen ben Ali, the Almohade, in the twelfth century. It was
unsuccessfully attacked at times by those states whose trade with it was
most important, _e.g._, by Louis IX of France in his crusade of 1270; by
the Genoese, 1388-90; by the Kings of Sicily, 1289-1335; and by other
foreign states; but remained for the most part independent, from the
breakup of the Almohade empire till its capture by Barbarossa for the
Ottomans in 1531. See Leo Africanus, pp. 699, 716, 753. (4)
_Marocco._--The city of Marocco was founded, A.D. 1070-2 according to
some, 1062-3 according to others (A.H. 454), by Yusuf Ibn Tashfin, the
Almoravide. Under both Almoravides and Almohades its greatness steadily
increased. Abd-el-Mumen ben Ali took it for the latter, and under his
grandson, Yakub Almansor, it became the Almohade capital (A.D. 1189-90).
The Beni-Merini succeeding to power in these parts in the thirteenth
century, removed the seat of government to Fez (1269-1470). See Leo
Africanus, pp. 262-272, 351-359. Early in the sixteenth century the
Portuguese, under Nuno Fernandez d'Ataide, Governor of Safi, attacked
Marocco without success. A district called Marocco was much older than
the city. "Marakiyah," in Masudi (iii, p. 241, Meynard and Courteille),
is used of a district to which the Berbers emigrated. (5) _Bugia_,
_Bougie_, anciently also _Bujaïa_ and _Bejaïa_, a very ancient city.
Carthage had a settlement here; Augustus established a Roman colony with
the title of Colonia Julia Augusta Saldantum ("Saldaa"). It fell into
the power of the Vandals in the fifth, of the Arabs in the sixth,
century; and during the earlier Caliphate it carried on a considerable
trade, especially with the Christian states of the Western
Mediterranean. This trade continued to flourish during the later Middle
Ages; and we may instance, not only the favourable descriptions of
Edrisi (_c._ 1154) and of Leo Africanus (1494-1552), but also the Pisan
commerce (of about 1250-64) both in merchandise and in learning, with
this city, as well as the Aragonese treaties of 1309 and 1314, and the
Pisan embassy of 1378, as a few examples out of many. In 1068, En-Naser
having restored and embellished the town, made it his capital, re-naming
it En-Naseria; Abd-el-Mumen ben Ali subjected it to the Almohade empire
in 1152; in 1509 Count Peter of Navarre seized it, and the Spaniards
held it till 1555. From 1833 it has been a French possession. See Edrisi
(Jaubert), vol. i, pp. 202, 236-8, 241, 245-6, 258, 269; Leo Africanus,
Hakluyt Soc. edn. pp. 126, 143-4, 699, 700, 745, 932.]
[Endnote 28: (p. 17). _Chance of taking Gibraltar ... did not offer
itself to him._--This project is especially notable in the light of
later history, as of the years 1704, 1729, 1779-82, and of earlier
times, _e.g._, 710. Prince Henry seems to have been one of the few men
who valued aright (before quite modern times) the position from which
the Arabs advanced to the Conquest of Spain, and from which the English
obtained so great a hold over the Mediterranean. It was only in the
later sixteenth century that one can discover anything like a widespread
perception of Gibraltar's importance.]
[Endnote 29: (p. 18). _Canary Islands._--Here Azurara probably refers
to the projects of 1424-5, though his words may apply to Henry's efforts
in 1418, or in 1445-6, to acquire the Canaries for Portugal (see
Introduction to vol. ii, p. xcvi-xcviii).
The "great Armada ... to shew the natives the way of the holy faith" is
very characteristic of Azurara.]
[Endnote 30: (p. 18). _Governed Ceuta ... left the government to King
Affonso at the beginning of his reign._--On this, Santarem has the
following note:--
[The 35 years during which the Infant governed Ceuta must be understood
in the sense that during the reigns of his father and brother and nephew
(till Affonso V reached his majority) he directed the affairs of Ceuta,
but not that he governed that place by residing there. The dates and
facts recorded show that we must understand what is here said in this
sense, seeing that the Infant, after the capture of that city (Ceuta) in
August 1415, returned to the Kingdom (of Portugal); and there was left
as Governor of Ceuta D. Pedro de Menezes, who held this command for
twenty-two years (_D. N. do Leão_, cap. 97). The Infant returned to
Africa in 1437 for the unfortunate campaign of Tangier. After this
expedition he fell ill in Ceuta and stayed there only five months, and
thence again returned to Portugal, and spent the greater part of his
time in the Algarve, occupied with his maritime expeditions. He went
back for the third time to Africa with King D. Affonso V for the
campaign of Alcacer in 1456, returning immediately afterwards to Sagres.
Beyond this, it should be noticed that the sons of King D. John I had
charge of the presidency and direction of various branches of State
administration. D. Duarte (Edward) was, in the life of the King his
father, entrusted with the presidency of the Supreme Court of Judicature
and with the duty of despatching business in Council, as is recorded by
him in detail in ch. xxx of the _Leal Conselheiro_. The Infant D. Henry
had charge of all African business, and so by implication of everything
relating to Ceuta.
Finally, the sublime words of King D. Duarte to D. Duarte de Menezes,
when he said, "If I am not deceived in you, not even to give it to a son
of mine will I deprive you of the captaincy of Ceuta" (Azurara,
_Chronica de D. Duarte_, ch. xliii), show that the Infant D. Henry was
not then properly Governor of Ceuta; although he was formally appointed
to that post on July 5th, 1450, he never actually occupied it (see
Souza, prov. of Bk. v, No. 51).]--S.]
[Endnote 31: (p. 18). _The fear of his vessels kept in security ...
the merchants who traded between East and West._--This important detail
has not been noticed sufficiently in lives of D. Henry. If Azurara
really means that the Infant's fleet preserved the coasts of Spain from
all fear of the piracy which then, as later, endangered the commerce of
the Western Mediterranean, we can only regret that no further details
have come down to us about this point. For such a task the Prince must
have maintained a pretty large navy: though it is noticeable that piracy
seems to have been worse on the so-called Christian side in the mediæval
period; and not till after the fifteenth century, and the establishment
of Turkish suzerainty, was it as bad on the Moslem side (see Mas Latrie,
_Relations de l'Afrique Septentrionale avec les Chrétiens au Moyen Age_,
passim, and especially pp. 4, 5, 61-2, 117, 128-30, 161-208, 340-5, 453,
469, 534). The forbearance of the Barbary States with Christian
freebooting from the eleventh century to the sixteenth, their tolerance
of Christian colonies in their midst, and the special favours constantly
shown to individual Christians, would surprise those who think only of
Algerine, Tunisian, or Maroccan piracy and "Salee rovers." Roger II of
Sicily is a striking exception to this disgraceful rule. In the earlier
Middle Ages, some of the Christian Republics of Italy even joined
Moslems in slave-raiding upon other Christians (see _Dawn of Modern
Geography_, pp. 203-4).]
[Endnote 32: (p. 18). _Peopled five Islands ... especially Madeira_
(see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xcviii-cii).]
[Endnote 33: (p. 19). _Alfarrobeira, where ... Don Pedro was ...
defeated._--D. Pedro, the eldest of the uncrowned sons of King John I,
was famous for his journeys in Europe, ending in 1428, when he returned
from Venice with many treasures, among others a MS. copy of Marco Polo,
and a map of the traveller's route (see Introduction to vol. ii, p.
liv). He was still more famous for his wise government of Portugal as
Regent for his young nephew, Affonso V, 1439-47. He took part in the
campaign of Ceuta, 1415; advised vainly against the Tangier campaign of
1437; married his daughter Isabel to the King in 1447 (May); was worried
into a semblance of rebellion, 1448-9, and was killed in a battle at the
rivulet of Alfarrobeira, between Aljubarrota and Lisbon, in May 1449.
On his companion, the Count of Avranches ("Dabranxes" in Azurara),
Santarem has a note remarking that he, D. Alvaro Vaz d'Almada, was [made
a Count (of Avranches) in Normandy, by gift of the King of England
(Henry V), after the battle of Azincourt, when he was also created a
knight of the Order of the Garter.]
He was sometimes called, in the affected Renaissance fashion of the
time, the "Spanish Hercules;" but he also had fallen into disfavour with
Affonso V. He escaped from imprisonment at Cintra, joined D. Pedro in
Coimbra (the latter's dukedom), and marched with him to his death (see
Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xvi-xviii).]
[Endnote 34: (p. 19). _Order of Christ ... Mother-convent ... Sacred
uses._--Prince Henry was Grand Master of the Order of Christ, founded by
King Diniz in 1319, in place of the Templars, whose property in great
measure it inherited (see Introduction to vol. ii, p. xviii-xix).
The mother-convent of the Order of Christ was at Thomar, in the
(Portuguese) province of Estremadura, 45 kilometres N.N.E. of Santarem,
or a little N.W. of Abrantes, and is noticeable for its sumptuous
architecture. It was founded originally as a house of the Templars by
Donna Theresa, mother of Affonso Henriques, first King of Portugal; it
was enlarged and rebuilt in 1180 and 1320. At the latter date it passed,
with the reconstitution of Diniz, from the Templars to the Order of
Christ.]
[Endnote 35: (p. 19). _St. Mary of Belem ... Pombal ... Soure ...
Chair of Theology ... St. Mary of Victory ... yearly revenue_ (and see
next sentence of text).--This is the _locus classicus_ on the
benefactions of the Prince (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. cvi-cix).
St. Mary of Belem, "near the sea at Restello," a chapel where the
Infant's mariners could pay their devotions the last thing before
putting out to sea from Lisbon, or return thanks after a voyage, was
superseded by the more sumptuous edifice of Kings Emanuel and John III,
known as the Jeronymos, and named "the Lusiads in stone," which, with
the exception of Batalha, is the noblest of Portuguese buildings. Da
Gama, however, when starting for and returning from India, had only
Prince Henry's little chapel available.
Pombal, in Estremadura, and Soure, in Beira, are both a little S.W. of
Coimbra: Pombal being further in the direction of Leiria.]
[Endnote 36: (p. 20). _Ready to go to Ceuta ... desisted._--This
abortive African expedition belongs to the reign of Affonso V, and
apparently to the years immediately subsequent to the Tangier disaster
of 1437 (see Introduction to vol. ii. pp. xvi-xvii).]
[Endnote 37: (p. 21). _The Infant's town ... So named ... by
writing._--The settlement at Sagres. On this Santarem has the following
notes:--
[α. We see by our author's account what was the state in 1453 of the
town of which the Infant had laid the foundations in 1416, and to which
at first was given the name of "Tercena Naval" (Naval Arsenal), from the
Venetian word "Darcena," an arsenal for the construction and docking of
galleys; it afterwards received the name of Villa do Infante (the
Infant's town), and later on that of Sagres--derived from Sagro, Sacrum,
the famous Promontorium Sacrum of the ancients, according to D.
Francisco Manoel, _Epanaphoras_, p. 310. It should be noted that the
celebrated Cadamosto, who had speech with the Infant in 1455, at Cape
St. Vincent, does not give the name of the town, though he speaks of the
interview which he had with him (Henry) at Rapozeira].
[β. In writing "Callez" for "Cadiz" in this paragraph, our author
follows the corrupt nomenclature of the authors and MSS. of the Middle
Ages, which altered the name of that city from the Gades of Pliny (v,
19), Macrobius, Silius Italicus (xvi, 468), Columella (viii, ch. xvi), a
form more like the primitive Gadir (a hedge) in the Phœnician or Punic
language. The corrupt terms Calles, Callis, etc., are, however, met with
even in documents of the sixteenth century. See the letters of Vespucci
in the edition of Gruninger (1509)].
