Chapter I: Front Matter

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WORKS ISSUED BY

The Hakluyt Society.

THE CHRONICLE
OF
THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST
OF GUINEA.

VOL I.

No. XCV.

THE CHRONICLE
OF THE
DISCOVERY
AND
CONQUEST OF GUINEA.

WRITTEN BY

GOMES EANNES DE AZURARA;

NOW FIRST DONE INTO ENGLISH
BY
CHARLES RAYMOND BEAZLEY, M.A., F.R.G.S.,

LATE FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD; CORRESPONDING MEMBER
OF THE LISBON GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY;

AND

EDGAR PRESTAGE, B.A.OXON.,

KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE PORTUGUESE ORDER OF S. THIAGO; CORRESPONDING
MEMBER OF THE LISBON ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES,
THE LISBON GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, ETC.

VOL. I

(CHAPTERS I-XL).

With an Introduction on the Life and Writings of the Chronicler.

BURT FRANKLIN, PUBLISHER
NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Published by
BURT FRANKLIN
514 West 113th Street
New York 25, N. Y.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

TO
HIS MOST FAITHFUL MAJESTY
DOM CARLOS Io,
KING OF PORTUGAL AND THE ALGARVES,
THIS WORK IS BY PERMISSION
DEDICATED.

COUNCIL
OF
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

SIR CLEMENTS MARKHAM, K.C.B., F.R.S., _Pres. R.G.S._, PRESIDENT.
THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY, VICE-PRESIDENT.
SIR A. WOLLASTON FRANKS, K.C.B., F.R.S., VICE-PRESIDENT.
C. RAYMOND BEAZLEY, ESQ., M.A.
MILLER CHRISTY, ESQ.
COLONEL G. EARL CHURCH.
THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE N. CURZON, M.P.
ALBERT GRAY, ESQ.
THE RIGHT HON. LORD HAWKESBURY.
EDWARD HEAWOOD, ESQ., M.A.
ADMIRAL SIR ANTHONY H. HOSKINS, K.C.B.
REAR-ADMIRAL ALBERT H. MARKHAM.
A. P. MAUDSLAY, ESQ.
E. DELMAR MORGAN, ESQ.
CAPTAIN NATHAN, R.E.
ADMIRAL SIR E. OMMANNEY, C.B., F.R.S.
CUTHBERT E. PEEK, ESQ.
E. G. RAVENSTEIN, ESQ.
COUTTS TROTTER, ESQ.
REAR-ADMIRAL W. J. L. WHARTON, C.B., R.N.

WILLIAM FOSTER, ESQ., _Honorary Secretary_.

EDITORS' PREFACE.

The following translation of Azurara's _Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea_ is the first complete English version that has appeared of the chief contemporary authority for the life-work of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator; and we may remind members of the Hakluyt Society, and other readers, that we have but lately passed the fifth centenary of the Prince's birth (March 4th, 1394).

The first volume includes about half of the text, together with an Introduction on the Life and Writings of Azurara, which it is hoped will be found more exhaustive and accurate than any previous notice of the historian.

In the second volume (which is due for the year 1897) will be given the rest of the Chronicle, with an Introduction on the Geographical Discoveries of the Portuguese, and Prince Henry's share in the same. It will also contain notes for the explanation of historical and other questions arising out of certain passages in the text of both volumes. To illustrate the condition of geographical knowledge in the period covered by the present instalment, we have included four reproductions of contemporary (or almost contemporary) maps: (1) Africa, according to the Laurentian Portolano of 1351 in the Medicean Library at Florence. This is the most remarkable of all the Portolani of the fourteenth century. Its outline of W. and S. Africa, and more particularly its suggestion of the bend of the Guinea Coast, is surprisingly near the truth, even as a guess, in a chart made one hundred and thirty-five years before the Cape of Good Hope was first rounded. (2) N.-W. Africa, the Canary Isles, etc., according to the design of the Venetian brethren Pizzigani, in 1367. (3) The same according to the Catalan Map of 1375 in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. The interior of Africa is filled with fantastic pictures of native tribes; the boatload of men off Cape Bojador in the extreme S.-W. of the map probably represents the Catalan explorers of the year 1346, whose voyage in search of the "River of Gold" this map commemorates. (4) The same, with certain other parts of the world, according to Andrea Bianco in 1436. In the succeeding volume, we hope to offer some illustrations of the cartography of Prince Henry's later years, as well as a likeness of the Prince himself, either from the Paris portrait (MSS. Port. 41, fol. 5 _bis_) or from the statue at Belem. We had expected to be able to furnish our readers with a copy of the portrait of the Prince from the important oil-painting on board preserved in a corridor of the extinct monastery adjoining the Church of S. Vicente de Fóra in Lisbon, but the photograph, which was taken by Senhor Camacho with the permission of His Eminence the Cardinal Patriarch, proved unsatisfactory, owing to the position of the picture and want of sufficient light.

