[401] _Seu quarto avò foi um Gallego nobre_ (Diogo Camacho, _Jornada ás
Cortes do Parnaso_).
[402] Dr. Wilhelm Storck, the author of the most elaborate life of
Camões in existence, considered that the words _quando vim da materna
sepultura_ in one of Camões’ poems could only mean that his mother
(Anna de Macedo) died at his birth, and that he was survived by Anna de
Sá, his stepmother. It may have been so, but there is not a scrap of
evidence in favour of the theory nor were the words _materna sepultura_
anything more than a conventional phrase. Cf. Antonio Feo, _Trattados
Quadragesimais_ (1609), pt. 1, f. 2: _Como Nazianzeno diz ... e tumulo
prosiliens ad tumulum iterum contendo, em nacendo saimos de hũa
sepultura que foi as entranhas da mãi e morrendo entramos noutra._ So
Pinto, _Imagem_, pt. 2, 1593 ed., f. 342 v.: _tornar nu ao ventre de
sua mãi, o qual é a sepultura da terra_, and Bernardes, _Nov. Flor._ i.
122: _A terra e nossa mãe, de cujo tenebroso ventre que é a sepultura_,
&c.
[403] She may have been a distant relation of the poet’s: the name was
a common one, but Camões was connected with the Gamas, and the wife
and granddaughter of the first Conde de Vidigueira were both named
Catherina de Athaide.
[404] According to Dr. Storck he was banished in 1549, and in the same
year, after the sentence of banishment had been commuted to service
in Africa, left Portugal, returning to Lisbon in the autumn of 1551.
Others believe that he was in Lisbon again in 1550 and that his two
years in Africa must be placed between 1546 and 1549.
[405] The important document containing his pardon is printed in
Juromenha’s edition of his works, i. 166-7.
[406] This quotation is assigned to various other persons, as to Nuno
da Cunha when arranging that he should be buried at sea.
[407] _O poeta Simonides fallando._
[408] Cf. _Lus._ i. 19, 43; ii. 20, 67; v. 19-22; vi. 70-9.
[409] _Desejei tanto._
[410] Couto, in the _Dialogo do Soldado Pratico_, remarks that if a
man is given a post at the age of twenty he only receives it at the
age of sixty (p. 99). The soldier, who wishes _ter logo em tres annos
vinte mil cruzados_, suggests, among other posts for himself, that of
_Provedor dos Defuntos: porque com qualquer destes ficarei mui bem
remediado_. To which the _Desembargador_ objects: _he necessario que
quem houver de servir esses cargos seja letrado e visto em ambos os
Direitos_.
[411] _Vinde cá._ It is advisable to give the first words of his poems
without the number until there is a definitive edition of his works.
[412] It is uncertain whether Camões’ ship was the _Santa Clara_ or the
_Fe_.
[413] Barros, _Decada_, III. ix. 1.
[414] It is about the sum (apart from any grant of _pimenta_) which
a common soldier on active service might earn in India (see Barros,
I. viii. 3: 1,200 × 12 = 14,400); _environ huit cents livres de notre
monnoie d’aujourd’hui_ (Voltaire). It would scarcely correspond to more
than £50 of to-day.
[415] _Lus._ V. 45.
[416] Prophetically he had echoed (_Lus._ X. 23) the complaint of the
historians of India: _Morrer nos hospitaes em pobres leitos Os que ao
Rei e á lei servem de muro_.
[417] _Todos hasta oy, y principalmente en Castilla, tuvieron siempre
a mi Maestre por mayor en estes Poemas que en el Heroyco_ (_Varias
Rimas_, Prólogo, 2 vols., 1685, 1689). Cf. the praise of his _versos
pequenos_ in Severim de Faria, _Vida_, p. 121.
[418] See the important work by Dr. Rodrigues: _As Fontes dos Lusiadas_
(1904-1913). Cf. Camões’ _Vão os annos decendo_ (x. 9) and _Leal
Conselheiro_ (cap. 1, p. 18), where the words are used in the same
connexion. With Virgil he was obviously acquainted at first hand, with
Homer perhaps in the translation of the Florentine scholar Lorenzo
Valla (1405-57). In _As Fontes dos Lusiadas_ is also discussed the
origin of the word Lusiads, as by D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos
in _O Instituto_, vol. lii (1905), pp. 241-50: _Lucius Andreas
Resendius Inventor da palavra Lusiadas_. It was one of the Latin words
acclimatized by Camões. It occurs in a Latin poem by André de Resende,
_Vicentius Levita et Martyr_ (1545), and in his _Encomium Erasmi_
written, but not published, in 1531; in a Latin poem by Jorge Coelho,
perhaps written in 1526 but touched up before its publication in 1536;
and is twice used by Manuel da Costa (in and about 1537).
[419] The word is undoubtedly _dotto_ in the facsimile of the text
given in Antonio de Portugal de Faria, _Torquato Tasso a Luiz de
Camões_ (Leorne, 1898) although there, as always, it has been
transcribed as _colto_. Diogo Bernardez calls Tasso _culto_, perhaps
mistaking the reference in Garci Lasso, whose _culto Taso_ is not
Torquato but Bernardo. Lope de Vega called Camões _divino_ and reserved
_docto_ for Corte Real.
[420] His works are _ja muitas vezes impressas_ in 1594. In 1631
Alvaro Ferreira de Vera speaks of twelve Portuguese editions (_Breves
Lovvores_, f. 87).
[421] _Apologia em qve defende_, &c. (1641).
[422] The instance he gives is the long story of _Magriço e os Doze de
Inglaterra_ (vi), which he admits is in itself very fine.
[423] One of the best instances of his pedantry is his comment on
the lines _E tu, nobre Lisboa, que no mundo Facilmente das outras
es princesa_. The ordinary reader is content to understand ‘cities’
after _outras_. But no, says Macedo, you can only understand Lisbons.
Princess of all the other Lisbons!
[424] _Laurel de Apolo: Postrando Eneidas y venciendo Iliadas._
[425] Even here some of the lines are a literal translation of Virgil,
but if we compare
Para o ceo crystallino alevantando
Com lagrimas os olhos piadosos,
Os olhos, porque as mãos, &c.,
with the passage
Ad coelum tendens, &c.,
it is not at all clear that the picture of the older poet is more
beautiful than that of _il lusiade Maro_.
[426] He is thus an exception to Macedo’s axiom in the _Motim
Literario_ that Portuguese poets (most of whom, it must be admitted,
are, like Byron, children in thought) either have _versos sem cousas_
or _cousas sem versos_.
[427] _Discursos politicos varios_ (1624), f. 117: _& com esta
obra ficou enriquecida grandemente a lingua Portuguesa; porque lhe
deu muitos termos nouos & palauras bem achadas que depois ficárão
perfeitamente introducidas. Posto que nesta parte não deixárão algũs
escrupulosos de o condenar, julgandolhe por defeito as palauras
alatinadas que vsou no seu poema._
[428] Cf. Fr. Manuel do Sepulchro, _Reflexão Espiritual_ (1669): _Não
ha duvida que maior mudança fez a lingua Portuguesa nos primeiros vinte
annos do reinado de D. Manuel que em cento e cincoenta annos dahi
para ca_. Barros, however, in his _Dialogo em lovvor_ (1540), says
latinization had not yet begun: _se o nos usáramos_.
