Chapter LXXXVIII: describes the voyage of another Lagos fleet of nine (1)

caravels to the Rio Grande, while the next five chapters (LXXXIX-XCIII) relate that of Gomez Pirez to the Rio d'Ouro in 1446.

Chapters XCIV and XCV are devoted to the trafficking venture of the year 1447, the unhappy fate of the Scandinavian Vallarte, and an expedition to the fisheries off the Angra dos Ruyvos.

In Chapters XCVI and XCVII Azurara winds up his narrative, ending with the year 1448. The captives brought to Portugal down to that date by the various voyagers numbered, according to his estimate, 927, "the greater part of whom were turned into the true path of salvation"; and this he counts as the greatest of the Infant's glories, and the most valuable fruit of his lifelong efforts. He then announces his intention to write a second part of the Chronicle, dealing with the final portion of D. Henrique's work--a purpose which to our manifest loss he never carried out--and concludes by giving thanks to the Blessed Trinity on the completion of his task.

The _Chronica de Guiné_ has many features in common with that of Ceuta, but on the whole it reveals a decided advance in power. The style, though at times rather rhetorical, is generally plain and facile, ever and anon rising to a true eloquence. While the narrative portions are vivid, picturesque, and often majestic in their very simplicity, other chapters bristle with quotations, and show a more extensive range of reading and a knowledge truly encyclopædic. All the philosophy, the geography, the history, and even the astrology of the age is called into requisition to support an argument or illustrate a point.

But to return to our subject--the Life of the Chronicler.

On June 6th, 1454, Azurara received the reward of his past services, being appointed Keeper of the Royal Archives (Guarda Mór da Torre do Tombo), at the instance of, and in succession to, Fernão Lopes. It is probable that the office of Chief Chronicler (Chronista-Mór) was conferred on him at the same time and implied in the grant, though it is not verbally mentioned there, since in the document next referred to he is actually named Chronicler.[26] The King, in his letter of appointment, after reciting that Fernão Lopes is very old and weak, so that he cannot well serve his office, says he confides in Gomez Eanes de Zurara, Knight Commander of the Order of Christ, "by the long education (_criaçom_) we have given him and the service we are receiving and expect to receive at his hands", and therefore grants him the post to hold in the same manner, and with the same rights and profits as were enjoyed by his predecessor therein.[27]

[Footnote 26: The offices of Chief Chronicler, Keeper of the Royal
Archives and Royal Librarian were, as a rule, held by the same
individual and conferred at the same time, as in the case of Ruy de
Pina, but Azurara had the position of Royal Librarian for at least
two years before he obtained the others, namely from 1452, as
already mentioned (p. v).]

[Footnote 27: _Chanc. de D. Affonso V_, liv. X, fl. 30. Torre do
Tombo.]

It is noticeable that Azurara had already obtained a "Commenda" belonging to the Order of Christ, and, although its name is not given here, we know from another source it was that of Alcains, a place situate in the Province of Beira (Baixa) and District of Castello Branco, the value of which in 1628 amounted to one hundred and four milreis.[28] The source referred to is a document, dated July 14th, 1452, which calls Azurara "Commander of Alcains" and "Author of the notable deeds of our realm", and mentions that he had already at that time charge of the Royal Library.[29] He appears to have exercised this office with credit, though somewhat less strictly than would now be considered necessary, for Pisano says of him in this connection:--"hic bibliothecam Alfonsi quinti, cujus curam gessit, strenue disposuit atque ornavit, omnesque scripturas Regni prius confusas mirum in modum digessit, & ita digessit ut ea, quibus Regi & ceteris Regni proceribus opus est, confestim discernantur; viros enim eruditos summe coluit, atque nimio charitatis amore complexus est, quibus ut profecissent ex Regia bibliotheca libros, si parebant, libenter commodavit".[30] But the Chronicler received yet another advancement in the year 1454. From a document bearing date the 4th August it appears that he was then living in a house belonging to the King near the Palace in Lisbon which needed some repairs. Affonso V therefore granted him leave to lay out ten milreis upon it, and to make a cistern, with a proviso that he and his heirs might continue to inhabit the house and use it as their own, until the sum so expended should be repaid out of the Royal Treasury. In this licence Azurara is dubbed "Commander of Pinheiro Grande and Granja d'Ulmeiro, Our Chronicler, and Keeper of the Archives".[31] These two Commendas belonged to the Order of Christ, and were probably conferred upon him in this same year, though the deed of grant has not come down to us.

[Footnote 28: _Definiçoẽs e Estatutos dos Cavalleiros e Freires da
Ordem de N. S. Jesu Christo_, etc., p. 242.]

[Footnote 29: Liv. XII _de D. Affonso V_, fl. 62. Torre do Tombo.]

[Footnote 30: _De Bello Septensi_, p. 26.]

[Footnote 31: _Estremadura_, liv. VII, fl. 255. Torre do Tombo.]

Pinheiro Grande is situate in the province of Estremadura and Archbishopric of Lisbon, and its ancient Commenda belonged to the Templars down to the year 1311, and from 1319 to the present century to the Order of Christ. In the Statutes of the latter Order, published in 1628, it is stated to have been worth 550 milreis for many years--"ha muitos annos".[32] Granja d'Ulmeiro is a small place in the Bishopric of Coimbra, and the same Statutes give the value of its Commenda. called of St. Gabriel. at 150 milreis, "in the year 1582".[33]

[Footnote 32: _Definiçoẽs e Estatutos_, etc., p. 236.]

[Footnote 33: _Ibid._, p. 263. The situations of these Commendas are
taken from _Portugal Antigo e Moderno_, Lisbon 1873, and following
years.]