We may add that a considerable part of the Paris manuscript of the _Chronicle of Guinea_ has been collated for the present edition with the printed text as published by Santarem, and the result proves the accuracy of the latter.

We have to thank Senhor Jayme Batalha Reis, who has looked through the present version as far as the end of vol. i, and has kindly offered many suggestions. Among other Portuguese scholars who have been of service to us, we would especially mention Dr. Xavier da Cunha, of the Bibliotheca National, Lisbon; Senhor José Basto, of the Torre do Tombo, and General Brito Rebello. In a lesser degree we owe our acknowledgments to D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos and Dr. Theophilo Braga, the chief authorities on all that pertains to Portuguese literature, as well as to the late Conselheiro J. P. de Oliveira Martins, whose untimely death robbed his country of her foremost man of letters.

C. R. B.
E. P.

_October, 1896._

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS
OF AZURARA.

LIFE.

"Lidar sem descanço parece ter sido o moto d'Azurara."
VIEIRA DE MEYRELLES.

The materials at hand for a study of the life and work of the second great Portuguese Chronicler are, considering the age in which he lived and the position he held, somewhat disappointing, and no one of his countrymen has been at the pains to work them up satisfactorily. They naturally fall into three divisions--his own writings, documents directly relating to his life or merely signed by him in his official capacity, and the witness of historians. There exists but one contemporary description of Azurara, that by Mattheus de Pisano, author of the Latin history of the Capture of Ceuta, though this is supplemented by the contents of two letters addressed to the Chronicler by Affonso V and the Constable D. Pedro respectively, as well as by what can be gleaned from documentary sources and from Azurara himself. In the next century--the 16th--some assistance may be derived from the traditions preserved by Barros, the historian of the Indies, as also from his critical judgments together with those of Damião de Goes, the famous Humanist and friend of Erasmus. These are all in a sense primary authorities, while the others who have discoursed of, or incidentally mentioned him are but secondary, namely, Nicolau Antonio, Jorge Cardoso, Barbosa Machado, João Pedro Ribeiro, the Viscount de Santarem, Alexandre Herculano, Vieira de Meyrelles, Innocencio da Silva, Sotero dos Reis, and Rodriguez d'Azevedo.

Gomes Eannes de Azurara, to give the modern spelling of his name, though he always signed himself simply "Gomes Eanes" or "Gomes Annes",[1] was the son of João Eannes de Azurara, a Canon of Evora and Coimbra; but, beyond the fact of this paternity, we know nothing of his father, and only by conjecture is it possible to arrive at the name of his mother, as will hereafter appear. He is said to have come of a good family, on the ground of his admission into the Order of Christ.

[Footnote 1: In the _Chronica de Guiné_, ch. 97, he calls himself
"Gomez Eanes de Zurara."]

As with several other Portuguese men of letters, the respective years of Azurara's birth and death are unknown,[2] and two localities dispute the honour of having given him to the world; but there seems little doubt that this "bonus Grammaticus, nobilis Astrologus, et magnus Historiographus," as his friend Pisano calls him,[3] was born in the town of his name, in the Province of Minho, at the very commencement of the 15th century. In proof of this it should be stated that Azurara expressly declares in his _Chronica de Ceuta_, which was finished in 1450, that he had not passed "the three first ages of man" when he wrote it.[4]

[Footnote 2: Barros, writing before 1552, says, "I know not how long
he lived."--_Asia_, Dec. 1, liv. ii, ch. 2.]

[Footnote 3: "De Bello Septensi," p. 27 (in the _Ineditos de
Historia Portugueza_, vol. i, Lisbon, 1790).]

[Footnote 4: _Chronica de Ceuta_, ch. 23.]