[γ. As to this reference to the Genoese (desiring to buy Sagres from
Portugal), the meaning must be that they offered great sums of money for
the concession of a place in the new town for the establishment there of
a factory, and perhaps of a colony, similar to those they possessed in
the Black Sea, as especially Caffa (now Theodosia, in the Crimea), or
Smyrna in the Archipelago. It is, however, improbable that they proposed
to the Infant the cession of a town of which he did not hold the
sovereignty. The Republic of Genoa had preserved very close relations
with Portugal from the commencement of the monarchy, and could not be
ignorant that even the Sovereigns of the country were not able to
alienate any portion of the land without the consent of the Cortes (on
this subject see Part III of our _Memorias sobre as Cortes_). Howsoever
the case may have been, the detail referred to by our author illustrates
the prudence of the Portuguese Government of that time in having
resisted such a proposal, in view of the fact that the Republic of Genoa
had by its immense naval power obtained from the Moorish and African
princes the concession of various important points in Asia and Africa;
and had also procured from the Greek Emperors the cession of the suburbs
of Pera and Galata in Constantinople, and the isles of Scios, Mitylene
(Lesbos), and Tenedos in the Archipelago. The reader will find it worth
his attention that Portugal refused to accede to a similar offer when
the Emperors of the East and of Germany, the Kings of Sicily, Castile,
Aragon, and the Sultans of Egypt constantly sought the alliance of that
Republic and the protection of its powerful marine. True it is that the
power of Genoa had already then begun to decline and to become
enfeebled, but none the less important are the details given by Azurara
and the observations which we have offered for the consideration of the
reader].
As to the connections of Genoa with Spain, we may add the following:--
Genoese relations with Barcelona became active in the twelfth century.
In 1127 the Republic concluded a commercial treaty with Count Raymond
Berenger III, and formed an offensive and defensive alliance with the
same Prince in 1147. As a result, the allies took Almeria and Tortosa.
In this conquest two-thirds went to the Count, one-third to the Genoese.
In 1153 they sold their new possessions to Count Raymond for money and
trading rights; but in 1149 they concluded a treaty of peace and
commerce with the Moorish King of Valencia, and in 1181 a similar treaty
with the King of Majorca. As early as 1315 the Genoese had begun a
direct trade by sea with the Low Countries, passing round the Spanish
coast. After the conquest of Seville by Ferdinand III they also obtained
important trade privileges in that city, especially those enjoyed by a
grant of May 22nd, 1251. By this time they had ousted all their Italian
rivals in the trade of the Western Mediterranean, and there held a
position analogous almost to that of Venice under the Latin empire of
Constantinople. In 1267 all the Genoese consuls in Spain were put under
a Consul-General at Ceuta. In 1278 Genoa concluded a treaty of peace and
commerce with Granada. In 1317 the Genoese, Emmanuel Pessanha (Pezagno),
became Lord High Admiral of Portugal: Genoese captains and pilots were
employed in the Spanish exploring voyage to the Canaries in 1341; and a
regular contingent of Genoese pilots and captains was maintained in the
Spanish service. See Introduction to vol. ii, p. lxxx.]
[Endnote 38: (p. 22). _Jerome ... Sallust ... so high a charge._--Here
again is the truly characteristic mingling of sacred and profane
learning, both almost equally authoritative to his mind, in Azurara. Cf.
Sallust, _Catiline_, chs. ii, viii, li; especially viii.]
[Endnote 39: (p. 22). _Phidias ("Fadyas") ... the philosopher ...
chapter on wisdom._--Here Santarem has the following notes:--
[α. The "height" of which Azurara speaks is the Parthenon, or Temple of
Minerva, in Athens. The famous statue of that goddess, in gold and
ivory, was made by that famous sculptor (Phidias), and placed by the
Athenians in that magnificent temple]. Cf. Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, Bk.
xxxiv, ch. xix.
[β. The philosopher is Aristotle. It is not unworthy of note that our
author cites Aristotle in this place, and prefers his authority to that
of Pausanias. This preference, which may also be frequently observed in
the _Leal Conselheiro_ of King D. Duarte, proves the great esteem in
which the works of the Stagyrite philosopher were held among our
ancestors (as well as in other nations) during the Middle Ages. Our
learned men followed him in preference to Pausanias, even when treating
of the antiquities of Greece].]
[Endnote 40: (p. 23). _Great Valerius._--Here again Santarem:--[This
author, cited by Azurara, is Valerius Maximus, a writer of the time of
Tiberius, who wrote _De dictis factisque memorabilibus_ in nine books.
He was a native of Rome, and therefore Azurara says, "of thy city."]
Azurara is not mistaken, as Santarem suggests, in assuming that the
Roman author did not only deal with the deeds of his compatriots but
also described those of foreigners. Of the main divisions of V.'s work,
the first book is devoted chiefly to religious and ritual matters, the
second to various civil institutions, the third and three following
books to social virtues; the seventh book treats of many different
subjects. This treatise was very popular in the Middle Ages, and several
abridgments were made, one by Julius Paris.]
[Endnote 41: (p. 24). _What Romulus ... Manlius Torquatus ... Cocles
("Colles") ... diminishing of his praise._--On this Santarem remarks:
[T. Manlius Torquatus, the dictator, is here seemingly referred to; on
whom see _Livy_, vii, 4, and _Plutarch_, i].
The contrast of Cæsar's gaiety with the strictness of Henry's life
refers us to ch. iv (beginning), pp. 12, 13, of this version. Azurara
had but a very inadequate conception (supplement from Cadamosto, Pacheco
Pereira, and Barros) of the real scope of Henry's life-work, and his
remarks sometimes sink into mere flattery; but the comparisons he makes
here are not misjudged. The Infant was really one of the men who, like
Cæsar, Alexander, Peter I of Russia, or Mohammed, force us to think how
different the history of the world would have been without them.]
[Endnote 42: (p. 24). _Captain of their Armies._--Here
Santarem:--[This detail is so interesting for the history of that epoch,
that we judge it opportune to indicate here, for the illustration of our
text, the names of these sovereigns. The invitation given by the Pope
(as recorded here) to the Infant could only have taken place after the
taking of Ceuta, a campaign in which the Prince acquired immortal glory,
having commanded the squadron and been first of the princes to enter the
fortress. In view of this, it appears to us that only after 1415 could
this proposal have been made by the Pontiff; and also it seems as if the
offer must have been made to him before the unfortunate campaign of
Tangier in 1437, during the time in which the Infant was exclusively
occupied with the business of the Kingdom and of Africa, and with his
expeditions and discoveries. From this it appears likely that the Pope
who invited him to become general of his armies was Martin V, and the
year of the invitation 1420 or 1421, after the embassy which, the Greek
Emperor, Manuel Palaeologus, sent to the Pontiff to beg for aid against
the Turks. The Emperor of Germany of whom Azurara speaks was Sigismund
(Siegmund), who, by reason of his close relations with the Court of
Lisbon, and with the ambassadors of Portugal at the Council of
Constance, could appreciate the eminent qualities of the Infant, and
form the high opinion of him which he deserved. Lastly, the Kings of
Castile and England of whom Azurara speaks must be D. John II, and Henry
V.]--S. Santarem is probably wrong here. "Henry VI" should be read for
"Henry V;" see Introduction to vol. ii, p. xv.]
[Endnote 43: (p. 25). _Discipline ... clemency._--Azurara here
imitates somewhat the formal disputations of Seneca and Cicero. We may
especially compare Seneca's _De Ira_, _De Providentia_, and _De
Clementia ad Neronem Caesarem libri duo_; also, but with rather less
close a parallelism, the same writer's _De Animi tranquillitate_, _De
Constantia Sapientis_. The Elder Seneca's rhetorical exercises,
_Controversiarum libri X_, and _Suasoriarum Liber_, were also, as far as
the form goes, models for such discussions as are here conducted.
Azurara's point, of course, is that, of the two extremes, Prince Henry
leaned rather to "clemency" than to "discipline;" and though he by no
means neglected the latter, he was content rather to err in generosity
than in severity. Precisely the opposite is the view of some modern
students: _e.g._, Oliveira Martins, _Os Filhos de D. João I_, especially
pp. 59-63, 210-1, 267-270, 311-346.]
[Endnote 44: (p. 26). _St. Chrysostom ... something to asperse._--As
to the Prince's critics, though in a slightly different sense, cp. what
Azurara says in ch. xviii (beginning). The modern criticisms of the
Infant's conduct may be read in O. Martins (_Os Filhos_, as cited in
last note). According to this view, the Infant's genius was pitiless: he
cared little or nothing for the captivity and torture of D. Fernando the
Constant, who died in his Moorish prison after the disaster of Tangier;
for the broken heart and premature end of D. Edward; or for the fate of
D. Pedro. As little did he care for the misery of the Africans killed or
enslaved by his captains, or for the unhappy life of Queen Leonor,
mother of Affonso V. Not only was he indifferent to these sufferings,
but indirectly or directly he was the efficient cause of the same. This
extreme view, as regards the slave-raiding, is much weakened by
Cadamosto's testimony, and Azurara's own admission in ch. xcvi (end) of
this Chronicle (see Introduction to vol. ii, p. xxv). The truth seems to
lie between Azurara and Martins: between the conceptions of Henry as a
St. Louis and as a Bismarck.]
[Endnote 45: (p. 26). _Seneca ... first tragedy._--This is the
_Hercules Furens_ of the great--or younger--Seneca, the philosopher.]
[Endnote 46: (p. 27). _St. Brandan ... returned._--On this Santarem
writes:--
[The voyage of St. Brandan, to which Azurara refers, is reputed
fabulous, like the island of the same name. According to this tradition,
it was said that St. Brandan arrived in the year 565 at an island near
the Equinoctial(?). This legend was preserved among the inhabitants of
Madeira and of Gomera, who believed that they were able to see Brandan's
isle towards the west at a certain time of the year. This appearance
was, however, the result of certain meteorological circumstances.
Azurara became acquainted with this tradition of the Middle Ages from
some copy of the MS. of the thirteenth century, entitled _Imago Mundi de
dispositione Orbis_, of Honorius of Autun; and this circumstance is so
much the more curious as Azurara could not have been acquainted with the
famous Mappemonde of Fra Mauro, which was only executed between the
years 1457-9; and still less with the Planisphere of Martin of Bohemia
(Behaim), which is preserved at Nuremburg, on which appears depicted at
the Equinoctial a great island, with the following legend: _In the year
565 St. Brandan came with his ship to this island._ The famous Jesuit,
Henschenius, who composed a critical examination of the life of St.
Brandan, says of it:--"Cujus historia, ut fabulis referta, omittitur."]
The Bollandists speak with equal distrust of the Brandan story.