[429] The authorship of the fine sonnets _Horas breves do meu
contentamento_ (attributed to Camões, Bernardez, the Infante Luis,
&c.) and _Formoso Tejo meu, quam differente_ (attributed to Camões,
Rodriguez Lobo, &c.) is still under dispute.
[430] _Filodemo_, v. 3.
[431] _Os Ratos da Inquisição_, Preface, p. 97.
[432] e. g. _D. Alvaro de Castro e D. Francisco De Meneses_, or _hum
grave Prudente capitam_.
[433] e. g. _valor, esforço e valentia; mar sereno e calmo; abundosa
e larga vea; a dura defensa rigurosa; açoutando e batendo_. The line
often consists of three adjectives and a noun.
[434] Between Corte Real’s _cruel molesto duro mortal frio_ and Dante’s
_eterna maladetta fredda e greve_ (_Inf._ vi) is all the difference
between a heap of loose stones and a shrine. The conception of the
_Auto_, especially the third _novissimo_, _que he o Inferno_, was no
doubt derived from Dante.
[435] These are the first words of the original title of the poem
(1578).
§ 5
_The Historians_
It was a proud saying of a Portuguese _seiscentista_ that the
Portuguese discoveries silenced all other histories.[436] Certainly
this was so in the case of the history of Portugal, which was neglected
while writer after writer recorded the history of the Portuguese in
India. Nor need we quarrel with a vogue which has preserved for us so
many striking pictures in which East and West clash without meeting,
new countries are continually opening to our view, and heroism and
adventure go hand in hand. Sometimes the pages of these historians
seem all aglow with precious stones, emeralds from Peru, turquoises
from Persia, rubies, cat’s-eyes, chrysolites, amethysts, beryls, and
sapphires from Ceylon, or scented with the opium of Cairo, the saffron
of Cannanore, the camphor of Borneo, sandalwood from Timor, pepper from
Malabar, cloves from the Moluccas. Blood and sea-spray mingle with
the silks from China and ivory from Sofala, and among the crowd of
rapacious governors and unscrupulous adventurers move a few figures of
a simple austerity and devotion to duty, Albuquerque, Galvão, Castro,
St. Francis Xavier.
Little is known of ALVARO VELHO except that he was one of the immortals
(unless he was the _degredado_ (convict) from whose _caderno_ Couto
derived his account of the discovery) who accompanied Vasco da Gama
on his first voyage. To him is attributed the simple, clear narrative
contained in the log or _Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama em 1497_,
filled with a primitive wonder, which pointed the way to the historians
of India. Indeed, it provided material for the first book of a writer
who may perhaps be called the first[437] historian of the discoveries
‘enterprised by the Portingales’. FERNAM LOPEZ DE CASTANHEDA (_c._
1500-59) was born at Santarem, and in 1528 accompanied his father,
appointed Judge at Goa, to India. For the next ten years he diligently
and not without many risks and discomforts consulted documents and
inscriptions in various parts of the country with a view to writing
a history of the discovery and conquest of India, making himself
personally acquainted with the ground and with many of those who had
played a part in the half-century (1498-1548) under review. After his
return to Portugal he continued his life-work with the same devotion
for twenty years, during which poverty constrained him to accept the
post of bedel at Coimbra University. When he died, worn out by his
_continuas vigilias_, his history was complete, but only seven books
had been published: _Historia do Descobrimento e Conqvista da India_
(1551-4). He had at least the satisfaction to know that a part had
already been translated into French and Italian. The eighth book,
bringing the history down to 1538, was published by his children in
1561, but books nine and ten never appeared. This history of forty
years, which has less regard to style than to sincerity and the truth
of the facts, is written in great detail. It is a scrupulous and
trustworthy record of high interest describing not only the deeds of
the Portuguese, ‘of much greater price than gold or silver’, ‘more
valiant than those of Greek or Roman’, but the many lands in which
they occurred. The narrative can rise to great pathos, as in the
account of Afonso de Albuquerque’s death (iii. 154), and is often
extremely vivid.[438] The interest necessarily diminishes after 1515,
and the seventh book is largely concerned with dismal contentions
between Portuguese officials. But the great events and persons, the
capture of Goa or Diu, the characters of Gama or Albuquerque, Duarte
Pacheco Pereira or Antonio Galvão, stand out the more clearly from the
deliberate absence of rhetoric.
LOURENÇO DE CACERES, in his _Doutrina_ addressed to the Infante Luis
in twenty short chapters on the parts of a good prince, showed that
he could write excellent prose. His death in 1531 prevented him from
undertaking a more ambitious work, which was accordingly entrusted
to his nephew JOÃO DE BARROS (1496?-1570).[439] But much earlier and
a generation before Lopez de Castanheda’s work began to appear, the
most famous of the Portuguese historians had resolved to chronicle
the discovery of India. Born probably at Viseu, the son of Lopo de
Barros, he came of ancient Minhoto stock and was brought up in the
palace of King Manuel. When the Infante João received a separate
establishment Barros became his page (_moço da guardaroupa_). It was
in this capacity, _por cima das arcas da vossa guardaroupa_, that
with the active encouragement of the prince he wrote his first work,
_Cronica do Emperador Clarimundo_ (1520). It is a long romance of
chivalry crowded with actors and events, and contains affecting, even
passionate episodes. But the most remarkable feature of this work,
written in eight months when the author was little over twenty, is its
inexhaustible flow of clear, smooth, vigorous prose, entirely free
from awkwardness or hesitation. One may also note that he regarded it
merely as a parergon, a preparation for his history, _afim de apurar o
estilo_, that despite its length he assures his readers that he omits
all details in order to avoid prolixity, that much of its geography
is real--all his works prove the truth of Couto’s assertion that he
was _doutissimo na geografia_--and that each chapter ends with a
brief moral. King Manuel, to whom he read some chapters, encouraged
him to persevere in his intention to write the history of India, but
the king’s death in 1521 delayed the project. In the following year
Barros, who meanwhile had married Maria, daughter of Diogo de Almeida
of Leiria, is said to have gone out as Captain of the Fortress of S.