The dispute as to his birthplace between the Azurara in Minho and the Azurara in Beira[5] is not easy to settle, but tradition favours the former, and until the end of the last century no writer had ventured to doubt that the ancient town at the mouth of the River Ave, which received its first charter, or "foral", from the Count D. Henrique in 1102 or 1107, was the early home of the Chronicler.[6] Such evidence as exists in favour of the latter place is slight, consisting only of inferences drawn from a document, dated August 23rd, 1454, in which Affonso V grants certain privileges to two inhabitants of Castello Branco, who were accustomed to collect the Chronicler's rents and bring them to Lisbon. From this it has been argued by such able critics as Vieira de Meyrelles and Rodriguez d'Azevedo that these rents must have issued out of family property situate at the Azurara in Beira, which happens to be in the district of Castello Branco, and hence that the Chronicler was a native of Beira rather than of Minho.[7] The conclusion seems far-fetched, to say the least, for it is just as likely that these two men were agents for a benefice, or "commenda", at Alcains, in the same district, which Azurara possessed at the time this grant was made.[8]

[Footnote 5: This place is in Beira Alta, twelve kilometres east of
Vizeu, famous (_inter alia_) for the great picture of St. Peter as
Pope, lately reproduced by the Arundel Society.]

[Footnote 6: The first to mention Azurara's birthplace was Soares de
Brito (born 1611, died 1669), who, in his _Theatrum Lusitaniæ
Litterarium_, p. 547, says: "Gomes Anes de Azurara ex oppido, sicuti
fertur, cognomine in Diocesi Portucalensi," voicing the tradition of
his time (MS. U/4/22 of the Lisbon National Library, dated 1645).
The first who suggested Beira in place of Minho seems to have been
Corrêa da Serra, editor of the _Ineditos_, _ibid._, vol. ii, p.
209.]

[Footnote 7: _Vide_ the articles on Azurara in the _Instituto de
Coimbra_, vol. ix, p. 72, _et seq._, by Vieira de Meyrelles, and in
the _Diccionario Universal Portuguez_, vol. i, p. 2151, by R.
d'Azevedo.]

[Footnote 8: Azurara is named in this document "Commander of Alcains
and Granja de Ulmeiro".--_Chanc. de D. Affonso V_, liv. x, fol. 113,
Torre do Tombo.]

The early life of the Chronicler is almost a blank. Until the year 1450, in which he wrote his first serious Chronicle, though not, perhaps, his first book, we have little beyond the meagre information, supplied by Mattheus de Pisano,[9] that he began to study late--"dum maturæ jam ætatis esset"--and that he had passed his youth without acquiring the rudiments of knowledge--"nullam litteram didicisset"[10]--to which some later authorities have added--he spent his early years in the pursuit of arms, a statement likely enough to be true. It seems probable that he obtained a post in the Royal Library during the brief and luckless reign of D. Duarte (1433-1438), or shortly afterwards, as assistant to the Chronicler Fernão Lopes, whom he succeeded, for he was actually in charge of it early in the reign of Affonso V, in 1452, and finished the _Chronica de Guiné_ in that place in 1453.

[Footnote 9: According to Azurara, Pisano was tutor (_mestre_) to
Affonso V, and "a laurelled Bard, as well as one of the most
sufficient Philosophers and Orators of his time in
Christendom."--_Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes_, ch. 1 (_Ineditos_,
vol. ii).]

[Footnote 10: _De Bello Septensi_, p. 27.]

Tradition has it that he entered the Order of Christ as a young man, for he came to be Commander therein, a position only obtainable at that time by regular service in the Order, and by seniority; but the nature of these services, and the advancement which Azurara gained by them, cannot precisely be determined, because the early private records of the Order, together with the roll of its Knights, have been lost, those that exist only reaching back to the commencement of the 16th century.[11] This Order was founded by King Diniz in 1319, on the suppression of the Templars, and it inherited most, if not all, their houses and goods throughout Portugal. Its members were bound by the three monastic vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, which prevailed in Azurara's time, although Commanders and Knights of the Order were at a later period allowed to marry, by grant of Pope Alexander VI.[12] The Commanders were bound to confess and communicate four times in the year, to recite daily the Hours of Our Lady, to have four Masses said annually for deceased members, and to fast on Fridays, as well as on the days ordained by the Church. Membership of the Order was an honour reserved for Nobles, Knights, and Squires, free from stain in their birth or other impediment; while the Statutes directed a number of enquiries to be made before a candidate was admitted, one being, was he born in lawful wedlock?--a question our Chronicler could possibly not have answered in the affirmative.[13] Besides this, aspirants were required to be knighted before their admission, and then to profess. A gift of one or more "Commendas", or benefices, followed in due course, but, to prevent the abuse of pluralities which thus crept in, Pope Pius V afterwards decreed that no Knight should hold more than one Commenda, and this he was to visit at least once in every three years. The Knights possessed many privileges, the most notable being that, in both civil and criminal cases, they were exempt from the jurisdiction of the Royal Courts, and subject only to those of their Order, which had all the old prerogatives of those of the Temple and Calatrava, together with such as had been granted it by name.[14]