To this we may add:--It is possible Azurara may have read the original
_Navigatio Sti. Brendani_. The legendary voyage of Brandan is usually
dated in 565, but this is probably a mere figure of speech. He was
supposed to have sailed west from Ireland (his home was at Clonfert on
the Middle Shannon) in search of Paradise, and to have made discoveries
of various islands in the Ocean, all associated with fantastic
incidents: as the Isle of St. Patrick and St. Ailbhé, inhabited by Irish
Cœnobites; the isle of the Hermit Paul, at or near which Brandan met
with Judas Iscariot floating on an iceberg; the Isle of the Whale's
Back, and the Paradise of Birds; to say nothing of the Isle of the
Cyclops, the Mouth of Hell, and the Land of the Saints--the last
encircled in a zone of mist and darkness which veiled it from profane
search. It is more than probable that the Brandan tradition, as we have
it, is mainly compiled from the highly-coloured narratives of some Arab
voyagers, such as Sinbad the Sailor in the Indian Ocean, and the
Wanderers (Maghrurins) of Lisbon in the Atlantic (as recorded in
_Edrisi_, Jaubert, ii, 26-29), with some help from classical
travel-myth; that it is only in very small part referable to any
historical fact; that this fact is to be found in the contemporary
voyages of Irish hermits to the Hebrides, Orkneys, Shetlands, Faroes,
and Iceland; that a certain special appropriateness may be found in the
far western Scottish island of St. Kildas (Holy Culdees) or the islet of
Rockall; and that some of the matter in the Brandan story is derived
from the travels of early Christian pilgrims to Palestine, _e.g._,
Bernard the Wise, _c._ 867. It is important to remember that the
tradition, though professing to record facts of the sixth century, is
not traceable in any MS. record before the eleventh century; but, like
so many other matters of mediæval tradition, its popularity was just in
inverse proportion to its certainty, and "St. Brandan's isle" was a
deeply-rooted prejudice of the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and even
fifteenth centuries. Down to the middle of the sixteenth century it
usually found a place on maps of the Western Ocean, usually due west of
Ireland (see _Dawn of Modern Geography_, pp. 230-240, and references in
same to other works, p. 239, _n._ 2, especially to De Goeje's _La
légende de Saint Brandan_, 1890; Avezac's _Iles fantastique de l'Océan
Occidental_, 1845; Schirmer, _Zur Brendanus Legende_, 1888; and the
study of _Schröder_, 1871). We may note that Azurara is (for his time)
somewhat exceptional in his hesitating reference to the Brandan story;
but of course his object led him, however unconsciously, to minimise
foreign claims of precedence against the Portuguese on the Western
Ocean. As far as Brandan goes, no one would now contradict the Prince's
apologist; but more formidable rivals to a literal acceptance of the
absolute Portuguese priority along the north-west coasts of Africa are
to be found in Italian, French, and Catalan voyagers of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, one of which is perhaps alluded to here by
Azurara. For "the two galleys which rounded the Cape (Bojador) but never
returned" were probably the ships of Tedisio Doria and the Vivaldi, who
in 1291 (_aliter_ 1281) left Genoa "to go by sea to the ports of India
to trade there," reached Cape Nun, and, according to a later story,
"sailed the sea of Ghinoia to a city of Ethiopia." In 1312, we are told,
enquiry had failed to learn anything more of them (see Introduction to
vol. ii, pp. lxi-lxiii).]
[Endnote 47: (p. 28). _Power of ... Moors in ... Africa ... greater
than was commonly supposed_ (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xlv-lix).]
[Endnote 48: (p. 30). _King and Lord._--With this astrological
explanation compare what Azurara says about the death of Gonçalo de
Sintra, ch. xxviii, p. 92.]
[Endnote 49: (p. 31). _A fathom deep ... ever be able to return ..._
(see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. v, viii-x, lxiv, lxx).
Here Santarem has the following notes:--
[α. This passage shows that the Portuguese mariners already, before the
expedition of Gil Eannes, knew that beyond Cape Bojador the great desert
of the Sahara was to be met with, and that the land was not less sandy
than that of "Libya." This last term of Plinian geography, and the
circumstances which the author relates in this chapter, show that before
these expeditions our seamen had collected all the notices upon that
part of the African continent found in the ancient geographers, and in
the accounts of the Moors of the caravans which traversed the great
desert. This is confirmed by what Azurara says in ch. lxxvii, as we
shall see in due course].
[β. The reader will observe from this passage that in spite of the
hydrographical knowledge which our mariners had already obtained of
those coasts, from their imperfect understanding of what are called the
Pelagic currents, those sailors of the fifteenth century still feared
the great perils which the passage of that Cape offered to their
imagination. Azurara makes clear to us here how powerful, even at this
epoch, was the influence of the traditions of the Arabic geographers
about the Sea of Darkness, which according to them existed beyond the
isles of Kalidad (the Canaries), situated at the extremity of the Mogreb
of Africa. See Edrisi, Backoui, and Ibn-al-Wardi. Lastly, on the
superstitious and other fears of mediæval navigators, the reader can
consult the _Itinera Mundi_ of Abraham Peritsol, translated from Hebrew
into Latin by Hyde]. Cf. Introduction to vol. ii, p. x. Cape Bojador, in
N. lat. 26° 6' 57", W. long. (Paris) 16° 48' 30", is thus described by
the most recent French surveys: "Viewed from the north there is nothing
remarkable, but from the west there appears a cliff of about 20 metres
in height. A little bay opens on the south of the Cape."]
[Endnote 50: (p. 32). _Virgin Themis ... returned to the Kingdom very
honourably._
On the first words there is this original MS. note:--[It is to be
understood that near to Mount Parnassus, which is in the midst between
east and west, are two hill tops, which contend with the snows. And in
one of these was a cave, in which in the time of the Heathen, Apollo
gave responses to certain priestly virgins who served in a temple which
was there dedicated to the said Apollo. And those virgins dwelt by the
fountains of the Castalian mount. And among these virgins was that
virgin Themis, whom some held to be one of the Sibyls. And it is said
that those virgins were so fearful of entering into that cave, that,
save on great constraint they dared not do so--according as Lucan
relateth in his fifth book and sixth chapter, where he speaketh of the
response which the Consul Appius received, on the end of the war between
Cæsar and Pompey.]
On this Santarem remarks:--
[Both in this note and in those on pp. 10, 11, 12, and 21 ( = pp. 7-8,
13, of this version), which are met with in our MS., and are in the same
script, there prevails such a confusion of thought that we hesitate in
supposing them to have been written by Azurara. These notes, so far from
illustrating the text, themselves call for elucidation. Here the writer
follows the opinion of the ancients as to the position of Parnassus,
viz., that it was situated in the middle of the world, though, according
to Strabo, it was placed between Phocis and Locris. As to its
"contending with the snows," the writer of this note, who quotes Lucan,
seems to have taken this passage from Ovid rather than from the
_Pharsalia_. See Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, I, v, 316-7; Lucan, _Pharsalia_,
V, v, 72-3. The cave is the Antrum Corysium of the Poets. See the
_Journey to Greece_ of the famous archæologist Spon. The passages
referred to as from Bk. V of the Pharsalia are those beginning with the
lines--_Hisperio tantum_ ... and v, 114, _Nec voce negata_ ... together
with line 120, _Sic tempore longo_, and the following lines.]
On the "honourable return" of these caravels, with "booty of the
Infidels," from the Levant Seas, we may compare the text on p. 18, and
note (31) to the same. Here Santarem remarks:--
[The attempts made by the Portuguese seamen to pass the Cape began
before the fifteenth century. Already, in the time of King Affonso IV,
the Portuguese passed beyond Cape Non, _i.e._, before 1336 (?). The
documents published by Professor Ciampi in 1827, and discovered by him
in the _MSS. of Boccaccio_ in the Bibliotheca Magliabechiana in
Florence, as well as the letter of King Affonso IV to Pope Clement VI
attest that fact. See the _Memoir_ of Sr. J. J. da Costa de Macedo, in
vol. vi. of the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, and
the additions published in 1835. As for the attempts made in the
Prince's time by ships that he sent into those latitudes to pass beyond
Cape Bojador, if we admit the number of twelve years which Azurara
indicates, and if this is taken together with the date 1433, which he
fixes for the passage effected by Gil Eannes(?), the result is that
these attempts began only in 1421; and so Azurara did not admit that the
expedition of 1418 (or of 1419), which went out under J. G. Zarco, had
for its chief object the passage of the Cape at all. But from Barros it
is seen that Zarco and Vaz went out with the object of doubling the
Cape, but that a storm carried them to the island they discovered, and
named Porto Santo (_Decades I_, ch. 2, and D. Franc. Manoel,
_Epanaphoras_, p. 313]. The statements of part of this note are loosely
worded. See Introduction to vol. ii, on the voyage of 1341, on the
earlier claims of Affonso IV, and on the rounding of Bojador.]
Also, on Azurara's use of _Graada_ for _Granada_, Santarem remarks: [On
the origin and etymology of this word, see Cortes y Lopez, art. _Ebura
quae Cerialis. Dic. Geograf. Hist. de la Esp. Ant._, II., 420, etc.].
And on the "Granada" and "Levant" expeditions, the same editor remarks:
[The details of these expeditions prove the activity of our marine at
the beginning of the fifteenth century, and its system of training,
which enabled it to cope better with the perils of Ocean voyages, and in
naval combats with Arabs and Moors to protect the commerce of the
Christian nations in the Mediterranean]. Cf. note 31 to p. 18 of this
version.]
[Endnote 51: (p. 33). _Gil Eannes ... touched by the self-same
terror._--As to Gil Eannes, Santarem remarks:--[Barros also says he was
a native of Lagos, and was the man who so named "Bojador" from the way
it jutted or bulged out (_Decades I_, 6)]; This last statement is quite
untrue; [cf. an Atlas of which Morelli and Zurla treat in their _Dei
Viaggi et delle Scoperte Africane da Ca-da-Mosto_, p. 37, on which is
the inscription "_Jachobus de Giraldis de Venetiis me fecit anno Dmi_
MCCCCXVI;" as well as another atlas of the fourteenth century, on which
two the Cape appears as (1) _Cabo de Buider_, and (2) _Cavo de
Imbugder_; cf. Zurla's _Dissertazione_, p. 37.]. Also, see Introduction
to vol. ii, pp. x, lxiv, lxviii-lxx.]
[Endnote 52: (p. 33). _Needle or sailing chart._--See Introductory §
on History of Maps and Nautical Intruments in Europe up to the time of
Prince Henry, vol. ii, pp. cxvii-cl, and especially pp. cxlvii-cl.]
[Endnote 53: (p. 34). _Barinel ... Barcha ... anything worth
recording._--[A Varinel or Barinel was an oared vessel then in use,
whose name survives in the modern Varina; so Francisco Manoel,
Epanaphoras, p. 317, etc.].--S. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp.
cxii-cxiii.
On the _Footmarks of men and camels_ Santarem remarks.--[To this place
our sailors gave the name of Mullet Bay (Angra dos Ruivos), from the
great quantity of these fish that they found there. The bay appears with
this name in the Map of Africa in the splendid Portuguese Atlas
(unpublished), dating from the middle of the sixteenth century, in the
Royal (National) Library at Paris (R. B. No. 1, 764)].--S. See
Introduction to vol. ii, p. x. Ruivos is variously rendered "Mullet,"
"Gurnet," "Roach." The original meaning is simply "red[fish]."]
[Endnote 54: (p. 35). _Went up country 8 leagues, etc. ...
anchorages._--[Our men named this place Angra dos Cavallos (cf. Barros
_Decades I_, i, 5; Martines de la Puente, _Compendio de las Historias de
las Indias_, ii, 1). This place-name is marked in nearly all the
sixteenth and seventeenth century maps of Africa].--S.]
[Endnote 55: (p. 36). _Two things I consider ... saith he who wrote
this history._--Though these phrases, "our author," "he who wrote this
history," are certainly applied by Azurara to himself in some instances,
there is also sometimes a suggestion of the previous writer on the
Portuguese _Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_, viz., Affonso Cerveira, a
seaman in Prince Henry's service (see Introduction to vol. ii, p. cx).
Here, we fancy, a passage of Cerveira's work is referred to. The loss of
the latter is deplorable. It evidently contained all the facts and
documents given by Azurara, and some omitted by him (see ch. lxxxiv of
this Chronicle, end). Azurara added the reflections and the rhetoric,
but followed Cerveira's order of narrative closely (see especially ch.
lxvi).]