Jorge da Mina (although probably he never left Portugal) and later
became Treasurer of the _Casa da India_ (1525-8), and its Factor in
1532, a post which he retained for thirty-five years. Although he
lost a large sum of money in an unfortunate venture in Brazil, this
was partly made good by the king’s munificence, and when in 1568, the
year after his resignation, he retired to his _quinta_ near Pombal
_sibi ut viveret_ he went as a _fidalgo_ of the king’s household and
with a pension over twenty-five times as large as that of Camões.[440]
In old age he is described as of a fine presence, although thin and
not tall, with pale complexion, keen eyes, aquiline nose, long white
beard, grave, pleasant, and fluent in conversation. Before beginning
his history he wrote several brief treatises of great interest and
importance, _Ropica Pnefma_ (1532), a dialogue written at his country
house in 1531 in which Time, Understanding, Will, and Reason discuss
their spiritual wares (_mercadoria espiritual_), and incidentally the
new heresies; three short works on the Portuguese language, a _Dialogo
da Viçiosa Vergonha_ (1540), and a _Dialogo sobre preceptos moraes_
(1540) in which he reduced Aristotle’s _Ethics_ to a game for the
benefit of two of his ten children and of the Infanta Maria. He also
wrote two excellent _Panegyricos_ (of the Infanta Maria and King João
III) which were first published by Severim de Faria in his _Noticias de
Portugal_ in 1655. As a historian he chose Livy for his pattern both in
style and system. The first _Decada_ of his _Asia_ appeared in 1552,
the second in 1553, and the third ten years later (1563). Their success
was immediate, especially abroad--in Portugal, like other historians of
recent events, he was accused of partiality and unfairness[441]--copies
soon became extremely rare, the first two Decads were translated into
Italian before the third appeared, and Pope Pius IV is said to have
placed Barros’ portrait (or bust) next to the statue of Ptolemy.[442]
Barros had prepared himself very thoroughly for his task. His work
as Factor seems to have been exacting--he says that it was only by
giving up holidays and half the night and all the time spent by other
men in sleeping the _sesta_, or walking about the city, or going into
the country, playing, shooting, fishing, dining, that he was able to
attend to his literary labours. Yet he read everything, pored over
maps and chronicles and documents from the East, and even bought a
Chinese slave to translate for him. With this enthusiasm, his unfailing
sense of order and proportion, and his clear and copious style he
necessarily produced a work of permanent value. His manner is lofty,
even pompous, worthy of the great events described. If his history is
less vivid and interesting than Castanheda’s, that is because he wrote
not as an eyewitness[443] or actor in them but as Court historian. He
was a true Augustan, and the great edifice that this Portuguese Livy
planned and partly built was of eighteenth-century architecture. He was
fond of comparing his work to a building in which each stone has its
appointed place. The material to his hand must be moulded to suit the
symmetry of the whole--Albuquerque had never in his life used so many
relative sentences as are attributed to him by Barros (II. v. 9)--and
with a pedantic love of definitions and systematic subdivisions we
find him measuring out the proportions of his stately structure, while
picturesque details are deliberately omitted.[444] The merits of his
style have been exaggerated. It is never confused or slovenly, but is
for use rather than beauty; its ingredients are pure and energetic but
the construction is inartistic and monotonous.[445] It is rather in the
forcible, crisp sentences of his shorter treatises than in the _Asia_
that Barros displays his mastery of style. His great narrative of epic
deeds is interrupted by interesting special chapters or digressions
on trade, geography, Eastern cities and customs, locusts, chess, the
Mohammedan religion, sword-fish, palm-trees, and monsoons. It was
planned in four _Decadas_ and forty books, to embrace 120 years to
1539, but the fourth was not written and the third ends with the death
of D. Henrique de Meneses (1526). Probably he did not find the dispute
as to the Governorship of India a very congenial subject, especially
as the feud was resumed in Portugal. Material and notes were however
ready, and these were worked up into a lengthy fourth _Decada_ by João
Baptista Lavanha (†1625) in 1615, which covers the same ground as, but
is quite distinct from, the fourth Decad of Couto. The _Asia_ was only
a block of a vaster whole. _Europa_, _Africa_, and _Santa Cruz_ were to
treat respectively of Portugal from the Roman Conquest and Portuguese
history in North Africa and Brazil, while Geography and Commerce were
to be the subjects of separate works, the first of which (in Latin) was
partly written.
Inseparably connected with the name of Barros is that of DIOGO DO
COUTO (1542-1616), who continued his _Asia_, writing _Decadas_ 4-12.
He was born at Lisbon, and at the age of ten entered the service
(_guardaroupa_) of the Infante Luis, who sent him to study at the
College of the Jesuits and then with his son, D. Antonio, under Frei
Bartholomeu dos Martyres, afterwards Archbishop of Braga, at S.
Domingos, Bemfica. When thirteen he was present at the death of his
talented patron Prince Luis, and remained in the palace as page to
the king till the king’s death two years later.[446] Couto then went
to seek his fortune in India, and there as soldier, trader, official
(in 1571 he was in charge of the stores at Goa),[447] and historian he
spent the best part of the following half-century, his last visit to
Portugal being in 1569-71. At the bidding of Philip II (I of Portugal),
who appointed him _Cronista Môr_ of India, he undertook the completion
of Barros’ _Asia_. Probably he needed little inducement--his was the
pen of a ready writer, and the composition of his history was, he tells
us, a pleasure to him in spite of frequent discouragement. He had
received a classical education; as a boy in the palace he had listened
to stories of India[448] and had been no doubt deeply impressed by the
vivid account of the Sepulveda shipwreck.[449] In India he won general
respect. At Goa he married the sister of Frei Adeodato da Trindade
(1565-1605), who in Lisbon saw some of his _Decadas_ through the press;
he became Keeper of the Indian Archives (Torre do Tombo) and more
than once made a speech on behalf of the City Councillors, as at the
inauguration of the portrait of Vasco da Gama in the Town Hall in the
centenary year of the discovery of India, before Gama’s grandson, then
Viceroy, and a gathering of noblemen and captains. Couto knew every
one--we find him conversing with Viceroy, Archbishop, natives, Moorish
prisoners, rich merchants from Cambay or the Ambassador of the Grand
Mogul. This personal acquaintance with the scenes, events, and persons
gives a lively dramatic air to his work. The sententious generalities
of the majestic Barros are replaced by bitter protests and practical
suggestions. He is a critic of abuses rather than of persons.[450]
He writes from the point of view of the common soldier, as one who
had seen both sides of the tapestry of which Barros smoothly ignored
the snarls and thread-ends. He displays a hatred of _semjustiças_,
treachery, and ‘the insatiable greed of men’, with a fine zest in
descriptions of battles, but he has not Barros’ skill in proportion
and the grand style.[451] He can, however, write excellent prose,
and he gives more of graphic detail[452] and individual sayings and
anecdotes than his predecessor. Nor is he by any means an ignorant
chronicler. A poet[453] and the friend of poets, he read Dante and
Petrarca and Ariosto, was old-fashioned enough to admire Juan de Mena,
consulted the works of ancient and modern historians, travellers, and
geographers, and was deeply interested in the customs and religions
of the East. The inequality of his _Decadas_ is in part explained by
their history, which constitutes a curious chapter in the _fata_ of
manuscripts. He first wrote _Decada_ X, which is the longest and most
resembles those of Barros: this was only sent to Portugal in 1600 and
was not immediately published, apparently because the period, 1580-8,
was too recent. It remained in manuscript till 1788. Meanwhile Couto,
working with extraordinary speed, sent home the fourth and fifth
_Decadas_ in 1597, the sixth in 1599, and the seventh in 1601. Noting
the fact that the last two books (9 and 10) of Castanheda’s history
had been suppressed by royal order as being excessively fond of truth
(_porque fallava nelles verdades_), he remarks that, should this happen
to a volume of his, another would be forthcoming to take its place.