[Footnote 11: So says Corrêa da Serra--_Ineditos_, vol. ii, p. 207.]

[Footnote 12: _Vide_ Ruy de Pina, _Chronica de D. Duarte_, ch. 8.]

[Footnote 13: Because Azurara is found to have been the son of a
Canon, it does not necessarily follow that he was illegitimate, and,
in fact, no letters of legitimation exist in respect of him.]

[Footnote 14: _Definiçoẽs e Estatutos dos Cavalleiros e Freires
da Ordem de N. S. Jesu Cristo com a historia da origem & principio
della._ Lisbon, 1628.]

According to one authority, Azurara began his career as author in the reign of D. Duarte by compiling a detailed catalogue of the Miracles of the Holy Constable, Nun' Alvares Pereira.[15] The MS., which is said to have existed in the Carmo Convent in Lisbon as late as 1745, has disappeared, but the substance of this curious work may still be read in Santa Anna's _Chronica dos Carmaelitas_, together with a number of contemporary popular songs about the Constable, extracted from MSS. left by Azurara.[16]

[Footnote 15: D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, however, is of
opinion that this, and the popular songs hereafter referred to, are
pious frauds, invented in the first half of the seventeenth century
to form materials for the canonisation of Nun' Alvares.]

[Footnote 16: _Chronica dos Carmaelitas_, vol. i, pp. 469, 486.
Lisbon, 1745.]

More than ten years now elapse without any mention of Azurara's name, and we hear of him for the first time, definitely, in 1450. On March 25th of that year he finished at Silves, in the Algarve, his _Chronicle of the Siege and Capture of Ceuta_, an event that took place in 1415, and formed the first of a long line of Portuguese expeditions, and the starting-point in their career of foreign conquest. Fernão Lopes, the Froissart of his country, and the father of Portuguese history, was still alive at the time Azurara wrote this work, but had become too old and weak to carry on his history of the reign of João I, to which it is a sequel. After paying a tribute to Lopes as a man of "rare knowledge and great authority",[17] Azurara tells us that Affonso V ordered him to continue the work, that the deeds of João I might not be forgotten; and this he did, culling his information from eye-witnesses as well as from documents, with that honesty and zeal which are his two most prominent features as an historian.[18] He began the _Chronicle_--which was printed once only, and that in the 17th century--thirty-four years after the capture of Ceuta, _i.e._, in the autumn of 1449, and concluded it, as the last chapter states, on March 25th, 1450. It was, therefore, written in the short space of about seven months, which, says Innocencio, seems well-nigh incredible, considering how deliberately and circumspectly histories were compiled in those days.[19] The narrative is, with a few exceptions, full and even minute.

[Footnote 17: _Chronica de Ceuta_, ch. 2.]

[Footnote 18: Azurara's chief informants were D. Pedro, Regent in
the minority of Affonso V, and D. Henrique, in whose house he stayed
some days for the purpose by the king's orders; "for he knew more
than anyone in Portugal about the matter" (_Chronica de Ceuta_, ch.
12). To this fact must be attributed the prominent place he gives D.
Henrique in his narrative. The same circumstance is noticeable in
the _Chronica de D. Duarte_, which was begun by Azurara and finished
by Ruy de Pina, of which hereafter.]

[Footnote 19: _Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez_, vol. iii, p.
147.]