Besides these two Commendas, Azurara still continued to hold that of Alcains, as we learn from the document already referred to, granting certain privileges to his agents in Castello Branco, and dated the 23rd of the same month and year. The revenue of these three Commendas, together with his official salary, must have sufficed to make of him a wealthy man, for it should be remembered that the purchasing power of the milreis was then nearly six times greater than at the present day. He seems, however, to have relinquished the benefice of Alcains shortly afterwards, for it does not appear again among his titles, and henceforth he is only credited with the other two.

In the above-mentioned document of privilege of August 23rd, 1454, after reciting the services rendered to Azurara by Guarcia Aires and Afomsso Guarcia--to employ the antique spelling--muleteers of Castello Branco, in collecting his rents and bringing them to Lisbon, the King grants them immunity from being forced into the service of either himself, the Infants, or the local authorities of the district in which they live. Their houses, cellars, and stables are not to be taken from them to lodge others against their will, and they are to enjoy this freedom as long as they continue to be of use to the Chronicler.[34]

[Footnote 34: _Chanc. de D. Affonso V._ liv. X, fl. 113. Torre do
Tombo.]

When next we hear of Azurara he is acting in his official capacity as Keeper of the Royal Archives. It seems that the people of Miranda had lost the "foral" given them by King Diniz in 1324, and required a copy of it, which Azurara made and handed to them on the 16th February 1456.[35] This is the first of a series of certificates (certidões) signed by the Chronicler that has come down to us, and the issuing of these and similar documents appears to have been one of his chief duties as Royal Archivist.

[Footnote 35: Gav. 15, Maço 13, No. 21. Torre do Tombo. Azurara is
here described as "Commander of Pinheiro Grande and Granja
d'Ulmeiro, our Chronicler and Keeper" (of the Records).]

But Azurara was too valuable a man to be allowed to spend his whole time and energy in the routine work of an office; and so we find that when the King had reigned twenty years or more, which would be in or about 1458, he commissioned him to relate the history of Ceuta under the Governorship of D. Pedro de Menezes, to whom the city had been entrusted on its capture.[36] The story runs, that for some time João I was unable to meet with anyone who would undertake the responsibility of guarding the new conquest, and, word of this having been brought to D. Pedro while he was playing at "Chóca", he at once hastened into the King's presence, and said he would engage to hold the city against the whole strength of Africa with the olive-wood crook he had just been wielding.[37] Be this incident true or not, certain it is that D. Pedro de Menezes succeeded in maintaining Ceuta, despite all the efforts of the Moors to expel him; and his achievements, as chronicled by Azurara, form by themselves sufficient ground for Affonso's commission. But another reason, no doubt, influenced the King, and that was the supreme importance attached to the possession of the old city. Its position as the key of the Straits enabled the Portuguese to hinder the Moorish corsairs from raiding the Algarve, and, at the same time, to help the Christian cause by attacks on the last relic of Mohammedan power in the Peninsula, the kingdom of Grenada. Added to this, its conquest was hailed as the first step in the realisation of that cherished ideal, an African Empire: for, besides being a great trading centre and the sea-gate of Mauritania, it formed a wedge driven into the heart of the Infidel, and a fitting crown to the struggle of seven centuries, which, commencing on the morrow of the battle of the Guadalete, had ended by the establishment of the Cross in the land of the Crescent. The tide had turned at last and for ever, and the Gothic monarchy was avenged.

[Footnote 36: _Chronica do Conde D. Pedro de Menezes_, ch. 1.]

[Footnote 37: "Chóca" is an old-fashioned Portuguese game played
with a stout staff and ball. The incident is referred to by Camöens
in _Eclogue I_, in the lines beginning, "Emquanto do seguro
azambugeyro", etc.]

Azurara, who on previous occasions had proved himself a ready writer, compiled the _Chronica do Conde D. Pedro de Menezes_ more slowly, owing doubtless to the fact that his new official duties kept him from devoting his whole time to the work, and the Chronicle was not finished until 1463.

In this very year of 1458 occurred the first African Expedition of Affonso V, with its result, the capture of Alcacer. This event was probably the immediate cause of the writing of the Chronicle, because the record of his reign shows how the King cared more for African expansion than maritime expeditions, and how, like the old-time cavalier that he was, he preferred a land-war with the Moors to the seemingly theoretical, or at least distant, advantages to be gained by voyages of discovery. In 1460 D. Henrique died, leaving the fruit of his ceaseless endeavours to be plucked by other hands; since it was not until 1498, when Vasco da Gama cast anchor off Calicut, that the Infant's expeditions came to their legitimate conclusion, and a century of efforts received their reward.

But if Azurara possessed many of the higher qualities of an historian, he was by no means devoid of shortcomings; and two incidents, now to be related, form serious blots on his character as a Chronicler and a man.

In 1459 the Cortes met in Lisbon, and the Deputies of the People requested that a reform should be carried out in the Torre do Tombo, or Archive Office. They complained that the mass of old Registers which it was necessary to search in order to obtain copies of the documents existing there, together with the profitless prolixity of many of them, had long proved a source of great expense; and they therefore begged that such as were deemed of importance might be transcribed and the rest destroyed. This petition met with the King's approval, and Azurara charged himself with its execution, a task which seemingly occupied the remainder of his life.[38] He acted with a zeal worthy of barbarous times, and the memory of the destruction to which he condemned documents of the highest historical importance has been preserved by tradition, and his proscription is still spoken of. He appears to have been unconscious of the harm he did, for he prefaces each of the new Registers compiled by him from the old with an account of his handiwork. True it is that Barros praises Azurara for these Registers, but in reality they are only "dry, imperfect abstracts", as one writer calls them, for they throw little light on the periods to which they relate, and were, besides, the cause of the loss of their originals. Fortunately, however, some records escaped the general destruction, for it happened that certain Municipalities had previously obtained transcripts of the most precious, while others that existed in duplicate in the Archives, unknown to anyone, came to light during the administration of another Guarda-Mór.[39] The authorities of the City of Oporto obtained leave from Affonso V, on the 23rd March 1447, to have copies made of all the documents in the Torre do Tombo which related to them in any way, and these were furnished on December 25th, 1453, when Lopes was still Keeper of the Archives.