Friends and enemies, indeed the very elements, took up the challenge,
but fortunately Couto’s spirit and independence continued to the year
of his death. The fourth _Decada_ was at once printed, but the text
of the fifth was tampered with and its publication delayed, the sixth
was destroyed by fire when ready for publication and recast by Frei
Adeodato, the seventh was captured at sea by the English and re-written
in 1603 by Couto and sent home in the same year, the eighth and ninth,
finished in 1614, were stolen from him in manuscript during a severe
illness. This was a crushing blow, but he partially reconstructed them
_a modo de epilogo_ and, writing in old age from memory, dwelt, to our
gain, on personal recollections: his literary bent appears--his friend
Camões, Cristovam Falcão, and Garcia de Resende are mentioned. Finally
_Decada_ xi (1588-97), which, writing to King Philip III in January
1616, he says ‘survived this shipwreck’, has disappeared and _Decada_
xii is incomplete, although the first five books bring the history
to the end of the century (1599). His successor in the Goa Archives,
Antonio Bocarro, took up the history at the year 1612, in a work
which was published in 1876: _Decada 13ᵃ da Historia da India_. The
manuscript of his _Dialogo do Soldado Pratico na India_ (written before
the fourth _Decada_) was also stolen. The indomitable Couto re-wrote it
and both versions have survived. They were not published till 1790, the
title given to the earlier version being _Dialogo do soldado pratico
portugues_. With its _verdades chans_, this dialogue between an old
soldier of India, an ex-Governor, and a judge forms a most valuable and
interesting indictment of the decadence of Portuguese rule in India,
where the thief and rogue escaped scot-free, while the occasional
honest man was liable to suffer for their sins, and the sleek soldier
in velvet with gold ribbons on his hat had taken the place of the
bearded _conquistadores_ (_Dialogo_, pp. 91-2).
GASPAR CORRÊA (_c._ 1495-_c._ 1565) claims, like Fernam Lopez de
Castanheda and Barros, to have been the first historian of the
Portuguese in the East.[454] He went to India sixteen years before
Lopez de Castanheda and no doubt soon began[455] to take notes and
collect material, but he was still working at his history in 1561 and
1563, and his _Lendas da India_ were not published till the nineteenth
century. In the year 1506 Corrêa entered the king’s service as _moço
da camara_,[456] and six years later went to India, where he became
one of the six or seven secretaries of Afonso de Albuquerque.[457]
They were young men carefully chosen by the Governor from among those
who had been brought up in the palace and to whom he felt he could
entrust his secrets.[458] Theirs was no humdrum or sedentary post,
for they had to accompany the Governor on foot or on horseback, in
peace and war, ever ready with ink and paper. Thus Corrêa had occasion
vividly to describe Aden in 1513, and helped with his own hands to
build the fortress of Ormuz in 1515. After Albuquerque’s death Corrêa
seems to have continued to fight and write. In 1526 he was appointed
to the factory of Sofala,[459] and in the following year the _moço da
camara_ has become a _cavaleiro_ and is employed at the customs house
at Cochin.[460] He cannot have remained much longer at Cochin than at
Sofala, since he signed his name in the book of _moradias_ at Lisbon
in 1529, and in 1530-1, in a ship provided by himself (_em um meu
catur_), went with the Governor of India’s fleet to the attack of Diu.
Later he was commissioned by the Viceroy, D. João de Castro, to furnish
lifesize drawings[461] of all the Governors of India, so that he must
then have been living at Goa. The ever-growing abuses in India and
the scanty reward given to his fifty years of service and honourable
wounds[462] embittered his last years, and if his spoken comments were
as incisive as the indictment of the Governors and Captains contained
in the _Lendas_[463] he must have made enemies in high positions: it
seems, at least, that his murder one night at Malacca went unpunished,
as if to prove the truth of his frequent complaint that no one ever
was punished in India. At the time of his death he may still have
been at work, as in 1561 and 1563, on the revision of his _Lendas_ or
_Cronica dos Feytos da India_,[464] originally completed in 1551.[465]
The first three books relate the events from 1497 to 1538; the last
carries the history down to 1550. The account of the discovery is based
on the narrative of one, and the recollections of others, of Vasco da
Gama’s companions, and the subsequent events are drawn largely from
Corrêa’s own experience. He spared no trouble to obtain first-hand
information, from aged officials, Moors, natives, captives, a Christian
galley-slave, or a woman from Malabar, distrusting mere hearsay. He
lays frequent stress on his personal evidence.[466] Without necessarily
establishing the trustworthiness of his work on every point, this
method had the advantage of rendering it singularly vivid, and it
contains many a brilliantly coloured picture of the East. In many
respects he is the most remarkable of the historians of India. It was
not for nothing that he had written down some of Albuquerque’s letters
to King Manuel.[467] If Albuquerque’s words are still striking when
read after four centuries, we may imagine their effect on the boy still
in his teens to whom he dictated them. _Tinha grande oratoria_, says
Corrêa, and many years afterwards some of the phrases remained in his
memory.[468] He no doubt learnt from Albuquerque his direct, vigorous
style, his love of concrete details, his regard for truth. His account
of the sack of Malacca--the rifled chests of gold coins and brocades
of Mecca and cloth of gold, the narrow dusty streets in shadow in the
midday _calma_--must, one thinks, be that of an eyewitness; yet Corrêa
was not in India at the time. The explanation is that it was largely
the account of Albuquerque.[469]
Corrêa writes in even greater detail than Lopez de Castanheda. There
is no trace of literary leanings in his work; he is sparing of
descriptions as interrupting the story.[470] Whole pages have scarcely
an adjective, and this gives his narrative clearness and rapidity,
yet he is careless of style. It has been called redundant and verbose,
but that is true mainly of the prefaces, which show that Corrêa in
a library might have developed into a rhetorical Zurara of _boas
oratorias_. It is, however, no longer the fashion to sneer at this
‘simple and half barbarous chronicler’, this ‘soldier adventurer in
whose artless words appears his lack of culture’.[471] His _Lendas_
are infinitely preferable to the sleek periods of Barros and often as
reliable, being legendary in little beyond their title, as understood
by the ignorant (for the word _lenda_ meant not legend but record or
log). They have a harsh flavour of religious fervour and of lust for
gold[472] and an intense atmosphere of the East--_sangre e incenso,
cravo e escravaria_, St. James fighting for the Christians, St. Thomas
transformed into a peacock, all in a region of horror and enchantment.
Corrêa was aware that it was dangerous to write history in India
(iii. 9)--_periculosae plenum opus aleae_--but although he had no
intention of immediately publishing it[473] he evidently expected
some recognition of his work. The appearance of Lopez de Castanheda’s
_Historia_ and Barros’ _Decadas_ must have been a blow almost as cruel
as the daggers of his assassins a few years later.
The events of India from 1506-15, chronicled by Castanheda and Barros,
necessarily centred round the great figure of Afonso de Albuquerque,
and they were recorded afresh by his illegitimate son BRAS DE
ALBUQUERQUE (1500-80), whom the dying Governor recommended to the king
in his last letter. King Manuel in belated gratitude bestowed his
favour on this son and bade him assume the name of Afonso in memory of
his father. His _Commentarios de Afonso de Alboquerque_ (1557) were
revised by the author in a second edition (1576) four years before his
death. They are written in unassuming but straightforward style and
furnish a very clear and moderate account based on letters written by
Albuquerque to King Manuel.[474] The author seems to have realized that
Albuquerque’s words and deeds speak sufficiently for themselves, but
the reflection produced is somewhat pale.
