Chapter XCVII (3)

On the "rewards" given by the Infant to Diaz, Santarem well remarks: [From this and other passages it is clear that the Infant's principal object was discovery, and not the slave-raids on the inhabitants of Africa in which his navigators so often indulged]. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. v, xxiii-vi.

_Cape Verde._--The turning-point of the great north-west projection of Africa, now in French possession. It is so called, according to the general view, from the rich green appearance of the headland--"la vegetation (as the most recent French surveys describe it) qui le couvre durant l'hivernage, et que dominent deux mornes arrondis, nommés, par les marins français, Les Deux Mamelles." The peninsula of Cape Verde is one of the most remarkable projections of the African coast. Generally it has the form of a triangle, "terminé par une sorte d'éperon dirigé vers le S.E., et mesure depuis le cap terminal on point des Almadies jusqu' à Rufisque une longueur de 34 kilom. avec une largeur de 14 kilom., sous le méridien de Rufisque, pris comme base du triangle. Sa côte septentrionale, formant une ligne presque droite du N.N.E. au S.S.O. est creusée, près de l'extremité, de deux petites baies, dont la première (en venant de l'E.), la baie d'Yof, est la plus considérable; puis au delà de la pointe des Almadies, qui est le Cap Vert proprement dit, la côte court au S.E. jusqu' au Cap Manuel, roche basaltique haute de 40m., puis remonte aussitôt au N. pour, par une très légère courbe, partir droit a l'E., dessinant ainsi un éperon bien accusé qui envelloppe le Golfe de Gorée. Le corps principal de la presqu' île est bas, sablonneux et parsemé de lagunes qui s'égrènent en chapelets le long de la côte N.; la petite péninsule terminale est au contraire rocheuse, accidentée et semble un ilot marin attaché à la côte par les laisses de mer. Ses hautes falaises, d'une couleur sombre et rougeâtre, forment une muraille à pic contre laquelle la mer vient se briser, écumante." See Duarte Pacheco Pereira's _Esmeraldo_, pp. 46-49, ed. of 1892. As to the island on which Dinis Diaz and his men landed near the Cape, this may have been either (1) Goree, two kilometres from the mainland, and fronting Dakar on the S.E. of the peninsula; (2) The Madeleine islands, at the opening of a small inlet to the N.W. of Cape Manuel; (3) The Almadia islands ("Almadies"), "îlette, qui, située en avant du cap terminal, est la vrai terre la plus occidentale d'Afrique, les archipels de l'Atlantique non compris;" or (4) The isle of Yof, in the bay of Yof, on the north side of the peninsula. The Madeleine islands were once covered with vegetation, though now desert. Here the French naturalist Adanson made his famous observations on the Baobab trees, in the eighteenth century. These trees, though they have disappeared on the islands, are still numerous on the mainland near the Cape. Azurara has a good deal more to say about these islets and their baobabs in chs. lxiii, lxxii, lxxv, pp. 193, 218, 226, etc., of this version. The rounding of C. Verde opened a fresh chapter in the Portuguese circumnavigation of Africa--to S.E. and E.; see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xii, xxx.]

[Endnote 96: (pp. 101-2). _John Fernandez ... such a request._--On this passage, and especially on Azurara's statement (middle of p. 101) that Fernandez "had already been a captive among the other Moors and in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, where he acquired a knowledge of their language," Santarem remarks: [This detail gives us another proof that Prince Henry's explorations were made systematically, and according to plans carefully worked out. In his previous captivity in Marocco, Fernandez had learnt Arabic, and probably Berber as well; he must also have gained some information about the interior of Africa. To gain more detailed knowledge, and so be able to inform the Infant better, he had now undertaken his residence among the Azanegues of the Rio do Ouro.]

See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. viii, x, xvi, on the dual nature of Henry's African schemes, land conquest and exploration going along with the maritime ventures. This was, of course, partly due to an inadequate conception of the size of the continent, which rendered even the conquest of Marocco of little use towards the circumnavigation of Africa.

"How bitter ... to hear such a request" is, of course, one of Azurara's rare touches of irony.]

[Endnote 97: (p. 103). _Affonso Cerveira._--[The author of the earlier account of the Portuguese conquest of Guinea, _Historia da Conquista dos Portuguezes pela costa d'Africa_, on which Azurara's present Chronicle is based. Cf. Barbosa, _Bibliotheca Lusitana_.]--S. See Introduction to vol. ii, p. cx, and note 202A.