[Endnote 56: (pp. 37-8). _Sea-wolves ... Port of the Galley ... nets
... with all other cordage._--[These _Sea-wolves_ are the _Phocæ
Vitulinæ_ of Linnæus. Cf. the _Roteiro_ of Vasco da Gama's First Voyage,
under December 27th, 1497, p. 3 of Port. text "Achamos muitas baleas, e
humas que se chamam _quoquas_ e Lobos marinhos."]--S.
[The _Port of the Galley_ is so named in the Portuguese Atlas above
referred to (Paris: _Bibl. Nat._, i, 764, of the sixteenth century), and
in the Venetian maps of Gastaldi (1564); cf. Barros, _Decades I_, v, 11,
who says, "Ponto a que ora chamâo a pedra da Galé"].--S.
On the "nets ... with all other cordage," cf. Barros, _Decades I_, ch.
v, fol. 11: "No qual logar achou humas redes de pescar, que parecia ser
feito o fiado dellas, do entrecasco d'algum pao, como ora vemos o fiado
da palma que se faz em Guiné."]
[Endnote 57: (pp. 38, 39). _Rio d'Ouro ... discords in the
Kingdom._--[On old unpublished Portuguese maps we find marked between
Cape Bojador and the Angra dos Ruivos, the following points: _Penha
Grande_, _Terra Alta_, and _Sete-Montes_, besides the _Angra dos
Ruivos_, being all of them probably points where the Portuguese had
landed].--S. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xiii, lxi-lxxi.
[The events which interrupted the Infant's expeditions and discoveries
from 1437 to 1440 may be briefly indicated. The Infant returned to the
Algarve after the expedition to Tangier (1437), and was there in
September of the following year, when King Edward fell ill at Thomar. On
the King's death, the Prince was at once summoned by the Queen, and
charged by her to concert with the Infant D. Pedro, and with the
grandees of the realm, some means of grappling with the difficulties of
the Kingdom. The Infant convoked these persons, who decided that the
Cortes ought to be assembled to pass the resolutions they judged
expedient.
The Prince thought that D. Pedro ought to sign the summonses; but as he
refused to do this, they were all signed by the Queen, with the proviso
that such signature should hold good only till the Assembly of the
Estates should settle the question.
At the same time the Infant, on account of his accustomed prudence, was
chosen mediator between the Queen and D. Pedro. At his proposal,
discussed in various conferences, the Queen was charged with the
education of her children and the administration of their property;
while to the Infant D. Pedro was given the administration and government
of the Kingdom, with the title of Defender of the Kingdom for the King
(_Ruy de Pina_, ch. xv).
But, as a large party did not agree to this, and so public disorder
increased, Henry sought to conciliate the different parties by getting
their consent to an Accord, published November 9th, 1438, providing:--
1. That the education of the King while a minor, and of his brothers,
and the power of nominating to Court Offices, should rest with the
Queen; and that a sum should be paid her sufficient to defray the
expenses of the Royal Household.
2. The Royal Council was to consist of six members, who should be
charged in turn and at definite periods with such business of state as
was within their power to decide, conformably to the regulations of the
Cortes.
3. Besides this Council there was to be elected a permanent deputation
of the Estates, to reside at the Court, composed of one prelate, one
fidalgo, and one burgess or citizen, to be elected, each by his
respective estate, for a year.
4. All the business of the Royal Council was to be conducted by the six
councillors and the deputation of the Three Estates under the presidency
of the Queen, with the approval and consent of the Infant D. Pedro.
If the votes were equal, the business in question was to be submitted to
the Infants, the Counts, and the Archbishop, and to be decided by the
majority.
If the Queen agreed with the Infant D. Pedro, their vote was to be
decisive, even though the whole Council should be against them.
5. All the business of the Treasury, except what belonged to the Cortes,
was to be conducted by the Queen and the Infant: decrees and orders on
the subject were to be signed by both, and the Controllers of the
Treasury were to be charged with their execution.
6. It was settled that the Cortes should be summoned every year to
settle any doubts which the Council could not decide for themselves,
such as "the [condemnation to] death of great personages, the
deprivation of state servants from great offices, the [confiscation or]
loss of lands, the amendment of old or the making of new laws and
ordinances; and it was also agreed that future Cortes should be able to
correct or amend any defect or error in past sessions" (_Ruy de Pina_,
ch. xv). The Queen, however, being induced by a violent party to resist,
refused to agree to these resolutions, in spite of the vigorous efforts
of D. Henry. This produced great excitement, and in the Cortes it was
proposed to confer the sole regency on D. Pedro. It should be noted that
Prince Henry expressed his disapproval of all the resolutions of the
municipality of Lisbon and other assemblies, declaring that they
illegally tried to rob the Cortes of its powers. Equally plain was his
indignation when he learned that the Queen had fortified herself in
Alemquer, and had invoked the aid of the Infants of Aragon.
He did not hesitate to go to Alemquer in person, and induce the Queen to
return to Lisbon, in order to present the young King to the Cortes
(1439); and such was the respect felt for him (Henry) that the Queen,
who had resisted all other persuasions, yielded to the Infant's.
In the following year the divisions of the Kingdom compelled the Infant
to occupy himself with public business, the conciliation of parties, and
the prevention of a civil war.]--S.]
[Endnote 58: (p. 39). _Chronicle of D. Affonso_.--This chronicle,
according to Barros and Goës, was written by Azurara himself as far as
the year 1449, and continued by Ruy de Pina. It is cited by Barbosa
Machado. See Introduction to the first volume of this translation, pp.
lxi-ii.]
[Endnote [N58A: (p. 43). _Those on the hill._--This hill is also marked
in the unpublished Portuguese maps in the National Library at Paris, and
is situated to the south of the Rio do Ouro.]--S.]
[Endnote 59: (p. 44). _The philosopher saith, that the beginning is
two parts of the whole matter._--Here, and in the two following notes,
it is very difficult to suggest any classical reference which
corresponds closely enough with Azurara's language; but cf., in this
place, Aristotle, _Ethics_, Bk. I, ch. vii, p. 1098b7; _Topics_, Bk. IX,
ch. xxxiv, p. 183b22 (Berlin edn.).]
[Endnote 60: (p. 44). _Roman History_.--Cf. Valerius Maximus, Bk. II,
cc. 3, 7; St. Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, Bk. II, cc. 18, 21; Bk. V,
c. 12.]
[Endnote 61: (p. 45). _That emulation which Socrates praised in
gallant youths_.--Cf. Xenophon, _Memorabilia_, Bk. I, c. 7; Bk. III, cc.
1, 3, 5, 6, and especially 7; also Plato, _Laches_, 190-9; _Protagoras_,
349-350, 359. On the history that follows, cf. D. Pacheco Pereira,
_Esmeraldo_, cc. 20-33. Pereira must have had a copy of this Chronicle
before him, for in places he transcribes _verbatim_; see _Esmeraldo_, c.
22.]
[Endnote 62: (p. 47). _"Portugal" and "Santiago."_--The latter war-cry
is of course derived from St. James of Compostella, which being in
Gallicia was not properly a Portuguese shrine at all. All Spanish
crusaders, however, from each of the five Kingdoms, made use of this
famous sanctuary. See note 11, p. 7 of this version.]
[Endnote 63: (p. 48). _Port of the Cavalier._--[This is marked in two
Portuguese maps of Africa in Paris, both of the sixteenth century, as on
this side of Cape Branco, which is in 20° 46' 55" N. lat.]--S.]
[Endnote 64: (p. 49). _Azanegues of Sahara ... Moorish tongue._--[Cf.
Ritter, _Géographie Comparée_, III, p. 366, art. _Azenagha_. Ritter says
they speak Berber. On this language see the curious article, _Berber_,
by M. d'Avezac, in his _Encylopédie des gens du Monde_. On the
Azanegues, Barros says (_Decade I_, Bk. I, ch. ii): "The countries which
the Azanegues inhabit border on the negroes of Jaloff, where begins the
region of Guinea." _Sahará_ signifies desert. Geographers spell Zahará,
Zaara, Ssahhará, Sarra, and Sahar. The inhabitants are called
Saharacin--Saracens--"sons of the desert" (cf. Ritter, _Géographie
Comparée_, III, p. 360), a term immensely extended by mediæval
writers--thus Plano Carpini expects to find "black Saracens" in India.
On the etymology, cf. Renaud's _Invasions des Sarrasins en France_, Pt.
IV, pp. 227-242, etc. He confirms Azurara's statement that the Sahara
language differed from the Mooris--_i.e._, it was Berber, not
Arabic--and he refers us to the Arab author Ibn-Alkûtya, in evidence of
this.]--S.
The "Other lands where he learned the Moorish tongue" were probably
Marocco, or one of the other Barbary States along the Mediterranean
littoral, where Arabic was in regular use. This language stopped, for
the most part, at the Sahara Desert. Santarem's derivation of the word
"Saracen" is much disputed.]
[Endnote 65: (p. 50). _Lisbon Harbour_ ...--Here, perhaps, Azurara
refers to the broad expanse of the Tagus, opposite the present Custom
House and Marine Arsenal of Lisbon. "The broad estuary of the Tagus
gives Lisbon an extensive and safe harbour." From the suburb of Belem
up to the western end of Lisbon, the Tagus is little more than a mile
in width, but opposite the central quays of the city the river widens
considerably, the left, or southern, bank turning suddenly to the
south near the town of Almada, and forming a wide bay, reach, or road
about 5½ miles in breadth, and extending far to the north-east. "In
this deep lake-like expansion all the fleets of Europe might be
anchored."]
[Endnote 66: (p. 50). _Cabo Branco._--[In lat. N. 20° 46' 55",
according to Admiral Roussin's observations.]--S. According to the most
recent French surveys, it is thus described:--"Il forme, au S., sur
l'Atlantique, l'extrémité d'une presqu'île aride et sablonneuse de 40
kil. de longeur environ, large de 4 à 5 kil., qui couvre a l'O. la baie
Lévrier, partie la plus enfoncée au N. de la baie d'Arguin. Cette
presqu'île se termine par un plateau dont le cap forme l'escarpement; le
sommet surplomb la mer de 25 m. environ. Des éboulements de sable, que
le soleil colore d'une nuance éblouissante, lui ont valu son nom. 'Le
Cap Blanc est d'une access facile. Il est entouré de bons mouillages
qui, au point de vue maritime, rendent cette position préférable à celle
d'Arguin' (Fulcrand)."]
[Endnote 67: (p. 53). _Eugenius the Bishop._--[Barros adds certain
reasons for this request; he says, "the Infant, whose intent in
discovering these lands was chiefly to draw the barbarous nations under
the yoke of Christ, and for his own glory and the praise of these
Kingdoms, with increase of the royal patrimony, having ascertained the
state of those people and their countries from the captives whom Antam
Gonçalvez and Nuno Tristam had brought home--willed to send this news to
Martin V (?), asking him, in return for the many years' labour and the
great expense he and his countrymen had bestowed on this discovery, to
grant in perpetuity to the Crown of these Kingdoms all the land that
should be discovered over this our Ocean Sea from C. Bojador to the
Indies" (Barros, _Decade I_, i, 7).]--S. Barros here apparently confuses
Martin V with Eugenius IV.