The gallant and chivalrous apostle of the Moluccas, ANTONIO GALVAM
(_c._ 1490?-1557), ‘as rich in valour and knowledge as poor in
fortune’,[475] printed nothing in his lifetime but his manuscripts were
handed over after his death to Damião de Goes as _Cronista Môr_.[476]
We have only a brief treatise by him published posthumously. Copious
in matter rather than in length, for it has but eighty small folios in
spite of its lengthy title, this _Tratado_ (1563), or, if we adopt the
briefer title from the colophon, this _Lyvro dos Descobrimentos das
Antilhas & India_, is remarkable for the curious observation shown and
its vivid, concise style of a man of action. Written in the form of
annals, it begins with the Flood, and on f. 12 we are still in the age
of Merlin; but the most valuable part consists in the writer’s direct
experience--he tells of buffaloes, cows and hens ‘of flesh black as
this ink’, of mocking parrots, fires made of earth ‘as in Flanders’.
Goes, who had certainly handled the manuscript, may have added this
comparison; he evidently interpolated the account of his own travels
(ff. 58 v.-59 v.). The life of Galvam gives a further interest to this
rare book, for, a man of noble and disinterested character, himself a
prince by election, he has always been regarded as a stock instance of
the ingratitude of princes. Born in the East, the son of Albuquerque’s
old friend, the historian Duarte Galvam, he won fame by his courage and
martial qualities, both as soldier and skilful mariner. After subduing
the Molucca Islands he, as their Governor (Captain), spent his energies
and income in missionary zeal and in developing agriculture. On the
expiry of his term as Governor (1536-40) he refused the position of
Raja of Ternate, which the grateful natives besought him to accept. He
arrived penniless in Portugal and penniless died seventeen years later
in the Lisbon hospital.
Besides the general histories many briefer records of separate regions
or events were written, and these are often of great value as the
accounts of men who had seen and taken part in what they describe.
LOPO DE SOUSA COUTINHO (?1515-77), father of Frei Luis de Sousa and
one of the captains in the heroic siege of Diu (1538)--he is said to
have died by accidentally running himself through with his sword when
dismounting from his horse--wrote a striking account of the siege,
especially of its last incidents, in his _Livro Primeiro do Cerco de
Diu_ (1556). The siege of Mazagam (1562) was similarly described in
clear, vigorous prose by AGOSTINHO GAVY DE MENDONÇA: _Historia do
famoso cerco qve o Xarife pos á fortaleza de Mazagam_ (1607). JORGE
DE LEMOS, of Goa, wrote a careful _Historia dos Cercos ... de Malaca_
(1585), and ANTONIO CASTILHO, the distinguished son of the celebrated
architect João, published a _Commentario do Cerco de Goa e Chaul no
anno MDLXX_ (1572). Events in the Moluccas were briefly recorded in an
_Informaçam das cousas de Maluco_ (1569) by GABRIEL DE RABELLO, who
went out as factor of Tidore in 1566.
The anonymous gentleman of Elvas who wrote the _Relaçam verdadeira_
(1557) of Soto’s discovery of Florida was a keen observer and related
what he saw in direct language. His publisher, André de Burgos, in a
short preface washes his hands of the style as insufficiently polished
(_limado_).
The deeds of D. Cristovam da Gama, his conquest of a hundred leagues of
territory in Ethiopia, his defeat, torture, and beheadal, are recounted
with the vivid details of an eyewitness by MIGUEL DE CASTANHOSO, of
Santarem, who accompanied him on his fatal expedition. This _Historia_
(1564) was published by João da Barreira, who dedicated it to D.
Cristovam’s nephew, D. Francisco de Portugal.
MANUEL DE ABREU MOUSINHO wrote in Spanish a brief account of the
conquest of Pegu by Salvador Ribeiro de Sousa, of which a Portuguese
version appeared in the 1711 edition of Mendez Pinto’s travels: _Breve
discurso em que se contem a conquista do reyno de Pegu_, nearly a
century after the original edition, _Breve Discvrso en qve se cventa_,
&c. (1617). The _Jornada do Maranhão feita por Jeronymo de Albuquerque
em 1614_ is ascribed to DIOGO DE CAMPOS MORENO, who took part in that
_conquista_. It was published in the _Collecção de Noticias para a
Historia e Geographia das Nações Ultramarinas_.[477] The second volume
of this collection contains several re-translations of _Navegações_ (by
Thomé Lopez and anonymous Portuguese pilots) surviving in Italian in
Ramusio. It would require a separate volume to give an account of all
the sixteenth-and seventeenth-century narratives of newly conquered
countries written in Portuguese and often immediately translated
into many European languages, e.g. the _Novo Descobrimento do Grão
Cathayo_ (1626) by the Jesuit ANTONIO DE ANDRADE (_c._ 1580-1634), or
the _Relaçam_ of the Jesuit ALVARO SEMMEDO (1585?-1658) written in
Portuguese but published in the Spanish translation of Faria e Sousa:
_Imperio de la China_ (1642). However unliterary, they are often so
vividly written as to be literature in the best sense.
PEDRO DE MAGALHÃES DE GANDAVO, of Braga, whose _Regras_ (1574) ran
into three editions before the end of the century, described Brazil
and its discovery in two short works: _Historia da prouincia Sãcta
Cruz_ (1576) and _Tratado da terra do Brazil_ first published in 1826
in the _Collecção de Noticias_. This collection also prints works
of the following century, such as the _Fatalidade historica da Ilha
de Ceilão_[478] by Captain JOÃO RIBEIRO, who had served the king as
a soldier for eighteen years in the _preciosa ilha de Ceilão_. His
manuscript, written in 1685, was translated and published in French
(1701) 135 years before it was printed in Portuguese. Gandavo’s
_Historia_ (48 ff.), his first work (_premicias_), was introduced by
_tercetos_ and a sonnet of Luis de Camões, who speaks of his _claro
estilo_, and _engenho curioso_. The author himself in a prefatory
letter says that he writes as an eyewitness, content with a ‘plain and
easy style’ without seeking _epithetos exquisitos_.