[Footnote 38: Particularly he "reformed" the Registers of the reigns
of Pedro I, D. Fernando, João I, and D. Duarte; and J. P. Ribeiro,
who gives a minute account of the state of these Registers and of
Azurara's compilation, winds up thus: "Such is the state of the
Chancellary books of the early reigns down to that of Affonso V;
some are still in their original condition, while others are
reformed or rather destroyed, by Gomez Eannes de Zurara."--_Memorias
Authenticas para a Historia do Real Archivo_, p. 171. Lisbon, 1819.]

[Footnote 39: _Annaes Maritimos e Coloniaes_, No. 1, Segunda serie,
p. 34; and J. P. Ribeiro, _Memorias Authenticas_, etc., p. 21.]

But Azurara was guilty of a yet graver delinquency than his destruction of the old Registers, and a charge of forgery must be brought against him. A detailed account of this affair may be read in the judgment of the Casa de Supplicação, delivered on January 12th, 1479, from which it appears that a dispute had arisen between the Order of Christ and some inhabitants of Punhete over rights claimed by the former in the River Zezere, a tributary of the Tagus. The Order based its claim on certain documents, one being of the reign of D. Fernando, and said to have been extracted from the Torre do Tombo, in which that monarch purported to confer on the Order of Christ jurisdiction over the towns of Pombal, Soure, Castello Branco and others, to the practical exclusion of his own authority therein.[40] When a copy of this pretended grant was produced in support of the contention, Azurara's successor in the Archives, Affonso d'Obidos, received instructions to produce the Register of D. Fernando for the purpose of comparison, and to bring the scribes engaged in the Archive Office with him; whereupon the grant was found at the end of the Register in a different writing from the rest of the book. Neither d'Obidos, nor the scribe who had copied out the Register, could say how it came there, or who had inserted it, and the latter declared that no such grant existed in the old books from which he had transcribed the present one. On further examination the pretended grant proved to be in the handwriting of "Gomez Eannes, Cleric",[41] a servant of Azurara, and it must have been fraudulently inserted in the Register after the latter had been bound up. On the discovery of this act of forgery, judgment was, of course, given against the Order, and it was fortunate for our Chronicler that the offence he had committed in its interests remained undiscovered until after his death.[42]

[Footnote 40: There is a reference to this claim of the Order in the
_Definiçoẽs e Estatutos_, etc., p. 201, and to its defeat.]

[Footnote 41: This must have been an adopted son of the Chronicler,
to whom he had lent his name.]

[Footnote 42: This forgery must be reckoned a very passable one,
although the handwritings are obviously not the same, and the
parchment differs in texture and colour from that of the rest of the
book. The judgment of the Casa de Supplicação is printed _in
extenso_ by J. P. Ribeiro from liv. 1, "dos Direitos Reaes," fol.
216, in the Torre do Tombo.]

Curiously enough, in the same year Azurara was rewarded by a pension. The grant dated from Cintra, August 7th, 1459, runs as follows:--"Dom Affonso, etc., to all to whom this letter of ours shall come we make known that, considering the many services we have received and expect hereafter to receive from Gomez Eanes de Zurara, Commander of the Order of Christ, Our Chronicler and Keeper of our Archives, and wishing to do him favour, we are pleased to give him a pension of twelve white milreis from the 1st day of January next, which amount he has had of us up to the present time."[43]

[Footnote 43: _Chanc. de D. Affonso V_, liv. xxxi, fl. 76vo. Torre
do Tombo. For the signification and value of these "white milreis",
see Damião de Goes, _Chronica de D. Manoel_, ch. 1.]

It would appear from the last line that this document is rather the confirmation of an old grant than the gift of something new, but it has been interpreted to mean that Azurara had been receiving the money from the King's privy purse, and was henceforth to have it out of the public treasury. There can be no dispute that the recipient merited the gift for his past literary services, which were an earnest of the work he was to accomplish in the future, and the value of the latter will presently appear.

We possess the copy of one certificate issued by the Chronicler in the following year, together with the record of another, their respective dates being June 27th and October 22nd, 1460. The former, dated from Lisbon, was granted in answer to the petition of the inhabitants of Nogueira, who felt uncertain about the dues they were bound to pay the Bishop of Coimbra;[44] the latter is mentioned by J. P. Ribeiro, but seems to have disappeared from the Torre do Tombo.

[Footnote 44: _Estremadura_, liv. II, fl. 279. Torre do Tombo.]