[Besides this bull, Pope Nicholas V granted another, dated January 8th,
1450, conceding to King D. Affonso V all the territories which Henry had
discovered (Archives of Torre do Tombo, _Maç. 32 de bullas_ No. 1). On
January 8th, 1454, the same Pope ratified and conceded by another bull
to Affonso V, Henry, and all the Kings of Portugal their successors, all
their conquests in Africa, with the islands adjacent, from Cape Bojador,
and from Cape Non as far as all Guinea, with the whole of the south
coast of the same. Cf. Archivo R. _Maç. 7 de bull_. No. 29, and _Maç.
33_, No. 14; and Dumont, _Corp. Diplomat. Univ._, III, p. 1,200. On
March 13th, 1455, Calixtus III determined by another bull that the
discovery of the lands of W. Africa, so acquired by Portugal, as well as
what should be acquired in future, could only be made by the Kings of
Portugal; and he confirmed the bulls of Martin V and Nicholas V: cf.
another bull of Sixtus IV, June 21st, 1481, and see Barros, _Decade I_,
i, 7; _Arch. R. Liv. dos Mestrados_, fols. 159 and 165; _Arch. R. Maç. 6
de bull._, No. 7, and _Maç. 12_, No. 23.]--S.]
[Endnote 68: (p. 54). _Without his license and especial mandate._--See
Introduction to vol. ii, p. xiv.]
[Endnote 69: (p. 54). _Curse ... of Cain._--For "Curse of Ham." Cf.
Genesis ix, 25. "Cursed be Canaan: a servant of servants shall he be
unto his brethren." For this mediæval theory, used sometimes in
justification of an African slave-trade, we may compare the language of
Barros, quoted in note 81.]
[Endnote 70: (p. 54). _Going out of the Ark._--The writings of Abp.
Roderic of Toledo, and of the other authors here referred to, are
apparently regarded by Azurara as explanatory of the record in Genesis,
ix and x. Abp. Roderic Ximenes de Rada (fl. 1212) wrote _De Rebus
Hispanicis_ in nine books; also an _Historia Saracenica_, and other
works. Walter is doubtful. He may be Walter of Burley, the Aristotelian
of the thirteenth-fourteenth century, who wrote a _Libellus de vita et
moribus philosophorum_. Excluding this "Walter," our best choice perhaps
lies between "Gualterus Tarvannensis" of the twelfth century; Walter of
Châtillon, otherwise called Walter of Lille, author of an Alexandreis of
the thirteenth century; or the chronicler Walter of Hemingburgh, or
Hemingford, who is probably of the fourteenth century.]
[Endnote 71: (p. 55). _Better to bring to ... salvation._--Cf. the
Christian hopes of the pagan Tartars in the thirteenth century.]
[Endnote 72: (p. 55). _Land of Prester John if he could._--See
Introduction to vol. ii, p. liv. As to "Balthasar" [Barros says "he was
of the Household of the Emperor Frederic III," who had married the
Infanta Donna Leonor of Portugal (_Decade I_, ch. vii).]--S.]
[Endnote 73: (p. 57). _Infant's Alfaqueque ... managing business
between parties...._--The _Alfaqueque_, or _Ransomer of Captives_,
must have been an interpreter as well. Later, we find "Moors" and
negroes employed for this purpose.]
[Endnote 74: (p. 57). _Who traded in that gold._--[Azurara seems
ignorant that the gold was brought from the interior by caravans, which
from ancient times had carried on this trade across the great desert,
especially since the Arab invasion. Under the Khalifs, this Sahara
commerce extended itself to the western extremity of the continent, and
even to Spain. The caravans crossed the valleys and plains of Suz, Darah
and Tafilet to the south of Morocco. Cf. the _Geographia Nubiensis_ of
Edrisi (1619 ed.), pp. 7, 11, 12, 14; Hartmann's _Edrisi_, pp. 26, 49,
133-4. This gold came from the negro-land called Wangara, as Edrisi and
Ibn-al-Wardi tell us. See _Notices et extraits des MSS. de la
Bibliothèque du Roi_, fo. 11, pp. 33 and 37: so Leo Africanus and Marmol
y Carvajal speak of the gold of Tiber, brought from Wangara. "Tiber" is
from the Arab word Thibr = gold (cf. Walckenaer, _Recherches
géographiques_, p. 14). So Cadamosto, speaking of the commerce of
Arguim, says, ch. x, that men brought there "gold of Tiber;" and Barros,
_Decade I_, ch. vii, in describing the Rio d' Ouro, refers to the same
thing:--"A quantity of gold-dust, the first obtained in these parts,
whence the place was called the Rio d' Ouro, though it is only an inlet
of salt water running up into the country about six leagues."]--S.]
[Endnote 75: (p. 58). _Gete_ (or Arguim).--[Barros, _Decade I_, 7,
says: "Nuno Tristam on this voyage went on as far as an island which the
people of the country called Adeget, and which we now call Arguim." The
Arab name was "Ghir," which Azurara turns into "Gete," Barros into
"Arget." The discovery and possession of this point was of great
importance for the Portuguese. It helped them to obtain news of the
interior, and to establish relations with the negro states on the
Senegal and Gambia. The Infant began to build a fort on Arguim in 1448.
Cadamosto gives a long account of the state of commercial relations
which the Portuguese had established there with the dwellers in the
upland; and the Portuguese pilot, author of the _Navigation to the Isle
of St. Thomas_ (1558), published by Ramusio, says of Arguim: "Here there
is a great port and a castle of the King our Lord with a garrison and a
factor. Arguim is inhabited by black-a-moors, and this is the point
which divides Barbary from Negroland." Cf. Bordone's _Isolario_ (1528)
on the Portuguese trade with the interior. In 1638 this factory and
fortress were taken by the Dutch.]--S.
The subsequent changes of this position may be briefly noticed. After
passing, in 1665, from the Dutch to the English and afterwards back
again, in 1678 from the Dutch to the French, in 1685 from the French to
the Dutch, in 1721 once more falling into French hands, only to be
recovered shortly afterwards by the Netherlanders, it became definitely
and finally a French possession in 1724, and at present forms part of
the great North-West African empire of the Third Republic. At the
northern extremity of the Bight of Arguim, or a little beyond, near Cape
Blanco, is the present boundary between the French and Spanish spheres
of influence in this part of the world.
The native boats, worked by "bodies in the canoes and legs in the
water," must be, Santarem remarks, what the Portuguese call "jangadas."]
[Endnote 75A: (p. 59). _An infinity of Royal Herons._--[The Isle of
Herons is one of the Arguim islands; cf. Barros, _Decade I_, ch. vii; it
is marked under this name (_Ilha_, or _Banco, das Garças_) in early
maps, as in Gastaldi's Venetian chart of 1564, which is founded on
ancient Portuguese maps.]--S.]
[Endnote 76: (p. 61). _Lagos ... Moorish captives._--On the importance
of Lagos in the new Portuguese maritime movement, see Introduction to
vol. ii, pp. xi-xii; and note the reasons given by Azurara in ch. xviii
for the change of feeling among Portuguese traders and others towards
the Infant's plans.]
[Endnote 77: (p. 63). _Lançarote ... Gil Eannes ... Stevam Affonso ...
etc., ... expedition._--This list of names includes several of the
Infant's most capable and famous captains. On Lançarote see this
Chronicle, chs. xviii-xxiv, xxvi, xlix, liii-v, lviii, lix; on Affonso,
chs. li, lx; on John Diaz, ch. lviii; on John Bernaldez, ch. xxi; and on
Gil Eannes, chs. ix, xx, xxii, li, lv, lviii; also pp. x-xiii of
Introduction to vol. ii, and the notices by Ferdinand Denis and others
in the _Nouvelle Biographie Générale_. On the "Isle of Naar," mentioned
a little later on p. 63, Santarem has the following note:--[This island
is marked near to the coast of Arguim on the map of Africa in the
Portuguese Atlas (noticed before) at the Bibliothèque Royale (Nationale)
de Paris.]]
[Endnote 78: (p. 68). [In Bordone's _Isolario_ (1533) all three of the
islands noticed by Azurara (Naar, Garças and Tider), are indicated with
the title of Isles of Herons [Ilhas das Garças]. The same is to be found
in the Venetian map of Gastaldi, and in others. In the Portuguese Atlas
just cited, and in another Portuguese chart made in Lisbon by Domingos
Sanchez in 1618, these islands are depicted as close to the coast of
Arguim, but without any name.] As to Cabo Branco [This name was,
apparently, given it by Nuno Tristam.]--S. See ch. xiii (end) of this
Chronicle.]
[Endnote 79: (p. 78). _In the end._--It is evident, from Azurara's
language, that the Azanegues made a better stand in this fight at Cape
Branco, and came nearer to defeating the Portuguese than on any previous
occasion. It was a sign of what was to follow, for the native resistance
now began to show itself, and the very next European slave-raiders
(Gonçallo de Sintra and his men) were roughly handled, and most of them
killed (see ch. xxvii. of this Chronicle).]
[Endnote 80: (p. 80). _Friar ... St. Vincent de Cabo._--This
"firstfruit of the Saharan peoples, offered to the religious life," was
appropriately sent to a monastery close to the "Infant's Town" at
Sagres, and adjoining the promontory whereabouts centred the new
European movement of African exploration.]
[Endnote 81: (p. 81). _Sons of Adam._--Azurara's position here is, of
course, just that of the scholastics: As men, these slaves were to be
pitied and well treated, nay, should be at once made free; as heathen,
they were enslaveable; and being, as Barros says, outside the law of
Christ Jesus, and absolutely lost as regards the more important part of
their nature, the soul, were abandoned to the discretion of any
Christian people who might conquer them, as far as their lower parts, or
bodies, were concerned.]
[Endnote 82: (p. 84). _As saith the text._--Cf. Virgil, _Æneid_, i,
630 (Dido to Æneas), _Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco_. There
is no text in the Jewish or Christian Scriptures which can be said to
answer properly to Azurara's reference in this place. We may, however,
cf. Judges xi, 38; Revelation i, 9.]
[Endnote 83: (p. 87). _Tully saith._--Cf. Cicero, _De Nat. Deorum_, i,
20, 55; _De Or._, iii, 57, 215, 48, 159.]
[Endnote 84: (p. 87). _Ancient sages ... others._--Cf. Livy, v, 51,
46, 6. On the disaster of Gonçalo de Sintra, Santarem remarks:--[This
event happened in 1445. The place where De Sintra perished is fourteen
leagues S. of the Rio do Ouro, and in maps, both manuscript and
engraved, from the close of the fifteenth century, it took the name
_Golfo de Gonçallo de Cintra_]. The reference in the concluding words of
this chapter, _as had been commanded, etc._, is to the passage on p. 87
of this version, towards the foot: "That he should go straight to
Guinea, and for nothing whatever should fail of this:" an order which De
Sintra treated with entire contempt.]
[Endnote 85: (p. 92). _First purpose_, viz., to write the chronicle of
the "Guinea Voyages," not to discuss philosophic problems. The reference
here to the "wheels [or circles] of heaven or destiny" recalls the
astrological passages on pp. 29, 30, 80, etc. Azurara's reference to Job
is to ch. xiv, verse 5.]
[Endnote 86: (p. 93). _Julius Cæsar ... Vegetius ... St. Augustine_
...--Azurara here, of course, indulges in some exaggeration. Cæsar's
breach with the Senate did not take place because of his "overpassing
the space of five years" allowed him at first (B.C. 59) for his
command in Gaul. In B.C. 56 the Lex Trebonia formally gave him a
second allowance, of five years more; and he was not required to
disband his army and return from his province till B.C. 49, when the
Civil War broke out. By "Bretanha," or "Brittany," Azurara indicates
the Duchy of Bretagne, which retained a semi-independence till 1532,
when it was absolutely united with the crown of France. Cæsar's
campaigns against "England" are, of course, those of B.C. 55 and 54,
against Germany of 55 and 53, against Spanish insurgents of 61; but he
could not by any stretch be said to have made England or Germany
"subject" to the Roman power in the same sense as Gaul or Spain. Had
his life been prolonged twenty years, he would probably have achieved
both these unfinished conquests, as well as that of Parthia.]