We know not the precise date at which Azurara had begun to apply himself to the study of letters, and he makes no allusion whatsoever, in his writings, to his early life; but it is clear, from the _Chronica de Ceuta_, that his self-training had been lengthy, and his range of study wide.[20] In the Preface to this, his first literary essay still existing, he quotes from many books of the Old and New Testament, as well as from Aristotle, St. Gregory, St. Anselm, and Avicenna; while in the body of the work he compares the siege of Ceuta to that of Troy, talks of "Giovanni Boccaccio, a poet that was born at Florence", mentions the _Conde Lucanor_, and wanders off into philosophical musings that forcibly recall passages of the _Leal Conselheiro_ of D. Duarte, and prove him to have been no tyro in the learning of the age. He was equally well versed in astrology, in which he believed firmly, as in history, and of the latter he says: "I that wrote this history have read most of the Chronicles and historical works."[21] To understand how this was possible, it must be remembered that the Portuguese Court, in the first half of the 15th century, was an important literary centre, and that João I and his sons, besides being themselves authors of books, possessed libraries among the most complete in Europe.[22] The atmosphere of learning that he breathed made Azurara what he was, and it explains the ascendency he gained, as a pure man of letters, over the mind of Affonso V.

[Footnote 20: Pisano testifies of Azurara, "scientiæ cupiditate
flagravit".--_De Bello Septensi_, p. 27.]

[Footnote 21: _Chronica de Ceuta_, ch. 38.]

[Footnote 22: _Vide_ Theophilo Braga, _Historia da Universidade de
Coimbra_, Lisbon, 1892, vol. i, ch. 4, for the catalogues of these
libraries and an account of the books they contained.]

Three years elapsed between the writing of his second and third books, and there can be little doubt that Azurara spent this period partly in the Royal Library and partly among the Archives, which were then housed in the Castle of S. Jorge in Lisbon, continuing his study of the history of his own and foreign countries in the chronicles and documents those places contained.

Some time in the year 1452 the King, who was then in Lisbon, charged him with the book which constitutes his chief title to fame, owing to the importance of its subject, and the historical fidelity and literary skill that distinguish its presentment, namely, the _Chronica de Guiné_, or, as it might be called, the _Life and Work of Prince Henry the Navigator_. From the subscript we find it was written in the Royal Library, and finished there on February 18th, 1453. Azurara sent it to the King, five days afterwards, with a letter which has fortunately been preserved, since it shows how friendly and even familiar were the relations subsisting between them, and how these were maintained by a regular correspondence. It appears that Affonso had urged Azurara to obtain all the information possible about the life and work of D. Henrique, and, this done, to write as best he could, "alleging a dictum of Tully, that it sufficeth not for a man to do a good thing but rather to do it well". Then the letter proceeds, addressing the King: "For it seemed to you that it would be wrong if some example of such a saintly and virtuous life were not to remain, not only for the sake of the Princes who after your time should possess these realms, but also for all others of the world who might become acquainted with his history, by reason of which his countrymen might have cause to know his sepulchre, and perpetuate Divine Sacrifices for the increase of his glory, and foreigners might keep his name before their eyes, to the great praise of his memory."[23]

[Footnote 23: This letter defines the scope of the book, which was
not meant to be a general history of the Portuguese expeditions and
discoveries. It is printed in Santarem's edition of the _Chronica de
Guiné_, and precedes his Introduction.]

The following is a summary of the contents of the _Chronicle_:--

Azurara begins (Chapter I) by some reflections on well-doing and gratitude, the conclusion to which he illustrates by quotations, and then goes on to tell the origin of his work, which lay in the King's desire that the great and very notable deeds of D. Henrique should be remembered, and that there should be an authorised memorial of him, even as there was in Spain of the Cid, and in Portugal itself of the Holy Constable, Nun' Alvarez Pereira.[24] The Chronicler justifies his task by summing up the profits that had accrued from the Prince's efforts--firstly, the salvation of the souls of the captives taken by the Portuguese in their expeditions; secondly, the benefit which their services brought to their captors; and thirdly, the honour acquired by the fatherland in the conquest of such distant territories and numerous enemies.

[Footnote 24: This charming old chronicle of the life of the noblest
and most sympathetic figure in Portuguese annals was written
anonymously, and first printed in 1526.]

Chapter II consists of a long and most eloquent invocation to D. Henrique, and a recital of his manifold good deeds to all sorts and conditions of men and his mighty accomplishments. Azurara presents them to us as in a panorama, and his simple, direct language reveals a true, though unconscious, artist in words.