_Ergim_, in ch. xxxiii, pp. 104, etc., and elsewhere, is, of course, Arguim. Santarem here refers to Barros' description in _Decade I_, i, 10. "Porque naquelle tempo para fazer algum proveito todos os hião demandar (os ilheos d'Arguim); e tinha por certo que avião elles de ir dar com elle, por ser aquella costa e os ilheos a mais povoada parte de quantas té então tinhão descoberto. E a causa de ser mais povoada, era por razão da pescaria de que aquella misera gente de Mouros Azenegues se mantinha, porque em toda aquella costa não avia lugar mais abrigado do impeto dos grandes mares que quebrão nas suas praias senão na paragem daquellas ilhas d'Arguim: onde o pescado tinha alguma acolheita, e lambujem da povoação dos Mouros, posto que as ilhas em si não são mais que huns ilheos escaldados dos ventos e rocio da agua das ondas do mar. Os quaes ilheos seis ou sete que elles são, quada hum per si tinha o nome proprio per que nesta scriptura os nomeamos, posto que ao presente todos se chamão per nome commum _os ilheos d'Arguim_; por causa de huma fortaleza que el Rei D. Affonso mandou fundar em hum delles chamado Arguim." Cf. Duarte Pacheco Pereira's _Esmeraldo_, chs. xxv-vi, pp. 43-4. _Arguim_ is defined in the most recent surveys of its present French possessors as "Golfe, île, et banc de sable ... l'île est par 20° 27' N. lat., 18° 57' à 60 kilom. vers le S.E. du Cap Blanc ... Ses dimensions sont de 7 kilom. sur 4. Elle est basse, inculte, et parsemée de dunes."]

[Endnote 98: (p. 107). _John Fernandez ... in that country._--Santarem draws attention to Azurara's statement that the explorer, Fernandez, was personally known to him. Cf. ch. lxxvii of this Chronicle; also chs. xxix and xxxii. "That country" is of course the Azanegue or Sahara land, near the Rio do Ouro.

_Setuval_ (p. 106) is in Estremadura (of Portugal), twenty miles south-east of Lisbon.]

[Endnote 99: (p. 110). _Fear to prolong my story ... though all would be profitable._--The fondness of Azurara for these scholastic discussions and useless displays of learning is one of his worst failings; and a good deal of Cerveira's matter of fact has apparently been sacrificed to this weakness of his redactor.]

[Endnote 100: (p. 110). _Nine negroes and a little gold-dust._--This was the first instalment of the precious metal brought home to Portugal from the Negro-land of Guinea. The same Antam Gonçalvez had already, in 1441, brought the first gold dust from the Sahara, or Azanegue coast (see ch. xvi of this Chronicle, p. 57). As to the importance of these gold-samples in promoting the European exploring movement, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xi.]

[Endnote 101: (p. 111). _Cape of the Ransom._--[This name is marked upon the manuscript maps already referred to. On one great Portuguese chart of this class, on parchment, in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, the reading is not Cape, but _Port_ of the Ransom. The Portuguese nomenclature for the West African coast, as we see in this instance, was for a long time accepted by all the nations of Europe.]--S.

We may notice the allusion in this paragraph to the Portuguese colonisation of Madeira, in the story of Fernam Taavares (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xcviii-cii).]

[Endnote 102: (p. 112). _Isle of Tider_ (see note 78 to p. 68).--[Tider, marked "Tiber" in the map of West Africa before referred to. We do not meet this name in any of the many earlier charts that we have examined].--S.]

[Endnote 103: (p. 115). _Officers who collected royal dues._--The custom-house officers of Lisbon. We may compare with Azurara's graphic account of the return of Antam Gonçalvez in 1445, the very similar details of a much greater reception in the same port: that of Columbus on March 14th, 1493, on his home-coming from his first voyage (see the postscript of Columbus' Letter to Luis de Santangel, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Aragon, respecting the Islands found in the Indies).]

[Endnote 104: (p. 115). _A palace of the Infant, a good way distant from the Ribeira._--Azurara's only reference, in this Chronicle, to the Lisbon residence of the Infant Henry. This passage implies that Prince Henry was often to be found there, and must be taken with others in modification of extreme statements about his "shutting himself up at Sagres," etc. Again, at the end of this chapter we are expressly told that he was now in his dukedom of Viseu, in the province of Beira, some 50 kilometres N.E. of Coimbra, 220 kilometres N.N.E. of Lisbon.]