The Jesuit BALTHASAR TELLEZ[479] (1595-1675) won considerable fame as
an historian and prose-writer in his _Cronica da Companhia de Iesus_
(2 pts., 1645, 1647) in which he forswears what he calls the artifices
and liberties of ordinary _seiscentista_ prose. He also edited the work
of the Jesuit missionary MANUEL DE ALMEIDA (1580-1646), recasting it
in an abbreviated form: _Historia Geral da Ethiopia a Alta ov Preste
Ioam_ (1660), for which Tellez’ friend, Mello, provided a prefatory
letter. Almeida, born at Viseu, had gone to India in 1601 and in 1622
was sent to Ethiopia, where he became the head of the mission. He died
at Goa after a life of much hard work and various adventure. In writing
his history of Ethiopia he made use of the _Historia da Ethiopia_ of
an earlier (1603-19) head of the mission, PEDRO PAEZ (1564-1622), who
had started for Ethiopia in 1595 but was captured by the Turks and only
ransomed in 1602. Although a Spaniard by birth (born at Olmeda), Paez
wrote in Portuguese. A third Jesuit missionary, MANUEL BARRADAS, born
in 1572 at Monforte, who went to India in 1612, was also a prisoner of
the Turks for over a year at Aden. In 1624 he went to _Ethiope, terre
maldite_, and remained there some ten years. Of his three treatises
the most important is that entitled _Do Reyno de Tygrê e seus mandos
em Ethiopia_. The modern editor of these works, P. Camillo Beccari,
considers that their authors’ simple style caused their treatises
to be regarded rather as the material of history than in themselves
history,[480] but their value for us is in this very simplicity and in
the detailed observation which bring the country and its inhabitants
clearly before us. Scarcely less important, as material for history and
as human documents, are the _Cartas_ from Jesuits in China and Japan,
especially the collection of 82 letters (Coimbra, 1570), and that of
206 letters (Evora, 1598). The Jesuit FERNAM CARDIM at about the same
time rendered a like service to Brazil in his _Narrativa epistolar_,
edited in 1847 by F. A. de Varnhagen. A more important work on Brazil
was that of GABRIEL SOAREZ DE SOUSA (_c._ 1540-92)--the _Tratado
descriptivo do Brasil em 1587_, which its modern editor, F. A. de
Varnhagen, described in a moment of enthusiasm as ‘the most admirable
of all the works of the Portuguese _quinhentistas_’. Two other works of
interest, half history, half travels, are the _Jornada do Arcebispo de
Goa Dom Frey Aleixo de Meneses_ (1606) by ANTONIO DE GOUVEA, Bishop of
Cyrene (_c._ 1565-1628), in three parts, describing the archbishop’s
life and visits in his diocese; and the _Discvrso da Iornada de D.
Gonçalo Covtinho á villa de Mazagam e sev governo nella_ (1629). The
writer--the admirer of Camões and alleged author of the 1614 life of Sá
de Miranda--who, as he says, had grown white in the council-chamber,
lived on till 1634. He here relates with much directness his voyage and
four years’ Governorship (1623-7).
The _Saudades da Terra_ (1873) of GASPAR FRUCTUOSO (1522-91), who
was born at S. Miguel in the Azores, was written in 1590 and waited
three centuries in manuscript for an editor. Both its title and the
‘preamble’, in which Truth says that she will write of nothing but
sadness, are misleading, since the book is an account--in good,
straightforward style after the manner of Castanheda and other
historians--of the discovery and subsequent conditions of various
islands, especially of Madeira and the lives of its Governors. ANTONIO
CORDEIRO (1641-1722), Jesuit, of Angra, wrote at the age of seventy-six
an uncritical but interesting work entitled _Historia Insulana das
Ilhas a Portugal sujeitas no Oceano Occidental_ (1717), based partly on
Fructuoso’s manuscript.
It was only as it were by an afterthought that the historians turned
to consider the history of Portugal as apart from separate chronicles
of the kings or episodes of Eastern conquest. The historical scheme
of João de Barros was too vast to be executed by one man and the
European part was never written. André de Resende likewise failed to
carry out his project of a history of Portugal. PEDRO DE MARIZ (_c._
1550-1615), son of the Coimbra printer, Antonio, in the last four of
his _Dialogos de Varia Historia_ (1594) between a Portuguese and an
Italian, embraces the whole history of Portugal, but these dialogues,
although industriously written in good plain style, were eclipsed by
the appearance three years later of the first part of the _Monarchia
Lusitana_ (1597). Its author, a young Cistercian monk of Alcobaça,
FREI BERNARDO DE BRITO (1569-1617), in the world Balthasar de Brito de
Andrade, at once became known as one of the best writers of his time,
and he is still reckoned among the masters of Portuguese prose. His
style, clear, restrained, copious, proved that the mantle of Barros had
fallen upon worthy shoulders. But, despite his rich vein of humanity,
as a historian he is far inferior to Barros and even more uncritical
than Mariz. The value of evidence seems to have weighed with him little
when it was a question of exalting his language, literature, religion,
or country, and he used and incorporated documents entirely worthless.
Whether he deliberately manufactured spurious documents to serve
his purposes cannot be known, but he seems at least to have quoted
authorities which had never existed.[481]
In a word he failed to make good use of the incomparable material which
the library of Alcobaça afforded. His was a misdirected erudition,
and we would willingly exchange the knowledge of where Adam lies
buried, or on what day the world began, or how Gorgoris, King of
Lusitania, who died 1227 years after the Flood, invented honey, for
accurate details of more recent Portuguese history. Yet he had the
diligence and enthusiasm of the true historian and made use, sometimes
a skilful use,[482] of coins and inscriptions. His brief _Geographia
antiga da Lusytania_ also appeared in 1597, and in the same year the
Cistercian Order appointed him its chronicler. Thus he interrupted
his main work--the second part of the _Monarchia Lusitana_ was only
published in 1609--in order to write the _Primeira Parte da Cronica de
Cister_ (1602).[483] This, in many ways his best work, runs to nearly
a thousand pages, and treats of the saints of the Order and especially
of the life of the charming St. Bernard, with contemporary events in
Portugal.[484] It was to be followed by two other parts, but Brito’s
early death at his native Almeida on his way back to Alcobaça from
Spain, a year after he had been appointed _Cronista Môr_ (1616), left
his work unfinished. He is remembered as a fine stylist, a poet who
wrote history rather than as a great historian. Mariana, the Latin
original of whose _Historia de España_ (1592) he knew and quoted, is by
comparison almost a scientific writer--at least he is not, like Brito,
pseudo-scientific.
The two parts of the _Monarchia Lusitana_ written by Brito ended with
the beginning of the Portuguese monarchy. Parts 3 and 4, by FREI
ANTONIO BRANDÃO (1584-1637), to whose sincerity and skill Herculano
paid tribute, appeared in 1632 and carried it down to the year 1279.
Brandão had spent nearly ten years collecting and sifting documentary
evidence for his work and is a far better historian than Brito,
although in style he is not his equal. His nephew FREI FRANCISCO
BRANDÃO (1601-80), _vir modestus, diligens et eruditus_, succeeded Frei
Antonio as _Cronista Môr_ and wrote Parts 5 and 6 (1650), describing
the reign of King Dinis. The style was less well maintained in Part 7
(1633) by FREI RAPHAEL DE JESUS (1614-93). Part 8 (1727), the last to
be published, was added by FREI MANUEL DOS SANTOS (1672-1740) over a
century after the publication of the first Part, but only brought the
history to the battle of Aljubarrota (1385). Santos’ Part 7 as well as
Parts 9 and 10 remained in manuscript. His prose is worthy of a work
which is a monument of the language, not of the history of Portugal.
Perhaps the truest epitaph of this history as a whole--after allowance
has been made for Brito’s style and the excellent work of Antonio
Brandão--is a severe sentence from the preface of the author of Part 7:
‘There are histories whose tomes are tombs.’