In 1461 there occurred an event, simple enough on its face, but one which Azurara's biographers have regarded as the mystery of his life, or else employed as a weapon wherewith to smite their hero--his adoption by Maria Eannes. In the king's confirmation of this, dated from Evora, February 6th, 1461, we are told that "Maria Eannes, a Lisbon tanner--considering the love and friendship that Johane añnes dazurara, erstwhile Canon of Evora and Coimbra, had always shown to her mother, Maria Vicente, as well as to herself and her husband, and the many good deeds she herself had received at his hands, being his godchild and friend, and considering that she had no children and was no longer of an age to have any, and also the love and friendship she had felt for Gomez Eannes dazurara, ever since his father's death, and the services he had rendered her--thereby adopted him as her son and heir to succeed to her real and personal property, including her country house at Valbom, in the Ribatejo, and a house she possessed in the Parish of S. Julião in Lisbon".[45] Such is the substance of this document, over the explanation of which some controversy has taken place, because of the social gulf that separated the parties to it. The true motive for the adoption, as hints Senhor Rodriguez d'Azevedo, would seem to have been the existence of some near relationship between Maria Eannes and the Chronicler which it was not expedient to disclose; but whether this opinion find acceptance or no, there is nothing to justify the old view which regarded the grant as a proof of Azurara's avarice and unscrupulousness: since, on the contrary, the preamble reveals a lively sense of gratitude in the donor for real benefits conferred by the donee. If, however, the above theory be worked out, the most plausible conclusion to arrive at is, either that Maria Eannes and Gomes Eannes de Azurara were brother and sister, both being children of the Canon and Maria Vicente, or that the Chronicler was half-brother to Maria Eannes, _i.e._, had the same father but not the same mother. It seems at least a fair inference to draw from the wording that the Canon and Maria Vicente were of a similar age, and the same may be said of the other pair, because at this time the Chronicler would count nearly sixty years, and his benefactress could not be much less, seeing that all possibility of her bearing children had passed by. Either of these hypotheses would account for the name Eannes being common to the lady and Azurara. The Canon would then have left his property between his two children, and as Maria Eannes was childless, it would be natural for her to bequeath her share of her fathers property to her brother. But be this as it may, we know from an independent source that Azurara had a sister, for she is mentioned in the letter which Affonso V wrote him whilst he was living in Africa and engaged on historical investigations. The fact, recorded by Pisano, that the Chronicler began his studies relatively late in life, unless it be ascribed to his adoption of a military career at first, seems to show that he had passed his early years under a cloud, and that his father, from one cause or another, lacked the power to provide him with an education at the customary age. It is, however, impossible to proceed beyond conjectures, and since the matter cannot claim to be one of historical moment, we may leave it unsolved without much regret.

[Footnote 45: _Terçeyro dodianna del Rey Dom Alfonso Quinto_, fol.
57. Torre do Tombo.]

On June 14th, 1463, Azurara issued a certificate of documents in the Torre do Tombo relating to land of one D. Pedro de Castro,[46] while yet another proof of the influence he possessed with his royal master is afforded by two grants, dated respectively June 22nd and 23rd of the same year. By the first of these the office of Judge of Excise in the town of Almada was conferred on a certain Pero d'Almada, servant of Gomes Eannes, and the grant is expressed to be made at the latter's request. The second appoints the same individual Judge and Steward of the gold-diggers at Adiça, near that town.[47]

[Footnote 46: The original of this certificate belongs to the famous
novelist, Senhor Eça de Queiroz, whose wife claims descent from this
de Castro. Doubtless others of the Chronicler's certificates, the
contents--or at least the dates--of which would fill up some of the
gaps in his biography, are in private hands, without any record of
their issue remaining, either in the Torre do Tombo or elsewhere, as
in the present case. Brandão mentions one such in his _Monarchia
Lusitana_, Quinta parte, p. 177. Lisbon, 1650.]

[Footnote 47: Liv. IX de _D. Affonso V_, fol. 94. Torre do Tombo.]

The _Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes_, which had been commenced by Azurara in or about the year 1458, was finished on St. John the Baptist's Eve, June 23rd, 1463, at his Commenda of Pinheiro Grande. It relates the history of Ceuta, from the capture of the city in 1415 until the death of D. Pedro de Menezes, the first governor, in 1437, and gives evidence of the author's progress in historical methods.[48] While it contains less moralising and more matter than any of his previous works, at the same time he appears surer of his own powers, and no longer feels the same need of supporting every remark by a citation. Of course this Chronicle has not as deep an interest for us as that of Guinea, but this is due to the subject, not to any shortcomings in the narrator, whose contemporaries were probably of a different opinion, for many of them looked askance at the voyages of discovery, though there were few that doubted the importance of the possession of Ceuta.

[Footnote 48: Affonso V ordered Pisano to write the _Chronicle_ in
Latin, as he had previously done with the Capture of
Ceuta.--_Chronica do Conde D. Pedro de Menezes_, ch. 1. The MS. is
now lost.]

Azurara confesses that he felt at first somewhat diffident of putting pen to paper, so marvellous seemed the deeds he was called on to relate; and he would never have persevered with his task had he learnt them on hearsay evidence, or from the mouths of one or two witnesses; but he found their truth confirmed on a perusal of the official reports sent to the King from Ceuta, and this encouraged him to proceed. He appears to have been assisted in his task by D. Pedro himself during his lifetime,[49] and to have written out the book twice, while his impartiality and the care he took to arrive at the truth are everywhere visible.[50] Of course he cannot abstain altogether from citations, and these have an interest as showing the measure of his literary knowledge: witness his mention of Dante's _Divina Commedia_, Cinó da Pistoia and _The Book of Amadis_, which he ascribes to "Vasco Lobeira, who lived in the time of D. Fernando."[51]

[Footnote 49: _Ibid._, ch. 64.]

[Footnote 50: _Chronica do Conde D. Pedro de Menezes_, chs. 2 and 3.
The end of ch. 3 deserves perusal, for it shows how fully Azurara
realized the difficulties of an historian's task.]

[Footnote 51: _Ibid._, ch. 63. This is the first reference in all
literature to the authorship of the famous romance.]