[Endnote 105: (p. 115). _Profits._--Azurara's remarks here about the change of feeling as to the Infant's plans are similar to passages in ch. xiv, p. 51, ch. xviii, pp. 60-61.]

[Endnote 106: (p. 116). _Lisbon ... profit._--The city of Lisbon, whose name was traditionally and absurdly derived from Ulysses--"Ulyssipo," "Olisipo," and his foundation of the original settlement in the course of his voyages, was perhaps a greater city under the Moors, eighth-twelfth century, than at any time before the reign of Emmanuel the Fortunate. It was a Roman colony, but its prosperity greatly increased under the Arab rule from A.D. 714; from this port sailed Edrisi's Maghrarins, or Wanderers, on their voyage of discovery in the Western Ocean, probably in the earliest eleventh century. It was three times recovered and lost by the Christians: in 792(-812) by Alfonso the Chaste of Castille; in 851 by Ordonho I of Leon, who held it only a few months; and in 1093(-1094) by Alfonso VI of Leon, soon after his great defeat by the Almoravides at Zalacca (1086); but on each occasion it was quickly retaken--in 1094 by Seyr, General of Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the Almorvaide. In alarm at the Moslem revival, Alfonso founded the county of Portugal in 1095, giving it in charge of Count Henry of Burgundy and his natural daughter Theresa, to hold as a "march" against the Moors. In 1147 Lisbon was finally recaptured by Affonso Henriques, the first King of Portugal, in alliance with a fleet (164 ships) of English, Flemish, German and French Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land (Second Crusade). At this time it was said, perhaps with exaggeration, to contain 400,000 inhabitants; its present number is only about 240,000 (see _Cruce-signati Anglici Epistola de Expugnatione Olisiponis_, in _Portugalliæ Monumenta Historica_, vol. i, p. 392, etc). Before 1147 Guimaraens had been the capital of Portugal; and even down to the time of John I, Henry's father, Lisbon was not formally the seat of government, this being more often fixed at Coimbra. In the same reign, Lisbon also, as a commercial port, easily distanced all rivals within the kingdom, especially Oporto; and King John's erection of palaces in the city, and his successful application to the Pope for the creation of an Archiepiscopal See (thus rivalling Braga), further contributed to give point to Azurara's words in this paragraph about "the most noble town in Portugal." On the share of the commercial classes of Lisbon, Lagos, etc., in Henry's schemes, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x, xii.

_Paulo Vergeryo_ is Pietro Paulo Vergerio, born at Capo d'Istria, July 23, 1370, died at Buda, 1444 (1428 according to others). He enjoyed a considerable reputation as a scholar at Padua in 1393, etc., and migrated to Hungary in 1419. See Bayle, _Dict. Crit._ IV, 430 (1741); P. Louisy, in _Nouvelle Biographie Générale_, art. (Vergerio); J. Bernardi, in _Riv. Univers._ (Florence, 1875) xxii, 405-430, in _Arch. Stor. Ital._ (1876) C., xxiii, 176-180; Brunet, _Manuel V_, 1132-3; Muratori, _Rer. Ital. Scr._ (edition of Vergerio's works) XVI, pp. 111-187, 189-215, 215-242; _Fabricius_, ed. Mansi, VI, p. 289. He has left various _Orations and Letters_; especially an _Epistola de morte Francisci Zabarekae_, and a _Historia seu Vitae Carariensium Principum ab eorum origine usque ad Jacobini mortem_ (1355). See also Joachim Vadianus, _Biographia P. P. Vergerii, sen._; and C. A. Combi, _Di Pierpaolo V. ... seniore ... memoria_, Venice, 1880.]

[Endnote 107: (p. 116). _Gonçalo Pacheco ... Kingdom._--Barros copies this sentence, with some omissions. The allusion to the _High Treasurer of Ceuta_ (_Thesoureiro Mor das cousas de Cepta_), and his _Noble lineage, goodness, and valour_, is interesting in its proof of the detailed attention given to the new conquest, and to African affairs generally, by the Portuguese government at this time.]

[Endnote 108: (p. 117). _Cape Branco._--On the _personnel_ of this expedition we have accounts elsewhere; for Dinis Eannes de Graã and the rest, see chs. xxxvii-xlviii, and especially pp. 121, 122, 126, 130, 131, 138; for Mafaldo, especially p. 119 ("a man well acquainted with this business ... had been many times in the Moorish traffic"); also pp. 120-121, etc. Cape Branco, since its discovery by Nuno Tristam, had become the favourite rendezvous of the Portuguese expeditions on this coast. See ch. lii, p. 153 (made agreement to await one another _as usual at Cape Branco_).