[Endnote 87: (p. 93). _The enemy ... to them._--Azurara's reference
here is to Livy, Bk. XXII, cc. 42-3.]
[Endnote 88: (pp. 93-94). _Holy Spirit ... ever be watched._--The
references in this paragraph are to Proverbs xi, 14; xxiv, 6; Tobit iv,
18; Ecclesiasticus vi, 18, 23, 32-3; xxv, 5.]
[Endnote 89: (p. 94). _Hannibal ... for the moment._--Cf. Livy, _3rd
Decade_, Bk. XXII, cc. 4-5, 42-6. The reading of the Paris MS.
(_sajaria_) is rejected, plausibly enough, by Santarem for _sagaçaria_.]
[Endnote 90: (p. 94). _Ships of the Armada._--I.e., the Royal Navy of
Portugal; the "very great actions on the coast of Granada and Ceuta"
must refer to events of 1415, 1418, and 1437. (See Introduction to vol.
ii, p. viii, x.) Especially does this expression recall the naval war of
1418, when the King of Granada sent a fleet of seventy-four ships, under
his nephew, Muley Said, to aid the African Moslems in recovering Ceuta
from the Portuguese. Prince Henry proceeded in person to the relief of
the city, and the Granada fleet, we are told, fled at the approach of
the European squadron, without venturing a battle. It is possible,
however, though unrecorded, that the Infant was subsequently able to
engage and destroy part of the Granadine squadron. Gonçalo de Sintra,
from Azurara's words, may have been with D. Henry on this occasion.
On the reference to John Fernandez staying among the Azanegues "only to
see the country and bring the news of it to the Infant" (close of ch.
xxix, p. 95), Santarem refers to Barros' words: "Para particularmente
ver as cousas daquelle sertão que habitão os Azenegues, e dellas dar
razão ao Infante, _confiado na lingua delles que sabia_" (like Martin
Fernandez, p. 57, c. xvi).]
[Endnote 91: (p. 96). _The Plains thereof._--[Comparing the account in
the text with the unpublished maps already referred to, it appears that
Nuno Tristam, after revisiting the isles of Arguim, followed the coast
to the south, passing the following places: Ilha Branca, R. de S. João,
G. de Santa Anna, Moutas, Praias, Furna, C. d'Arca, Resgate, and Palmar;
the last being the point Azurara mentions as "studded with many palm
trees."]--S.]
[Endnote 92: (p. 98). _When King Affonso caused this history to be
written._--On this Santarem remarks: [This is important as showing that
Azurara did not only consult written documents, but personally
interviewed the discoverers, seeing that he confesses his inability to
give details of this occurrence because Nuno Tristam was already dead,
"When Affonso," etc. Cf. _Barros_, I, iii, 17]. Cf. Pina's "Chronicle of
Affonso V," in vol. i of the _Collection of Unpublished Portuguese
Historians_.]
[Endnote 93: (pp. 98, 99). _Dinis Diaz ... convenient place._--["Dinis
Diaz" is called by Barros, and all other historians and geographers
following his authority, "Dinis Fernandez."]--S.
On Azurara's statement that "the Infant provided a caravel for Dinis
Diaz," Santarem adds: [Barros does not agree with Azurara in this, but
says on the contrary, "que elle [Diaz] armara hum navio," etc]. The
"other land to which the first (explorers) went" is apparently the
Sahara coast, from Cape Bojador to the Senegal, which Azurara here
admits to be quite a different country from "Guinea" proper (the land of
the Blacks). This last, after the discoveries of 1445, the Portuguese
recognised as beginning only with the cultivated or watered land to the
south of the Sahara. The name, a very early one, whose subtle changes of
meaning are very perplexing, like the "Burgundy" of the Middle Ages, was
probably derived originally from the city of Jenné, in the Upper Niger
Valley (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xlv-xlix). [Here Azurara shows
that he is already beginning to recognise the geographical error of
those who gave an undue extension to the term "Guinea."]--S.
On the reading at the close of this paragraph "concerning this doubt,"
Santarem remarks: [So it stands in the MS., as verified; but it seems to
us that there must be some omission of the copyist, and we propose to
restore the text thus: "Filharom quatro daquelles _que tiveram_ o
atrevimento," etc.].]
[Endnote 94: (p. 100). _Aught to the contrary._--On this passage, cf.
Santarem's _Memoir on the Priority of the Portuguese Discoveries_, §
III, p. 20, etc. Paris, 1840. [_Memoria sobre a prioridade dos
descobrimentos dos Portuguezes_].]
[Endnote 95: (p. 100). _Egypt ... Cape Verde._--[This proves that our
navigators were the first who gave the Cape this name. See the _Memoria
sobre a prioridade_].--S. On Azurara's idea that the Senegal was near
Egypt, cf. Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xii, xxx, xlii, lviii, cxxii.
This notion is, of course, bound up with the theory of the Western or
Negro Nile, branching off from the Nile of Egypt. No mediæval
geographers, and scarcely any ancient, except Ptolemy, realised the size
of Africa at all adequately.
On the "rewards" given by the Infant to Diaz, Santarem well remarks:
[From this and other passages it is clear that the Infant's principal
object was discovery, and not the slave-raids on the inhabitants of
Africa in which his navigators so often indulged]. See Introduction to
vol. ii, pp. v, xxiii-vi.
_Cape Verde._--The turning-point of the great north-west projection of
Africa, now in French possession. It is so called, according to the
general view, from the rich green appearance of the headland--"la
vegetation (as the most recent French surveys describe it) qui le couvre
durant l'hivernage, et que dominent deux mornes arrondis, nommés, par
les marins français, Les Deux Mamelles." The peninsula of Cape Verde is
one of the most remarkable projections of the African coast. Generally
it has the form of a triangle, "terminé par une sorte d'éperon dirigé
vers le S.E., et mesure depuis le cap terminal on point des Almadies
jusqu' à Rufisque une longueur de 34 kilom. avec une largeur de 14
kilom., sous le méridien de Rufisque, pris comme base du triangle. Sa
côte septentrionale, formant une ligne presque droite du N.N.E. au
S.S.O. est creusée, près de l'extremité, de deux petites baies, dont la
première (en venant de l'E.), la baie d'Yof, est la plus considérable;
puis au delà de la pointe des Almadies, qui est le Cap Vert proprement
dit, la côte court au S.E. jusqu' au Cap Manuel, roche basaltique haute
de 40m., puis remonte aussitôt au N. pour, par une très légère courbe,
partir droit a l'E., dessinant ainsi un éperon bien accusé qui
envelloppe le Golfe de Gorée. Le corps principal de la presqu' île est
bas, sablonneux et parsemé de lagunes qui s'égrènent en chapelets le
long de la côte N.; la petite péninsule terminale est au contraire
rocheuse, accidentée et semble un ilot marin attaché à la côte par les
laisses de mer. Ses hautes falaises, d'une couleur sombre et rougeâtre,
forment une muraille à pic contre laquelle la mer vient se briser,
écumante." See Duarte Pacheco Pereira's _Esmeraldo_, pp. 46-49, ed. of
1892. As to the island on which Dinis Diaz and his men landed near the
Cape, this may have been either (1) Goree, two kilometres from the
mainland, and fronting Dakar on the S.E. of the peninsula; (2) The
Madeleine islands, at the opening of a small inlet to the N.W. of Cape
Manuel; (3) The Almadia islands ("Almadies"), "îlette, qui, située en
avant du cap terminal, est la vrai terre la plus occidentale d'Afrique,
les archipels de l'Atlantique non compris;" or (4) The isle of Yof, in
the bay of Yof, on the north side of the peninsula. The Madeleine
islands were once covered with vegetation, though now desert. Here the
French naturalist Adanson made his famous observations on the Baobab
trees, in the eighteenth century. These trees, though they have
disappeared on the islands, are still numerous on the mainland near the
Cape. Azurara has a good deal more to say about these islets and their
baobabs in chs. lxiii, lxxii, lxxv, pp. 193, 218, 226, etc., of this
version. The rounding of C. Verde opened a fresh chapter in the
Portuguese circumnavigation of Africa--to S.E. and E.; see Introduction
to vol. ii, pp. xii, xxx.]
[Endnote 96: (pp. 101-2). _John Fernandez ... such a request._--On
this passage, and especially on Azurara's statement (middle of p. 101)
that Fernandez "had already been a captive among the other Moors and in
this part of the Mediterranean Sea, where he acquired a knowledge of
their language," Santarem remarks: [This detail gives us another proof
that Prince Henry's explorations were made systematically, and according
to plans carefully worked out. In his previous captivity in Marocco,
Fernandez had learnt Arabic, and probably Berber as well; he must also
have gained some information about the interior of Africa. To gain more
detailed knowledge, and so be able to inform the Infant better, he had
now undertaken his residence among the Azanegues of the Rio do Ouro.]
See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. viii, x, xvi, on the dual nature of
Henry's African schemes, land conquest and exploration going along with
the maritime ventures. This was, of course, partly due to an inadequate
conception of the size of the continent, which rendered even the
conquest of Marocco of little use towards the circumnavigation of
Africa.
"How bitter ... to hear such a request" is, of course, one of Azurara's
rare touches of irony.]
[Endnote 97: (p. 103). _Affonso Cerveira._--[The author of the earlier
account of the Portuguese conquest of Guinea, _Historia da Conquista dos
Portuguezes pela costa d'Africa_, on which Azurara's present Chronicle
is based. Cf. Barbosa, _Bibliotheca Lusitana_.]--S. See Introduction to
vol. ii, p. cx, and note 202A.
_Ergim_, in ch. xxxiii, pp. 104, etc., and elsewhere, is, of course,
Arguim. Santarem here refers to Barros' description in _Decade I_, i,
10. "Porque naquelle tempo para fazer algum proveito todos os hião
demandar (os ilheos d'Arguim); e tinha por certo que avião elles de ir
dar com elle, por ser aquella costa e os ilheos a mais povoada parte de
quantas té então tinhão descoberto. E a causa de ser mais povoada, era
por razão da pescaria de que aquella misera gente de Mouros Azenegues se
mantinha, porque em toda aquella costa não avia lugar mais abrigado do
impeto dos grandes mares que quebrão nas suas praias senão na paragem
daquellas ilhas d'Arguim: onde o pescado tinha alguma acolheita, e
lambujem da povoação dos Mouros, posto que as ilhas em si não são mais
que huns ilheos escaldados dos ventos e rocio da agua das ondas do mar.
Os quaes ilheos seis ou sete que elles são, quada hum per si tinha o
nome proprio per que nesta scriptura os nomeamos, posto que ao presente
todos se chamão per nome commum _os ilheos d'Arguim_; por causa de huma
fortaleza que el Rei D. Affonso mandou fundar em hum delles chamado
Arguim." Cf. Duarte Pacheco Pereira's _Esmeraldo_, chs. xxv-vi, pp.
43-4. _Arguim_ is defined in the most recent surveys of its present
French possessors as "Golfe, île, et banc de sable ... l'île est par 20°
27' N. lat., 18° 57' à 60 kilom. vers le S.E. du Cap Blanc ... Ses
dimensions sont de 7 kilom. sur 4. Elle est basse, inculte, et parsemée
de dunes."]