For three years contemporary records are silent respecting the Chronicler, and it is not until 1466 that he comes before us again. On June 11th of that year, D. Pedro,[52] King of Aragon, son of him who was Regent in the minority of Affonso V, and fell at Alfarrobeira, wrote Azurara a short but familiar autograph letter, which affords another proof of the intimate relations that existed between the Chronicler and the great personages of the age. In this letter, which is in response to one sent by Azurara, D. Pedro addresses him as "friend", refers to his "old kindness and sweet nature", and goes on to accept his offer to keep him informed of the progress of events in Portugal. He then takes the Chronicler into his confidence, and complains of the difficulties of his position as King of Aragon--difficulties which were aggravated by an illness that ended in his death less than a month after he had penned this epistle.[53]

[Footnote 52: D. Pedro, _fils_, was a distinguished poet, and to him
the Marquis of Santillana addressed that famous letter which may be
described as a history of poetry in the Peninsula. It is transcribed
_in extenso_ by Dr. Theophilo Braga, in his _Poetas Palacianos_, pp.
161-169. Porto, 1871.]

[Footnote 53: The letter was first published in the _Panorama_ for
1841, at p. 336. General Brito Rebello argues that the date 1406 is
impossible, and should read 1466, or possibly 1460. The former has
here been adopted. Other mistakes occur in the letter, as printed in
the _Panorama_, besides that of date. Some of its expressions are
ambiguous, and the subscript "From Aviz", an evident addition to the
original, may be put down to the copyist, who, knowing D. Pedro to
be Master of Aviz, concluded that the letter was written from there,
though the contents disprove it.]

On July 27th, 1467, in answer to a petition of the inhabitants, Azurara issued a certificate[54] of the "foral" of Azere (Azár), _virtute officii_, and on the very next day he met with another piece of good fortune. From the deed of grant it appears that, some ninety years previously, a certain Gonçalo Estevez of Cintra had died, after having built a chapel in honour of St. Clare in the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, in Lisbon, where he desired to be buried, and had left his property with the condition annexed that masses should be regularly said there. This condition, the document goes on to declare, had been broken by his heirs for about seventy years, in spite of judgments obtained against them, and many had died excommunicate because of their neglect and disobedience. Finally, the goods had been declared forfeit to the Crown, and they were now granted out to Azurara, on condition that he should provide for the masses and generally carry out the instructions contained in the will of the founder.[55] A gift of this nature was considered an extraordinary grace in those days, and it affords clear evidence that the Chronicler stood high in the royal regard.

[Footnote 54: Gav. 8, Maço 1, No. 17. Torre do Tombo.]

[Footnote 55: _Decimo de Estremadura_, fol. 270. Torre do Tombo.]

In August of this same year Azurara went to Africa, and, to explain the journey, some introductory remarks are needed. On returning from the fruitless African expedition of 1464, the King had written to him from Aveiro, with instructions to leave all his other occupations--which the Chronicler naïvely assures us were very important and profitable to his countrymen--and forthwith to collect and put in writing the deeds of D. Duarte de Menezes, late Captain of Alcacer.[56] This Duarte was the natural son of D. Pedro, the hero of Azurara's last book; and he had merited much from Affonso V for his long and faithful services at Alcacer, ending with the sacrifice he had made of his own life to save that of the King, during a reconnaissance against the Moors in the last-named year.

[Footnote 56: _Chronica do Conde D. Duarte de Menezes_ (_Ineditos_,
vol. iii), ch. 1. It would almost seem as though Azurara accompanied
the King in his first expedition in 1458, when Alcacer was
taken.--_Ibid._, ch. 34.]

As before, Azurara hesitated to make a start on account of his "untutored style and small knowledge", and through fear of hostile criticism; indeed, under the latter head he says, with a touch of bitterness, "there are so many watching me, that I have hardly put pen in hand before they begin to damn my work."[57] But his obligations to, and regard for, the King caused him to pluck up courage, and proceed with a task which occupied some three or four years of his time. In order to secure the best information possible, he considered that he ought to visit Africa, because some of the dwellers in and about Alcacer were the chief actors in the drama he was called upon to write, and would be likely to have a clearer recollection of events than the courtiers in Portugal; and also because he wished to view the district which had been the scene of the struggle, and learn the disposition of the land, the Moorish method of fighting, and the tactics employed against them by the Portuguese. He confesses that he would have gone to Ceuta before writing the _Chronica de D. Pedro_, but the King refused to give permission, considering that his services were more needed inside than outside the realm. Even after he had resolved on the present visit, the King detained him a whole year, until fully convinced how necessary it was, if his commands were to be satisfactorily carried out.[58] Finally, in August 1467, Azurara crossed the Straits to Alcacer, where he stayed for twelve months, occupied in studying the district and taking part in the various excursions into Moorish territory that were made by D. Henrique, son of D. Duarte de Menezes, who, to satisfy him and aid his work, used even to change the plan of operations and go to some spot the Chronicler desired to inspect.[59] With an impartiality rare enough at that time, Azurara took care to obtain information from the Moors themselves, both from such as visited Alcacer and from those he met when accompanying D. Henrique to treat of matters with the inhabitants of the neighbouring places.[60]

[Footnote 57: _Ibid._, ch. 1.]

[Footnote 58: _Ibid._, ch. 2.]

[Footnote 59: _Ibid._, ch, 2.]

[Footnote 60: _Ibid._, ch. 60.]