On the _banners of the Order of Christ_, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xviii-xix; and in this Chronicle, pp. 62 (ch. xviii), 53 (ch. xv), 117 (ch. xxxvii), etc.

[Cf. a parchment atlas (unpublished), executed in Messina as late as 1567 by João Martinez, in which two Portuguese ships are painted in various points of the Eastern Ocean _with the Cross of the Order of Christ on their sails_, apparently to indicate the Portuguese dominion in those waters. This atlas passed into the Library of Heber, and afterwards into that of M. Ternaux.]--S.]

[Endnote 109: (p. 120). _The patience with which men bear the troubles of their fellows_ is another piece of irony, similar to that on p. 102; see note 96.]

[Endnote 110: (p. 122). _Fifty-three Moorish prisoners._--In this, as in subsequent actions, Mafaldo, rather than Gonçalo Pacheco, showed himself to be the leader of the expedition.]

[Endnote 111: (p. 123). _Cunning ... but small in this part of the world._--The fair inference is that, on this occasion, Mafaldo, from his previous experience, correctly estimated the danger (or absence of danger), and knew when to trust the natives. Similar trustfulness was not always equally successful, sometimes from absence of that past experience possessed by Mafaldo. See chs. xxvii, pp. 90, 91; xlviii, pp. 144-5; lxxxvi, pp. 252, etc.; xxxv, pp. 112-3. The Azanegue Moors of the Sahara on the whole showed less ability to defend themselves than the Negroes of the Sudan coast; cf. chs. xlv, pp. 137-8; lx, pp. 179-182; lxxxvi, pp. 252-6; xli, p. 130; xxxi, p. 99; contrast with pp. 126, 122, 114, 105-6, 78, 73, 36.]

[Endnote 112: (p. 126) ... _true effects._--Azurara certainly does not commit the error of "those historians who avoid prolixity by summarizing things that would be greatest if related in their true effects," _i. e._, in detail. This central portion of his narrative (chs. xxxvi-lix, lxviii-lxxiv) is especially tedious, and we cannot too much regret the comparative sacrifice of the scientific interest to the anecdotal, biographical, or slave-raiding details, with which he fills so much of this Chronicle. Cf. the slender and imperfect narratives of the really important voyages of Dinis Diaz (ch. xxxi), Alvaro Fernandez (ch. lxxv), and Nuno Tristam (chs. xxx, lxxxvi), with the lengthy descriptions of the expeditions personally conducted by Gonçalo de Sintra, Gonçalo Pacheco, Lançarote, Mafaldo, and other men whose voyages resulted in scarcely any advance of exploration. In all this Azurara's narrative contrasts unfortunately with Cadamosto's, which is not only a record of exploration, but of acute original observation, a quality by no means so noticeable in the _Chronicle of Guinea_, except at rare intervals. Cf., however, chs. xxv, lxxvi-lxxvii, lxxix-lxxxiii, and see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xxiv-xxvi, etc.]

[Endnote 113: (p. 132). _Cape of St. Anne._--[This passage shows the date when the name of Cape (or rather "Gulf") of St. Anne was given to that point by Alvaro Vasquez, who was on this expedition. This name was employed, like the others which we have already indicated, in the nomenclature of the hydro-geographical charts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Barros, in his corresponding chapter, not only omits this detail, but further reduces the material of chs. xxxvii, xxxviii, xxxix, xl, xli, xlii, to a few lines.]--S.]

[Endnote 114: (p. 133). _And the Moors, like,_ etc.--[From Cape Branco to the Senegal, the part of the coast of which the author treats is inhabited by various tribes composed of Moors of mixed race, who speak Arabic, are Mohammedans, and are known by the names of Trazas or Terarzah, Brakanas and others. They are in their nature very ferocious, and are the terror of the traveller. The most cruel of all are those who inhabit and extend as far as Cape Branco, called Ladessebas; and these, according to some authors, are of pure Arab race.]--S. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xlii-lix. Mungo Park gives a similar character of the "Moors" north of Senegal. _Travels_, chs. iii-xii.]