It could hardly, perhaps, be expected that the historians of the reigns
of King Manuel and King João III should pass over events in the East as
already fully related, and in Damião de Goes’ _Cronica do Felicissimo
Rey Dom Emanvel_ and Francisco de Andrade’s _Cronica de Dom João III_
(1613), although they lose much by compression, they still occupy a
disproportionate space. Andrade wrote most correct prose, even in
his poems, and the style of his history is excellent, but neither of
these works gives any adequate account of the internal history of
Portugal, any more than does that of Frei Luis de Sousa on João III’s
reign, in which there should have been more scope for originality. The
same prominence is given to India in the history of JERONIMO OSORIO
(1506-80), Bishop of Silves, _De Rebvs Emmanvelis Regis Lvsitaniae_
(1571), written in Latin in order to spread the knowledge of these
events _per omnes reipublicae Christianae regiones_.[485] Osorio, whose
father, like Lopez de Castanheda’s, had been a judge (_ouvidor_) in
India, was born at Lisbon, but studied abroad, at Salamanca, Paris,
and Bologna. After occupying the Chair of Scripture at Coimbra for a
brief space, he went to Lisbon and became secretary to the Infante
Luis. In 1560 he was made Archdeacon of Evora and four years later
Bishop of Silves. (The see was removed to Faro three years before his
death and his title is sometimes given as Bishop of Algarve.) A few
remarkable letters in Portuguese, in one of which (1567) he attempted
to convert Queen Elizabeth, show that he was skilled in the use of his
native tongue; his countrymen delighted to call him the Portuguese
Cicero. According to Sousa de Macedo ‘many people came from England,
Germany and other parts with the sole object of seeing him’.[486] In
England certainly his book was highly prized, and both Dryden and
Pope praised Gibbs’ translation, although Francis Bacon noted the
diffuseness of Osorio’s style: _luxurians et diluta_, certainly not
a just verdict on the style as a whole; we have but to think of the
concise sketches of Albuquerque (_De Rebus_, p. 380) and King Manuel
(p. 478). Osorio acknowledged his ample debt to the chronicle of
Goes, which he describes as written ‘with incredible felicity’. FREI
BERNARDO DA CRUZ, who accompanied King Sebastian to Africa in 1578 as
chaplain, in his _Cronica de El Rei D. Sebastião_ wrote the history of
his life and reign and happily describes him as ‘a young king without
experience or fear’. The _Cronica do Cardeal Rei D. Henrique_ (1840)
completed the history of the house of Avis. It chronicles in fifty-four
diminutive chapters the eighteen months’ reign of the _pouco mimoso e
severo_ Cardinal King Henry. It was written in 1586,[487] and, although
anonymous, is ascribed with some probability to the Jesuit Padre ALVARO
LOBO (1551-1608).
The _Jornada de Africa_ (1607) by JERONIMO DE MENDOÇA, of Oporto, is
divided into three parts, describing the expedition and the battle
of Alcacer Kebir, the ransoms and escapes of the captives, and the
death of Christian martyrs in Africa. Its object was to refute certain
statements in Conestaggio’s recent work _Dell’unione del regno di
Portogallo alla corona di Castiglia_, but Mendoça had fought at Alcacer
Kebir and had been taken prisoner; he thus writes as an eyewitness,
and his excellent style and power of description give more than a
controversial value and interest to his book and make it matter for
regret that this short history was apparently his only work.
MIGUEL DE MOURA (1538-1600), secretary to five kings and one of the
three Governors of Portugal in 1593, set an example too rarely followed
by those who have played an important part in Portuguese history by
composing a brief autobiography: _Vida de Miguel de Moura_. It was
written on the eve of St. Peter’s Day, 1594, except a few pages which
were added in the year before the author’s death. Incidentally it has
the distinction of containing one of the longest sentences ever written
(114 lines--1840 ed., pp. 126-9).
The painstaking and talented DUARTE NUNEZ DE LEAM (_c._ 1530-1608),
born at Evora, son of the Professor of Medicine João Nunez, besides
genealogical and legal works, _Leis extravagantes_ (1560, 1569), wrote
two valuable treatises on the Portuguese language and an interesting
_Descripção do Reino de Portugal_ (1610), which he finished in 1599.
He also found time to spare from his duties as a magistrate to recast
the chronicles of the Kings of Portugal. The _Cronicas dos Reis de
Portugal_ (1600) contain those from Count Henry to King Fernando, and
the _Cronicas del Rey Dom Ioam de gloriosa memoria_ those of Kings
João I, Duarte, and Afonso V. Shorn of the individuality of the early
chroniclers, they yet retain much of interest, and Nunez de Leam
would be accorded a higher place as historian were it not for our
knowledge of the inestimable value of the originals which he edited
and ‘improved’. Two generations earlier Cristovam Rodriguez Azinheiro
(or Acenheiro), born in 1474 (he tells us that he was sixty-one in
May 1535), had treated the early chronicles in the same way, but only
succeeded in retaining all that was jejune without preserving their
picturesqueness in his _Cronicas dos Senhores Reis de Portugal_.[488]
More interesting personally than as historian, the humanist DAMIÃO
DE GOES (1502-74[489]) was one of the most accomplished men of his
time,[490] and, thanks partly to his trial before the Inquisition,
partly to the not unpleasant egotism with which he chronicled
autobiographical details, not only in his _Genealogia_[491] but
in many of his other works, we know more of his life than we know
of most contemporary writers. Traveller and diplomatist, scholar,
singer, musician, he was a man of many friends during his lifetime,
and the tragic circumstances of his last years have won him fresh
sympathizers after his death. Born at Alenquer and brought up at the
Court of King Manuel, he became page to the king in 1518, and five
years later was appointed secretary at the Portuguese Factory at
Antwerp. In 1529 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Poland, and
in this and the following years, on similar missions or for his own
pleasure, ‘saw and conversed with all the kings, princes, nobles and
peoples of Christendom’.[492] He made the acquaintance of Montaigne’s
_aubergistes allemands, ‘glorieux, colères et ivrognes’_, turned
aside to visit Luther and Melanchthon at Wittenberg,[493] and was for
several months the guest of Erasmus at Freiburg. In Italy he lived
with Cardinal Sadoletto at Padua (1534-8) and met Cardinal Bembo and
other celebrated men of the day. At Louvain, too, _mihi intime carum
et iucundum_, as throughout Europe, he had many devoted friends. A
senator of Antwerp welcomed him in Latin verse on his return from his
Scythian travels,[494] Luis Vives addressed affectionate letters to
_mi Damiane_, Albrecht Dürer painted his portrait, Glareanus in his
_Dodecachordon_ included music of his composition.[495]
In 1542 he was on his way to Holland with his Flemish wife when he
heard that Louvain was threatened by a French force commanded by
Longueval and _meus ille in Academiam Louvaniensem fatalis amor_
took him back to share its perils. He played a principal part in the
defence, and finally remained a prisoner in the enemy’s hands, _quasi
piacularis hostia_, as he says.[496] His imprisonment in France lasted
nine months, and after paying a ransom of 6,000 ducats he went back
to Louvain. The Emperor Charles V rewarded him for his services with
a splendid coat of arms. In 1545, after twenty-one years of European
travel, he returned with his wife and children[497] to Portugal, and
three years later was entrusted with Fernam Lopez’ old post, the
Keepership of the Archives. He lived in the Paços d’Alcaçova with a
certain magnificence, keeping open house for all foreigners, one of
whom records that already in 1565 _il se faict fort vieulx_. Six years
later, on April 4, 1571, he was arrested by the Inquisition and spent
twenty months in prison.