[Endnote 98: (p. 107). _John Fernandez ... in that country._--Santarem
draws attention to Azurara's statement that the explorer, Fernandez, was
personally known to him. Cf. ch. lxxvii of this Chronicle; also chs.
xxix and xxxii. "That country" is of course the Azanegue or Sahara land,
near the Rio do Ouro.
_Setuval_ (p. 106) is in Estremadura (of Portugal), twenty miles
south-east of Lisbon.]
[Endnote 99: (p. 110). _Fear to prolong my story ... though all would
be profitable._--The fondness of Azurara for these scholastic
discussions and useless displays of learning is one of his worst
failings; and a good deal of Cerveira's matter of fact has apparently
been sacrificed to this weakness of his redactor.]
[Endnote 100: (p. 110). _Nine negroes and a little gold-dust._--This
was the first instalment of the precious metal brought home to Portugal
from the Negro-land of Guinea. The same Antam Gonçalvez had already, in
1441, brought the first gold dust from the Sahara, or Azanegue coast
(see ch. xvi of this Chronicle, p. 57). As to the importance of these
gold-samples in promoting the European exploring movement, see
Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xi.]
[Endnote 101: (p. 111). _Cape of the Ransom._--[This name is marked
upon the manuscript maps already referred to. On one great Portuguese
chart of this class, on parchment, in the Bibliothèque Nationale at
Paris, the reading is not Cape, but _Port_ of the Ransom. The Portuguese
nomenclature for the West African coast, as we see in this instance, was
for a long time accepted by all the nations of Europe.]--S.
We may notice the allusion in this paragraph to the Portuguese
colonisation of Madeira, in the story of Fernam Taavares (see
Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xcviii-cii).]
[Endnote 102: (p. 112). _Isle of Tider_ (see note 78 to p.
68).--[Tider, marked "Tiber" in the map of West Africa before referred
to. We do not meet this name in any of the many earlier charts that we
have examined].--S.]
[Endnote 103: (p. 115). _Officers who collected royal dues._--The
custom-house officers of Lisbon. We may compare with Azurara's graphic
account of the return of Antam Gonçalvez in 1445, the very similar
details of a much greater reception in the same port: that of Columbus
on March 14th, 1493, on his home-coming from his first voyage (see the
postscript of Columbus' Letter to Luis de Santangel, Chancellor of the
Exchequer of Aragon, respecting the Islands found in the Indies).]
[Endnote 104: (p. 115). _A palace of the Infant, a good way distant
from the Ribeira._--Azurara's only reference, in this Chronicle, to the
Lisbon residence of the Infant Henry. This passage implies that Prince
Henry was often to be found there, and must be taken with others in
modification of extreme statements about his "shutting himself up at
Sagres," etc. Again, at the end of this chapter we are expressly told
that he was now in his dukedom of Viseu, in the province of Beira, some
50 kilometres N.E. of Coimbra, 220 kilometres N.N.E. of Lisbon.]
[Endnote 105: (p. 115). _Profits._--Azurara's remarks here about the
change of feeling as to the Infant's plans are similar to passages in
ch. xiv, p. 51, ch. xviii, pp. 60-61.]
[Endnote 106: (p. 116). _Lisbon ... profit._--The city of Lisbon,
whose name was traditionally and absurdly derived from
Ulysses--"Ulyssipo," "Olisipo," and his foundation of the original
settlement in the course of his voyages, was perhaps a greater city
under the Moors, eighth-twelfth century, than at any time before the
reign of Emmanuel the Fortunate. It was a Roman colony, but its
prosperity greatly increased under the Arab rule from A.D. 714; from
this port sailed Edrisi's Maghrarins, or Wanderers, on their voyage of
discovery in the Western Ocean, probably in the earliest eleventh
century. It was three times recovered and lost by the Christians: in
792(-812) by Alfonso the Chaste of Castille; in 851 by Ordonho I of
Leon, who held it only a few months; and in 1093(-1094) by Alfonso VI of
Leon, soon after his great defeat by the Almoravides at Zalacca (1086);
but on each occasion it was quickly retaken--in 1094 by Seyr, General of
Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the Almorvaide. In alarm at the Moslem revival,
Alfonso founded the county of Portugal in 1095, giving it in charge of
Count Henry of Burgundy and his natural daughter Theresa, to hold as a
"march" against the Moors. In 1147 Lisbon was finally recaptured by
Affonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, in alliance with a fleet
(164 ships) of English, Flemish, German and French Crusaders on their
way to the Holy Land (Second Crusade). At this time it was said, perhaps
with exaggeration, to contain 400,000 inhabitants; its present number is
only about 240,000 (see _Cruce-signati Anglici Epistola de Expugnatione
Olisiponis_, in _Portugalliæ Monumenta Historica_, vol. i, p. 392, etc).
Before 1147 Guimaraens had been the capital of Portugal; and even down
to the time of John I, Henry's father, Lisbon was not formally the seat
of government, this being more often fixed at Coimbra. In the same
reign, Lisbon also, as a commercial port, easily distanced all rivals
within the kingdom, especially Oporto; and King John's erection of
palaces in the city, and his successful application to the Pope for the
creation of an Archiepiscopal See (thus rivalling Braga), further
contributed to give point to Azurara's words in this paragraph about
"the most noble town in Portugal." On the share of the commercial
classes of Lisbon, Lagos, etc., in Henry's schemes, see Introduction to
vol. ii, pp. x, xii.
_Paulo Vergeryo_ is Pietro Paulo Vergerio, born at Capo d'Istria, July
23, 1370, died at Buda, 1444 (1428 according to others). He enjoyed a
considerable reputation as a scholar at Padua in 1393, etc., and
migrated to Hungary in 1419. See Bayle, _Dict. Crit._ IV, 430 (1741); P.
Louisy, in _Nouvelle Biographie Générale_, art. (Vergerio); J. Bernardi,
in _Riv. Univers._ (Florence, 1875) xxii, 405-430, in _Arch. Stor.
Ital._ (1876) C., xxiii, 176-180; Brunet, _Manuel V_, 1132-3; Muratori,
_Rer. Ital. Scr._ (edition of Vergerio's works) XVI, pp. 111-187,
189-215, 215-242; _Fabricius_, ed. Mansi, VI, p. 289. He has left
various _Orations and Letters_; especially an _Epistola de morte
Francisci Zabarekae_, and a _Historia seu Vitae Carariensium Principum
ab eorum origine usque ad Jacobini mortem_ (1355). See also Joachim
Vadianus, _Biographia P. P. Vergerii, sen._; and C. A. Combi, _Di
Pierpaolo V. ... seniore ... memoria_, Venice, 1880.]
[Endnote 107: (p. 116). _Gonçalo Pacheco ... Kingdom._--Barros copies
this sentence, with some omissions. The allusion to the _High Treasurer
of Ceuta_ (_Thesoureiro Mor das cousas de Cepta_), and his _Noble
lineage, goodness, and valour_, is interesting in its proof of the
detailed attention given to the new conquest, and to African affairs
generally, by the Portuguese government at this time.]
[Endnote 108: (p. 117). _Cape Branco._--On the _personnel_ of this
expedition we have accounts elsewhere; for Dinis Eannes de Graã and the
rest, see chs. xxxvii-xlviii, and especially pp. 121, 122, 126, 130,
131, 138; for Mafaldo, especially p. 119 ("a man well acquainted with
this business ... had been many times in the Moorish traffic"); also pp.
120-121, etc. Cape Branco, since its discovery by Nuno Tristam, had
become the favourite rendezvous of the Portuguese expeditions on this
coast. See ch. lii, p. 153 (made agreement to await one another _as
usual at Cape Branco_).
On the _banners of the Order of Christ_, see Introduction to vol. ii,
pp. xviii-xix; and in this Chronicle, pp. 62 (ch. xviii), 53 (ch. xv),
117 (ch. xxxvii), etc.
[Cf. a parchment atlas (unpublished), executed in Messina as late as
1567 by João Martinez, in which two Portuguese ships are painted in
various points of the Eastern Ocean _with the Cross of the Order of
Christ on their sails_, apparently to indicate the Portuguese dominion
in those waters. This atlas passed into the Library of Heber, and
afterwards into that of M. Ternaux.]--S.]
[Endnote 109: (p. 120). _The patience with which men bear the troubles
of their fellows_ is another piece of irony, similar to that on p. 102;
see note 96.]
[Endnote 110: (p. 122). _Fifty-three Moorish prisoners._--In this, as
in subsequent actions, Mafaldo, rather than Gonçalo Pacheco, showed
himself to be the leader of the expedition.]
[Endnote 111: (p. 123). _Cunning ... but small in this part of the
world._--The fair inference is that, on this occasion, Mafaldo, from his
previous experience, correctly estimated the danger (or absence of
danger), and knew when to trust the natives. Similar trustfulness was
not always equally successful, sometimes from absence of that past
experience possessed by Mafaldo. See chs. xxvii, pp. 90, 91; xlviii, pp.
144-5; lxxxvi, pp. 252, etc.; xxxv, pp. 112-3. The Azanegue Moors of the
Sahara on the whole showed less ability to defend themselves than the
Negroes of the Sudan coast; cf. chs. xlv, pp. 137-8; lx, pp. 179-182;
lxxxvi, pp. 252-6; xli, p. 130; xxxi, p. 99; contrast with pp. 126, 122,
114, 105-6, 78, 73, 36.]
[Endnote 112: (p. 126) ... _true effects._--Azurara certainly does not
commit the error of "those historians who avoid prolixity by summarizing
things that would be greatest if related in their true effects," _i.
e._, in detail. This central portion of his narrative (chs. xxxvi-lix,
lxviii-lxxiv) is especially tedious, and we cannot too much regret the
comparative sacrifice of the scientific interest to the anecdotal,
biographical, or slave-raiding details, with which he fills so much of
this Chronicle. Cf. the slender and imperfect narratives of the really
important voyages of Dinis Diaz (ch. xxxi), Alvaro Fernandez (ch. lxxv),
and Nuno Tristam (chs. xxx, lxxxvi), with the lengthy descriptions of
the expeditions personally conducted by Gonçalo de Sintra, Gonçalo
Pacheco, Lançarote, Mafaldo, and other men whose voyages resulted in
scarcely any advance of exploration. In all this Azurara's narrative
contrasts unfortunately with Cadamosto's, which is not only a record of
exploration, but of acute original observation, a quality by no means so
noticeable in the _Chronicle of Guinea_, except at rare intervals. Cf.,
however, chs. xxv, lxxvi-lxxvii, lxxix-lxxxiii, and see Introduction to
vol. ii, pp. xxiv-xxvi, etc.]
[Endnote 113: (p. 132). _Cape of St. Anne._--[This passage shows the
date when the name of Cape (or rather "Gulf") of St. Anne was given to
that point by Alvaro Vasquez, who was on this expedition. This name was
employed, like the others which we have already indicated, in the
nomenclature of the hydro-geographical charts of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. Barros, in his corresponding chapter, not only
omits this detail, but further reduces the material of chs. xxxvii,
xxxviii, xxxix, xl, xli, xlii, to a few lines.]--S.]
[Endnote 114: (p. 133). _And the Moors, like,_ etc.--[From Cape Branco
to the Senegal, the part of the coast of which the author treats is
inhabited by various tribes composed of Moors of mixed race, who speak
Arabic, are Mohammedans, and are known by the names of Trazas or
Terarzah, Brakanas and others. They are in their nature very ferocious,
and are the terror of the traveller. The most cruel of all are those who
inhabit and extend as far as Cape Branco, called Ladessebas; and these,
according to some authors, are of pure Arab race.]--S. See Introduction
to vol. ii, pp. xlii-lix. Mungo Park gives a similar character of the
"Moors" north of Senegal. _Travels_, chs. iii-xii.]