[Endnote 115: (p. 136). _Came near to the coast of Guinea._--[According to the text it appears that Alvaro Vasquez, after quitting the place to which he had given the name of Cape of St. Anne, followed his course 80 leagues towards the south, running along the coast in this direction until he arrived at the Guinea coast--that is, a little beyond Cape Verde--but Barros, who omits some of the details of this voyage, says: ... "Forão-se pela costa adiante obra de oitenta legoas, e na ida, e vinda té tornar a ilha das Garças fazer carnagem," etc.]--S.]

[Endnote 116: (p. 136). _Where they had captured the seven Moors_ [viz., at Tider; see note 78.]--S.

The reference on p. 139 to the Portuguese ships "in the Strait of Ceuta (Gibraltar) and through all the Levant Sea," may be compared with Introduction, p. viii, and notes 28, 31, etc.]

[Endnote 117: (p. 142). _Cape Tira._--[In the old maps we meet with no _cape_ of this name, but combining this passage with what our author says in ch. xxx (How Nuno Tristam went to Tira), and with the distance of 80 leagues which they navigated after leaving the Isle of Herons, or of Arguim, it appears that the cape to which Azurara gives this name, or to which our first navigators gave the name of Tira, was a point, or "tira," of land at the embouchure of the Senegal, at a place marked in the old maps a little beyond Palma Seca, an inscription which is to be read on many (of the ancient charts), and especially on that of João Freire of 1546, and on that of Vaz Dourado of 1571. Although on this last there appears marked a point in close proximity with the name of Tarem, which is not met with in the preceding (maps). Be this as it may, by the distances of latitude between Arguim and that point at the mouth of the Senegal, it appears that the _Cape of Tira_ of which our author speaks, is the place which we indicate. Notwithstanding the unfortunate laconism of Azurara about a fact so interesting for the history of geography, we nevertheless see clearly by this passage that the exploration of the bays, inlets, and points of that part of the coast of Africa was steadily pressed on; that all these points were successively examined by our sailors; and that to these same men are due the names which served for the hydro-geographical nomenclature (of W. Africa) adopted by all nations from the end of the fifteenth century to nearly the end of the seventeenth (see as to this our _Memoria sobre a prioridade dos descobrimentos Portuguezes na costa d'Africa occidental_, § ix).]--S.]

[Endnote 118: (p. 143). _Turtles._--[This passage shows that these mariners were navigating among the great banks and shoals of sand which exist between the isles of Arguim and the mouth of the Senegal. "And they saw an island, which is further out than all the others, but small and very sandy." Combining this account with the map which we meet in vol. i of the work of the Abbé Demanet (_Nouvelle Histoire de l'Afrique_) we perceive two islands clearly marked to the west of the last (sand-) bank, and in front of the places which, on the ancient Portuguese charts are indicated as Tarem, Palmar, and Palma Seca (as in the maps of Freire, 1546, of the Royal Library, and of Vaz Dourado).

Also in the following chapter our author says "They afterwards saw another island which was separated by an arm of the sea that ran between the two--to wit, that in which they were, and the other they had in sight."]--S.

The lake, or fiord, of Obidos, between Atouguya and Pederneira (p. 143) is in the Estremadura province of Portugal, an inlet on the coast, 47 miles N.N.W. of Lisbon.]

[Endnote 119: (p. 146). _Arguim._--See notes 75 and 97, pp. 58 and 103.]

[Endnote 120: (p. 146). _Marco Polo._--[Azurara, writing this chronicle before 1453, availed himself of a manuscript of the travels of Marco Polo, perhaps the same as the copy which the Infant Don Pedro brought from Venice. The oldest printed edition is of 1484. This book, which exercised great influence on discovery, was not only read in the beginning of the fifteenth century by our learned men, but we may notice that one of the most ancient translations which exists of the same is in Portuguese, published by Valentim Fernandez, with the journey of Nicholas the Venetian, etc., dedicated to the King Don Manuel, Lisbon, 1502, one volume, in folio gothic, a copy of which exists in the public library of Lisbon.]--S. Azurara's reference here is to Marco Polo, ch. lvii (Bk. I); ch. lxxiii (Bk. II). On Valentim Fernandez and the bibliography of the Machin story, see Introduction to vol. ii, p. lxxxiv-v. On the editions of Marco Polo, see Yule's edition, Introduction; Pauthier, _Le Livre de M. P._]

[Endnote 121: (p. 147). _Lançarote ... collector of royal taxes_ ( = Almoxarife, p. 62) _in Lagos ... judges ... alcayde ... officials of the corporation._--Another of Azurara's references to "local," "home," or "municipal" affairs in Portugal, at this time. Cf. p. 62 of this Chronicle.]