It was, perhaps, inevitable that he should have incurred suspicion,
nor is it necessary to explain his trial by the enmity of certain
persons at Court due to passages in his works. His life had been out
of keeping with the _gravedades de Hespanha_, and the charges against
him were numerous and varied. He had eaten and drunken with heretics,
he had read strange books, the sound of songs not understanded of the
people and organ music had issued from his house at Lisbon, he had
omitted to observe fasts, he had called the Pope a tyrant, he set no
store by papal indulgences or auricular confession. Even the testimony
of his grand-niece is recorded, to the effect that her mother had
said of Goes, her husband’s uncle, that he had no more belief in God
than in a stone wall (she seems to have had Berkeleian tendencies).
As usual it is less the proceedings of the Inquisition than the bad
faith of the witnesses that arouse disgust. The poet Andrade Caminha,
who apparently came forward of his own accord--we are not told that
he was _chamado_--admitted that certain words of Goes which he now
denounced had not seemed so serious to him before he knew that Goes
was in the prison of the Inquisition. Goes had already been denounced
to the Inquisition in 1545 and 1550, and his book _Fides, Religio
Moresque Aethiopum_ (Lovanii, 1540) had been condemned in Portugal in
1541. He was examined frequently in 1571 and 1572, was left for three
months without news of his family, and complained of being old, weak,
and ill, and that his body had become covered with a kind of leprosy
(July 14, 1572). His sentence (October 16, 1572) pronounced him to
have incurred, as a Lutheran heretic, excommunication, confiscation of
all his property, and the life-long confinement of his person. He was
transferred to the famous monastery of Batalha in December, but his
death (January 30, 1574) occurred in his own house. His return and his
death probably explain one another. He was growing very old in 1565 and
we must suppose that his recent experiences had not made him younger.
His last request--to die among his family--was apparently granted,
and the further explanations (that he fell forward into the fire,
that he died of an apoplexy, was killed by order of the Inquisition,
was beaten to death by the lackeys of the Conde da Castanheira, or
murdered and robbed by his own servants) are superfluous. His works
consist of several brief Latin treatises crowded with interesting
facts (especially his _Hispania_); and in Portuguese the _Cronica do
Principe Dom Ioam_ (1567) and _Cronica do Felicissimo Rey Dom Emanvel_,
4 pt. (1566, 1567). He also found time to translate Cicero’s _De
Senectute_: _Livro ... da Velhice_, (Veneza, 1534). He had not the
imagination of an historian, and unless events have passed before his
eyes, or happen to interest him personally, he can be bald and meagre
as an annalist. But in any matter which touches him closely, as the
expulsion and the cruel treatment of the Jews, or the massacre of new
Christians, or the account of Ethiopia, he broadens out into moving
and detailed description. The result is that this long Chronicle of
King Manuel is a number of excellent separate treatises rather than
a history with unity and a sense of proportion. It is the work of a
scholar who likes to describe directly, from his own experience. The
_Cronica do Principe_ was written some months before that of King
Manuel. The latter was a difficult undertaking,[498] for many persons
concerned were still alive, and subjects such as the expulsion of the
Jews needed delicate handling. For thirty-one years it had hung fire
in the hands of previous chroniclers when in 1558 Cardinal Henrique
entrusted it to Damião de Goes. After eight years the four parts were
ready for press,[499] but the difficulties were not yet over, for
certain chapters met with strong disapproval at Court[500] and had to
be altered, so that two editions of the first part appeared in 1566
(the first being apparently submitted as a proof and not for sale), but
the publication of the work as a whole was not completed before 1567.
Scarcely less celebrated than Goes, the archaeologist LUCIO ANDRÉ DE
RESENDE (1493?-1573),[501] friend of Goes, Clenardus, and Erasmus, left
the Dominican convent of Bemfica, in which he was a novice, in order
to study abroad, at Salamanca, Paris, and Louvain. ‘Tall, with very
large eyes, curling hair, rather dark complexion but of a cheerful,
open countenance’, living in his house (_as casas de Resende_) at
Evora among his books and coins, statues and inscriptions--his small
garden hedged with _marmores antigos_ as, according to Brito, too
often were peasants’ vine-yards--he exercised a considerable influence
on the writers of his time[502] and was held in high esteem by the
Emperor Charles V and by King João III. The principal of his own works
were written in Latin, but besides his _De Antiquitatibus Lusitaniae_
(1593), which was edited by Mendez de Vasconcellos with the addition of
a fifth book from notes left by the author, he composed in Portuguese
a ‘brief but learned’ _Historia da Antiguidade da Cidade de Evora_
(1553). In his _Vida do Infante Dom Duarte_ (1789)[503] he did not
write the ‘very copious history’ which Paiva de Andrade[504] said the
subject required. He did better, for this sketch of a few pages is a
little masterpiece in which the vignettes, for instance, of the boatman
and his figs, or the meal in the mill, must ever retain their vividness
and charm. Resende had been the prince’s tutor and writes of what he
saw; he shows that he could decipher a person’s character as keenly as
a Latin inscription. Resende’s legitimate successor in archaeology,
MANUEL SEVERIM DE FARIA (1583-1655), scarcely belongs to the sixteenth
century although he wrote verses in 1598 and 1599. He succeeded his
uncle as Canon (1608) and Precentor (1609) of Evora Cathedral and
resigned in favour of his nephew Manuel de Faria Severim as Canon in
1633 and Precentor in 1642. Living in ancient Evora when the memory of
Resende was still fresh, this antiquary of the pale face and blue eyes,
‘store-house of all the treasures of the past’,[505] with his medals
and statues and choice library of rare books, soon rivalled Resende’s
fame. His most important works are _Discursos varios politicos_ (1624)
containing four essays and the lives of Barros, Camões, and Couto, and
_Noticias de Portugal_ (1655).
A less attractive personality is that of MANUEL DE FARIA E SOUSA
(1590-1649), born near Pombeiro (Minho), a most accomplished,
industrious, but untrustworthy author who wrote mainly in Spanish. His
_Epitome de las Historias Portuguesas_ was published in 1628 at Madrid,
where he spent the greater part of his life, and where he died. He
seems to have retained a real affection for his native country, but
he was not a man of independent character and bestowed his flatteries
as his interest required. After the Restoration of 1640 he stayed
on at the Spanish Court, and there appears to be some doubt whether
it was João IV, his nominal master, or Philip IV of Spain that he
served best. His long historical works, _Europa Portuguesa_, _Asia
Portuguesa_, _Africa Portuguesa_, appeared posthumously, between 1666
and 1681. He is most pleasant when he is not trying to ‘make’ history
but is simply describing, as in his account of the various provinces
of Portugal.[506] In his own not over-modest verdict in Part 4 of the
same volume, _De las primazias deste Reyno_, he was _el primero que
supo historiar con más acierto_. Faria e Sousa was enthusiastic but
unscrupulous and he has been severely handled by the critics. With
posterity he has fallen between two stools, since the Spanish are only
moderately interested in his subject, Portugal, and the Portuguese
consider him to belong to Spanish literature.