The Chronicle, which is at once a life of D. Duarte de Menezes and a history of Alcacer, supplements that of his father D. Pedro de Menezes, and carries the history of the Portuguese in North Africa down to 1464. We have no record of when it was finished, but the year 1468 seems the probable date. It is, if not the most important, yet the longest, as it proved to be the last, of the Author's historical works, and cost him more labour than any of its predecessors; but, through some mischance, no complete MS. exists, all having many and great lacunæ, as will hereafter appear. It presents the peculiarities common to all Azurara's writings--the same fondness for quotations, and the same reliance on astrology as explicative of character. Among the more interesting of the former, besides those from the Classics and the Fathers, are his references to Johão Flameno's gloss on Dante, Avicenna, Albertus Magnus, and the Marquis of Santillana. Speaking of this Chronicle. Goes notes and condemns the "superfluous abundance and wealth of poetical and rhetorical words" that are employed here and elsewhere by its author.

During Azurara's stay at Alcacer the King addressed him an autograph letter dated November 22nd, 1467 (?), which affords a striking proof of Affonso's superior mind, as well as of the esteem in which he held men of letters. He begins by saying that he has received the Chronicler's letter,[61] and rejoices he is well, as he had feared the contrary, owing to his long silence, and proceeds:--

"It is not without reason that men of your profession should
be prized and honoured; for, next after the Princes and
Captains who achieve deeds worth remembering, they that
record them, when those are dead, deserve much praise....
What would have become of the deeds of Rome if Livy had not
written them; what of Alexander's without a Quintus Curtius;
of those of Troy without a Homer; of Cæsar's without a
Lucan?... Many are they that devote themselves to the
exercise of arms, but few to the art of Oratory. Since,
then, you are well instructed in this art, and nature has
given you a large share of it, with much reason ought I and
the chiefs of my Realm and the Captains thereof to consider
any benefit bestowed on you as well employed."

[Footnote 61: Azurara seems to have corresponded frequently with
Affonso V; cf. _Chronica de Guiné_, ch. 7.]

Affonso then goes on to praise Azurara for having voluntarily exiled himself in his service, and says he would not have him stay in Africa any longer than he pleases, and winds up as follows:--

"I count it as a service that you wish for news of my
health, and, thanks be to God, I am well in body as in other
respects, though on the sea of this world one is constantly
buffeted by its waves, especially as we are all on that
plank since the first shipwreck, so that no one is safe
until he reaches the true haven that cannot be seen except
after this life, to which may it please God to conduct us
when He thinks it time, for He is sailor and pilot, and
without Him no man may enter there.... I have not a painting
of myself that I can send you now; but, please God, you will
see the original, some time, which will please you
more."[62]

[Footnote 62: The letter is printed in the _Ineditos_, vol. iii, p.
3. According to Meyrelles, there are two copies of it in MS. No. 495
of the Coimbra University Library.--Vide _Instituto_, vol. ix.]

Herculano truly says of this epistle: "Had it been from one brother to another, the language could not well have been more affable and affectionate";[63] but, more than this, it proves that Portugal was ahead of most European nations of that age in possessing a King who could value the pen as highly as the sword.

[Footnote 63: _Opusculos_, vol. v, p. 14. Lisbon, 1886.]

Henceforth little or nothing is known of the life of Azurara, except from the certificates he issued in the course of his official duties.

On May 25th, 1468, one of these documents was issued from the Torre do Tombo, and signed by a substitute, with the statement that the Chronicler was living at Alcacer, on the service and by command of the King. He probably returned to Lisbon to finish the _Chronica de D. Duarte de Menezes_ in the autumn of this year.

On October 22nd, 1470, Azurara gave a certificate of the Charter of Moreyra. In their petition for the same, the inhabitants allege that their copy is so written, and in such Latin, that they cannot understand it; and they further wish to know how much of the present money they must pay for the three _mealhas_ mentioned in the original as payable for the carriage of bread and wine--a question which Azurara seems to have experienced some difficulty in answering.[64]

[Footnote 64: Maço 7 de Foraes Antigos, No. 3. Torre do Tombo.]

On April 20th, 1471, he issued a similar certificate to the dwellers in S. João de Rey.[65] In this same year took place Affonso's third African campaign, which resulted in the capture of Tangier, Arzila and Anafe.

[Footnote 65: Maço 3 de Foraes Antigos, No. 5. Torre do Tombo.]

On September 5th, 1472, in answer to a petition of the inhabitants of Cascaes, the Chronicler handed them a copy of the Charter of Cintra, in which district Cascaes is situate,[66] and on December 5th in the same year he issued copies of documents affecting the liberties of the Order of Christ and the _couto_, or "liberty", of Gordam.[67]

[Footnote 66: Maço 1 de Foraes Antigos, No. 11. Torre do Tombo.]

[Footnote 67: Armario 17, Maço 6, No. 5. Torre do Tombo. It is
worthy of note that the Eytor de Sousa, here referred to, is the
same person that appears in the judgment of the Casa de Supplicacão
of January 19th, 1479, as representing the Order of Christ.]

This latter is the last existing document signed by Azurara, though he appears to have given another certificate on August 17th, 1473, nearly a year after, relating to the forged grant of D. Fernando to the Order of Christ, as mentioned by João Pedro Ribeiro.[68]

[Footnote 68: _Memorias Authenticas_, p. 21.]

There is no evidence to show when the Chronicler died, and tradition on the point varies. The oldest authority who refers to it is Damião de Goes, and, according to him, Azurara lived some years after 1472.[69] He never married, and was succeeded in his post at the Torre do Tombo by Affonso Annes d'Obidos; but the charter of this man's appointment has been lost, and his first recorded certificate only bears date March 31st, 1475.[70]

[Footnote 69: _Chronica de D. Manoel_, quarta parte, ch. 38.]

[Footnote 70: _Memorias Authenticas_, p. 21.]