[Endnote 115: (p. 136). _Came near to the coast of
Guinea._--[According to the text it appears that Alvaro Vasquez, after
quitting the place to which he had given the name of Cape of St. Anne,
followed his course 80 leagues towards the south, running along the
coast in this direction until he arrived at the Guinea coast--that is, a
little beyond Cape Verde--but Barros, who omits some of the details of
this voyage, says: ... "Forão-se pela costa adiante obra de oitenta
legoas, e na ida, e vinda té tornar a ilha das Garças fazer carnagem,"
etc.]--S.]
[Endnote 116: (p. 136). _Where they had captured the seven Moors_
[viz., at Tider; see note 78.]--S.
The reference on p. 139 to the Portuguese ships "in the Strait of Ceuta
(Gibraltar) and through all the Levant Sea," may be compared with
Introduction, p. viii, and notes 28, 31, etc.]
[Endnote 117: (p. 142). _Cape Tira._--[In the old maps we meet with no
_cape_ of this name, but combining this passage with what our author
says in ch. xxx (How Nuno Tristam went to Tira), and with the distance
of 80 leagues which they navigated after leaving the Isle of Herons, or
of Arguim, it appears that the cape to which Azurara gives this name, or
to which our first navigators gave the name of Tira, was a point, or
"tira," of land at the embouchure of the Senegal, at a place marked in
the old maps a little beyond Palma Seca, an inscription which is to be
read on many (of the ancient charts), and especially on that of João
Freire of 1546, and on that of Vaz Dourado of 1571. Although on this
last there appears marked a point in close proximity with the name of
Tarem, which is not met with in the preceding (maps). Be this as it may,
by the distances of latitude between Arguim and that point at the mouth
of the Senegal, it appears that the _Cape of Tira_ of which our author
speaks, is the place which we indicate. Notwithstanding the unfortunate
laconism of Azurara about a fact so interesting for the history of
geography, we nevertheless see clearly by this passage that the
exploration of the bays, inlets, and points of that part of the coast of
Africa was steadily pressed on; that all these points were successively
examined by our sailors; and that to these same men are due the names
which served for the hydro-geographical nomenclature (of W. Africa)
adopted by all nations from the end of the fifteenth century to nearly
the end of the seventeenth (see as to this our _Memoria sobre a
prioridade dos descobrimentos Portuguezes na costa d'Africa occidental_,
§ ix).]--S.]
[Endnote 118: (p. 143). _Turtles._--[This passage shows that these
mariners were navigating among the great banks and shoals of sand which
exist between the isles of Arguim and the mouth of the Senegal. "And
they saw an island, which is further out than all the others, but small
and very sandy." Combining this account with the map which we meet in
vol. i of the work of the Abbé Demanet (_Nouvelle Histoire de
l'Afrique_) we perceive two islands clearly marked to the west of the
last (sand-) bank, and in front of the places which, on the ancient
Portuguese charts are indicated as Tarem, Palmar, and Palma Seca (as in
the maps of Freire, 1546, of the Royal Library, and of Vaz Dourado).
Also in the following chapter our author says "They afterwards saw
another island which was separated by an arm of the sea that ran between
the two--to wit, that in which they were, and the other they had in
sight."]--S.
The lake, or fiord, of Obidos, between Atouguya and Pederneira (p. 143)
is in the Estremadura province of Portugal, an inlet on the coast, 47
miles N.N.W. of Lisbon.]
[Endnote 119: (p. 146). _Arguim._--See notes 75 and 97, pp. 58 and
103.]
[Endnote 120: (p. 146). _Marco Polo._--[Azurara, writing this
chronicle before 1453, availed himself of a manuscript of the travels of
Marco Polo, perhaps the same as the copy which the Infant Don Pedro
brought from Venice. The oldest printed edition is of 1484. This book,
which exercised great influence on discovery, was not only read in the
beginning of the fifteenth century by our learned men, but we may notice
that one of the most ancient translations which exists of the same is in
Portuguese, published by Valentim Fernandez, with the journey of
Nicholas the Venetian, etc., dedicated to the King Don Manuel, Lisbon,
1502, one volume, in folio gothic, a copy of which exists in the public
library of Lisbon.]--S. Azurara's reference here is to Marco Polo, ch.
lvii (Bk. I); ch. lxxiii (Bk. II). On Valentim Fernandez and the
bibliography of the Machin story, see Introduction to vol. ii, p.
lxxxiv-v. On the editions of Marco Polo, see Yule's edition,
Introduction; Pauthier, _Le Livre de M. P._]
[Endnote 121: (p. 147). _Lançarote ... collector of royal taxes_ ( =
Almoxarife, p. 62) _in Lagos ... judges ... alcayde ... officials of the
corporation._--Another of Azurara's references to "local," "home," or
"municipal" affairs in Portugal, at this time. Cf. p. 62 of this
Chronicle.]
[Endnote 122: (p. 151). _Knight Don Pedro ... Sueiro da Costa ...
Monvedro._--On the general history alluded to by Azurara in the first
paragraph of ch. li, see _Cronica de D. Alvaro de Luna_, ed. Milan,
1546, Madrid, 1784; _Histoire secrète de Connetable De Lune_, Paris,
1720; Marina, _Ensaio historico-critico_; Cardonne, _Histoire de
l'Afrique et de l'Espagne..._; Hallam, _Middle Ages_, ii, 16-17. It may
be summarised as follows: The reign of John II of Castille, after his
majority, was constantly disturbed by conspiracies and civil wars,
headed by his cousins John and Henry, the Infants of Aragon, who
possessed large properties in Castille, bequeathed them by their father
Ferdinand. They were also assisted often by their brother the King of
Aragon. The nominal object of attack was Alvaro de Luna, favourite
minister of John II during thirty-five years, a man probably
unscrupulous and somewhat rapacious, but of great ability and energy. At
last John gave way, withdrew his favour, and the minister was tried and
beheaded, meeting his fate "with the intrepidity of Strafford," to whom
some have compared him.
_Sueiro da Costa, Alcaide of Lagos._--Cf. notes 77, 121, etc.
_The King D. Edward_ (Duarte) is, of course, Henry's eldest brother,
King of Portugal 1433-1438 (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xi, and
notes 30, 57; and pp. 3, 11, 18, 28, 39, of the text of this version;
also Pina's Chronica (D. Duarte), vol. i of the _Ineditos Hist. Port._)
The allusions to Portuguese, Castilian, and Aragonese history are so
intertwined in these paragraphs that some caution is necessary.
_Monvedro._--Here there is a manuscript note, of later date, however,
than the Chronicle itself [_Esta batalha se llama del endolar_].]
[Endnote 123: (p. 152). _Vallaguer ... Arras._--[The siege of Balaguer
was undertaken in 1413, and in this the King, Don Fernando of Aragon,
made prisoner the Count of Urgel.]--S.
_Ibid., Ladislaus._--[The king of whom the author speaks here under the
name of Lançaraao, is Ladislaus, King of Naples, who in the year 1404
entered Rome with his army in order to put down the rebellion of the
people against the new Pope, Innocent VII. Hence our author's allusion:
"When he assailed the city of Rome."]--S.
_Louis of Provence._--[This was Louis II, Count of Provence. The
campaign which Sueiro da Costa made with Louis appears to be that which
began in 1409, which the aforesaid Prince carried on in Italy, in common
with the allies commanded by Malatesta and by the famous Balthazar
Cossa, legate of Bologna. This war lasted till 1411].--S.
_The battle of Agincourt_ (the _Ajancurt_ of Azurara's text) was not
between the _Kings_ of France and England in the strictly literal sense.
The French, on October 25th, 1415, were commanded by the Dauphin, the
Constable of France, and the Duke of Orleans.
_Vallamont_ [is Valmont, 5 leagues north-west of Yvetot].--S. Really 22
kilometres.... It is on the Valmont River (Seine Inférieure), and
possesses an ancient chateau, with buildings of date varying from the
twelfth to the fifteenth century.
_Constable of France._--[This Admiral of France, with whom served Sueiro
da Costa, appears to be the Count of Foix (Foes in the text of
Azurara).]
_The Count of Armagnac_ (p. 152) [was probably Bernard VII, who, in the
Civil Wars of the time of Charles VI, was at the head of the party of
the House of Orleans, which fought various combats, especially in the
years 1410-11.]--S.
_Arras_ (p. 152).--[The siege of this place began in Sept. 1414.]--S.]
[Endnote 124: (p. 152). _Lançarote ... Stevam Affonso._--See
Introduction to vol. ii, p. xii, and note 77; pp. 60-80, 83, 86 of this
version.]
[Endnote 125: (p. 152). _In that year_ [viz. 1447].--S. The place is
of course Lagos.]
[Endnote 126: (p. 153). _Dinis Diaz_ [see ch. xxxi].--S. See pp.
98-100 of this Chronicle. Also Introduction to vol. ii, p. xii, and
notes 93, 94, 95, etc.]
[Endnote 127: (p. 153). _Tristam ... Zarco ... Lagos._--See
Introduction to vol. ii, pp. ix, xii, xcix-cii, notes 76, 80, and pp.
192, 213, 225-9, 244-8, 60-2, 79, 83, etc., of this Chronicle.
One of Zarco's caravels was under the command of Alvaro Fernandez, the
only captain on this expedition who accomplished much (see ch. lxxxvii,
and Introduction to vol. ii, p. xii).]
[Endnote 128: (p. 156). [This bird is the _Buceros nasutus_ of
Linnæus, the same that the French call _Calao-Tock_. Notwithstanding
some exaggeration which may be noted in the description of Azurara, it
is beyond doubt that the bird of which he treats here is that which the
Negroes of the Senegal call _Tock_, and which the Portuguese named
_Cróes_. Latham calls it _Buceros Africanus_.
Brisson made two species, Linnæus and Latham two varieties; but Buffon
considered them as individuals of the same species, a fact which is
otherwise witnessed to by Sonini. Buffon says that the beak, considered
apart from the body, is a foot in length and of enormous size (see
_Buffon_, Plate 933). The "work" of which Azurara speaks is not due only
to the pores of the beak, but chiefly to a series of cuts or incisions,
in the form of half-moons, which this bird has upon its beak. It was the
famous naturalist Aldrovandi who first gave a picture of the enormous
beak of this bird; but the oldest description of it is certainly that
given by Azurara. It was not, therefore, Père Labat who first among
travellers saw and carefully observed this notable bird, but Lourenço
Diaz and the other Portuguese, his companions in 1447: that is, at a
date almost three hundred years before Labat. On this bird the reader
may also consult the Memoir of Geoffroi de Villeneuve (_Actes de la
Société d'histoire naturelle de Paris_).]--S.]
[Endnote 129: (p. 158). _Isle of Herons._--[Since it was to these
islands on the coast of Africa, that, in the first epoch of our
discoveries, expeditions (by preference) usually directed their course,
in conformity with the instructions of the Infant, for the reasons which
(in part) Barros gives us (note 97, p. 104, note 79, p. 78 of this
version). We have already indicated their position to the reader,
conformably to the ancient charts, but we have nevertheless thought
well, for the better illustration of the matter, to point out here their
true position. In some maps, and among others on that of the famous
Livio Sanuto, on the first sheet of his _Africa_, these islands are
placed thus:--The Isle of Herons in the most northerly part of all the
group, Tider in the most southerly of all, and the Isle of Nar (Naar)
between the two.]--S.]