* * * * *

We have now followed the life of Azurara step by step, and seen him honoured for his talents by his contemporaries, and rewarded for his services to King and country by numerous benefactions.[71] We have also seen him on intimate terms with the Royal Family, and corresponding regularly with some of its members, as well as acquainted with the leaders of the explorations and the learned men of the time, and must conclude that this was chiefly due to his literary attainments and genial character. It is therefore pleasant to be able to record that, in our day, Portugal has marked her appreciation of him, as a man and a writer, by a statue, whilst recognising that his works form his greatest and most durable monument. In the Praça de Luiz de Camões in Lisbon there rises a noble statue of the "Prince of Spanish Poets"[72], surrounded by eight of the most distinguished men of letters and action of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, his predecessors and contemporaries, and among them is a life-size figure of Gomez Eannes de Azurara.[73]

[Footnote 71: Padre José Bayam, in p. 5 of his Prologue to the
_Chronica del Rey D. Pedro I_ of Fernão Lopes (Lisbon, 1761), states
that Azurara obtained the position of Disembargador da Casa do
Civel, or Judge of Appeal of the Civil Court, on the authority of
ch. 54 of Pina's _Chronica de D. Affonso V_, which mentions a
certain Gomez Eanes as holding the office in question and being sent
on an embassy to Africa; but João Pedro Ribeiro, in vol. iv, part 2,
of his _Dissertações Chronologicas e Criticas_, Dissertação XVI,
proves conclusively that Bayam is in error, and that the Judge had
no connection with his namesake the Chronicler.]

[Footnote 72: The word "Spanish" is here used, in its correct sense,
to include all the peoples of the Peninsula. So the Archbishop of
Braga bears the title "Primaz das Hespanhas", denoting his primacy
over both Spain and Portugal.]

[Footnote 73: No portrait of Azurara exists, and his signatures form
the only relic of him that we possess.]

CRITICAL REMARKS.

Azurara belongs to the line of Portuguese Chroniclers who rendered illustrious the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a line that began with Fernão Lopes and culminated in Damião de Goes and João de Barros, both of whom were almost historians in the modern sense of the term, and at the same time masters of prose style. He is indeed the connecting link between the chronicler and the historian, between the Mediæval writers and those of the Renaissance; for, while he possesses much of the sympathetic ingenuousness of Lopes, yet he cannot resist displaying his erudition and talents by quotations and philosophical reflections, as quaint as they are often unnecessary, proving that he wrote under the influence of that wave of foreign literature which had swept in with the new monarchy.

Three literary tendencies may be said to have prevailed in Portugal during the fifteenth century--firstly, a monomania for classical learning; secondly, an increased taste for the mediæval Epics and prose Romances, due to the English influence that had entered with Queen Philippa, daughter of timeserving Lancaster, though it must be remembered that _Amadis de Gaula_, the most famous romance of the Middle Ages, was compiled in the preceding century and by a Portuguese hand; and lastly, an admiration for Spanish poetry, which had made wonderful strides since the great Italians, Dante and Petrarch, had become known in the Peninsula. In philosophy, Aristotle, as expounded by Averroes, was the chief authority--Azurara calls him "the Philosopher"--and following him Egidius and Pedro Hispano, the Portuguese Pope and scholar, enjoyed the widest influence. Platonic philosophy was introduced at a much later period, chiefly through the medium of Italian poetry, and it never took root.

To the reader of Azurara's writings, it often seems as though the author were overburdened by his knowledge, which was in truth very extensive, if at times somewhat superficial; and the Chronicles bear witness to the fact that Portugal had not remained foreign to the literary impulse of the Renaissance. Besides citations from many books of the Bible, the following classical writers appear in his pages:--Herodotus, Homer, Hesiod, Aristotle, Cæsar, Livy, Cicero, Sallust, Valerius Maximus, Pliny, Lucan, the two Senecas, Vegetius, Ovid, Josephus and Ptolemy. Among early Christian and mediæval authors he mentions Orosius, St. Gregory, Isidore of Seville, Lucas of Tuy, the Arabic astronomer Alfragan, Gualter, Marco Polo, Roderick of Toledo, Egidius, St. Jerome, Albertus Magnus, St. Bernard, St. Chrysostom, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, and Peter Lombard; while he has heard the legend of the voyages of St. Brandan and knows the author of the _Amadis de Gaula_. He was acquainted with the Chronicles and Romances of the chief European nations,[74] and had studied the best Italian and Spanish authors. Added to this, he had mastered the geographical system of the Ancients,[75] together with their astrology, and his knowledge of the latter probably came from the famous _Opus Quadripartitum_ of Ptolemy. Although he obtained his education in the time of D. Duarte, or early in the reign of Affonso V, an age which had ceased to believe in sidereal influences, as appears from the _Leal Conselheiro_, his writings show that he possessed a fervent faith in astrology as explaining the character and acts, as well as governing the destinies, of man.[76] Various opinions have been emitted about his style; for, while such a good judge as Goes condemns his "antiquated words and prolix reasoning, full of metaphors or figures that are out of place in the historical style", Barros speaks of his "clear style" that, together with his diligence, rendered him worthy of the office he held.[77] But perhaps the most perspicuous criticism thereon is that of Corrêa da Serra, who declares, with reference to the opinions just cited:--"Both may well be right, for the style of Gomes Eannes is not uniform, and seems the work of two different men. As a rule his narrative is simple, full of sound sense, and not without elegance; but, from time to time, he remembers the rude rhetoric he had learnt so late in life, and writes (if I may say so) in a falsetto style. The first was what nature had bestowed upon him, the last came from his immature studies. But these very defects are of interest now, for they give an idea of the learning and taste of that age."[78] And, in spite of all his pedantry, Azurara rises at times to a true eloquence, some of his pages being equal to the best in Portuguese prose. The grandeur of chapter ii of the _Chronica de Guiné_, and the heartfelt pity of Chapter XXV, which relates the division of the captives, prove conclusively that he could accommodate the style to the subject like all writers worthy of the name. Had he lived a century later, he would have certainly been placed in the first rank of Portuguese prosists; while, as it is, his antiquated and at times inflated language has gone far to prevent him from being appreciated, or even read, by any save the studious.[79]

[Footnote 74: _Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes_, ch. 63, and
_Chronica de Ceuta_, ch. 38.]

[Footnote 75: _Chronica de Guiné_, chs. 61 and 62.]

[Footnote 76: _Chronica de Guiné_, chs. 7 and 28; _Chronica de
Ceuta_ chs. 34, 52, and 57; _Chronica de D. Duarte de Menezes_, ch.
34.]

[Footnote 77: _Chronica do Principe D. João_, ch. 6, and _Asia_,
Dec. 1, liv. ch. 2.]

[Footnote 78: _Ineditos_, vol. ii, p. 210.]

[Footnote 79: Compare the remarks on Azurara's style by Sotero dos
Reis in his _Curso da litteratura Portugueza e Brazileira_.
Maranhão, 1866, vol. I, lição xiv.]

As an historian he had an unbounded respect for authority, on his own confession, and the speeches he puts in the mouths of his heroes remind the reader at times of Livy, and make it clear that he was writing under the immediate influence of classical models.[80] The historical importance of his Chronicles is of the first order. They are contemporary with the events they relate, and contain the history of the Portuguese expeditions to and rule in Mauritania from the reign of João I down to that of Affonso V, and furnish a complete account of all the voyages of discovery along the African Coast, due to the initiative of D. Henrique, until 1448. True, the _Chronica de Guiné_ omits to mention some other voyages that were the result of private enterprise, for Azurara wrote it in the capacity of Chronicler to the King and as a panegyric of the Prince, and never intended to relate discoveries unconnected with his hero and with the land that gives his book its title. The _Chronica de Guiné_ must, of course, always take rank as Azurara's masterpiece. It was the first book written by a European on the lands south of Cape Bojador, and it restores to us, in great part, the lost work of Cerveira entitled a _History of the Portuguese Conquests on the Coast of Africa_, on which it is founded, besides making up for the regrettable disappearance of the naval archives of the early period of modern discovery.

[Footnote 80: Cf. _Chronica de Ceuta_, ch. 1.]

Azurara's credibility as a narrator is both unquestioned and unquestionable, for his position enabled him to get at the truth, and he took pains to record nothing but the truth, thereby proving himself a genuine disciple of his master, Fernão Lopes. He was moved, as a rule, neither by human respect nor by petty jealousies, and accuracy seems with him to have amounted to a passion.[81] So truthful was he that he preferred to leave the relation of facts incomplete rather than tell of them without having received exact information from eye-witnesses. He was quite conscious of what he calls his "want of polish and small knowledge", and his humility is shown by the declaration that he only regarded the _Chronica de Guiné_ as material for some future historian who would perpetuate the great deeds of D. Henrique in "a loftier and clearer style".[82]

[Footnote 81: Many passages from his Chronicles might be cited to
prove this, but the following will suffice: _Chronica de Ceuta_,
chs. 1, 2, 12, 51, 83, 91, and 95; _Chronica de Guiné_, ch. 30;
_Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes_, ch. 1, and Bk. II, ch. 18;
_Chronica de D. Duarte de Menezes_, chs. 2 and 60.]

[Footnote 82: _Chronica de Guiné_, ch. 6.]

His attitude towards the Moors, those hereditary enemies of Portugal, was only what we should expect, for, while he is strictly impartial in distributing praise and blame to them equally with Christians, he leaves us in no doubt on which side his sympathies lay. In the _Chronica de Guiné_, for example, after descanting on the universal praise of the Infant's life and work, he admits that a discordant note in the general chorus was struck by the Moors whom the Prince had warred with and slain, or, to quote his own words, "Some other voices, very contrary to those I have until now described, sounded in my ears, for which I should have felt a great pity, had I not seen them to come from men outside our Law".[83]

[Footnote 83: _Ibid._, ch. 2.]

It has been already noted that Azurara, though he wrote under the very shadow of the Palace, was anything but a flatterer of the great; indeed, he has been accused by some of insisting too much on the defects in his heroes.[84] On the other hand, it must be confessed that he shows a marked partiality, if not a blind admiration, for D. Henrique in the _Chronica de Ceuta_ as well as in the _Chronica de Guiné_. In the former he attributes to the Prince the chief part in the capture of the city, while in the latter he shows himself ever ready to defend him from his dispraisers, and to convict of foolishness out of their own mouths the opponents of the voyages of discovery. Nay, more, he even finds an explanation for D. Henrique's neglect to defend his brother Pedro from being done to death at Alfarrobeira, a neglect which is hard to explain satisfactorily and must remain a blot on the Prince's fair fame. But this bias may readily be accounted for by the fact that Azurara passed much of his time in close intimacy with D. Henrique, and drew a great part of the information for his Chronicles of Ceuta and Guinea from that source, besides which he can hardly be blamed for the love he felt and displayed for a great and good man, the initiator and hero of modern discovery.

[Footnote 84: The Azorean scholar, Dr. J. T. Soares de Sousa, calls
Azurara "a clever courtier rather than a severe and impartial
historian" (quoted by Dr. Theophilo Braga, in his _Historia da
Universidade de Coimbra_, vol. i, p. 138); but this is certainly
unjust and even untrue. K. Manoel de Mello gives a fairer estimate
in the witty phrase, "Chronista antigo, tão candido de penna, como
de barba."--_Apologos Dialogaes_, p. 455, ed. Lisbon, 1721.]