[Endnote 122: (p. 151). _Knight Don Pedro ... Sueiro da Costa ... Monvedro._--On the general history alluded to by Azurara in the first paragraph of ch. li, see _Cronica de D. Alvaro de Luna_, ed. Milan, 1546, Madrid, 1784; _Histoire secrète de Connetable De Lune_, Paris, 1720; Marina, _Ensaio historico-critico_; Cardonne, _Histoire de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne..._; Hallam, _Middle Ages_, ii, 16-17. It may be summarised as follows: The reign of John II of Castille, after his majority, was constantly disturbed by conspiracies and civil wars, headed by his cousins John and Henry, the Infants of Aragon, who possessed large properties in Castille, bequeathed them by their father Ferdinand. They were also assisted often by their brother the King of Aragon. The nominal object of attack was Alvaro de Luna, favourite minister of John II during thirty-five years, a man probably unscrupulous and somewhat rapacious, but of great ability and energy. At last John gave way, withdrew his favour, and the minister was tried and beheaded, meeting his fate "with the intrepidity of Strafford," to whom some have compared him.

_Sueiro da Costa, Alcaide of Lagos._--Cf. notes 77, 121, etc.

_The King D. Edward_ (Duarte) is, of course, Henry's eldest brother, King of Portugal 1433-1438 (see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xi, and notes 30, 57; and pp. 3, 11, 18, 28, 39, of the text of this version; also Pina's Chronica (D. Duarte), vol. i of the _Ineditos Hist. Port._) The allusions to Portuguese, Castilian, and Aragonese history are so intertwined in these paragraphs that some caution is necessary.

_Monvedro._--Here there is a manuscript note, of later date, however, than the Chronicle itself [_Esta batalha se llama del endolar_].]

[Endnote 123: (p. 152). _Vallaguer ... Arras._--[The siege of Balaguer was undertaken in 1413, and in this the King, Don Fernando of Aragon, made prisoner the Count of Urgel.]--S.

_Ibid., Ladislaus._--[The king of whom the author speaks here under the name of Lançaraao, is Ladislaus, King of Naples, who in the year 1404 entered Rome with his army in order to put down the rebellion of the people against the new Pope, Innocent VII. Hence our author's allusion: "When he assailed the city of Rome."]--S.

_Louis of Provence._--[This was Louis II, Count of Provence. The campaign which Sueiro da Costa made with Louis appears to be that which began in 1409, which the aforesaid Prince carried on in Italy, in common with the allies commanded by Malatesta and by the famous Balthazar Cossa, legate of Bologna. This war lasted till 1411].--S.

_The battle of Agincourt_ (the _Ajancurt_ of Azurara's text) was not between the _Kings_ of France and England in the strictly literal sense. The French, on October 25th, 1415, were commanded by the Dauphin, the Constable of France, and the Duke of Orleans.

_Vallamont_ [is Valmont, 5 leagues north-west of Yvetot].--S. Really 22 kilometres.... It is on the Valmont River (Seine Inférieure), and possesses an ancient chateau, with buildings of date varying from the twelfth to the fifteenth century.

_Constable of France._--[This Admiral of France, with whom served Sueiro da Costa, appears to be the Count of Foix (Foes in the text of Azurara).]

_The Count of Armagnac_ (p. 152) [was probably Bernard VII, who, in the Civil Wars of the time of Charles VI, was at the head of the party of the House of Orleans, which fought various combats, especially in the years 1410-11.]--S.

_Arras_ (p. 152).--[The siege of this place began in Sept. 1414.]--S.]

[Endnote 124: (p. 152). _Lançarote ... Stevam Affonso._--See Introduction to vol. ii, p. xii, and note 77; pp. 60-80, 83, 86 of this version.]

[Endnote 125: (p. 152). _In that year_ [viz. 1447].--S. The place is of course Lagos.]

[Endnote 126: (p. 153). _Dinis Diaz_ [see ch. xxxi].--S. See pp. 98-100 of this Chronicle. Also Introduction to vol. ii, p. xii, and notes 93, 94, 95, etc.]

[Endnote 127: (p. 153). _Tristam ... Zarco ... Lagos._--See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. ix, xii, xcix-cii, notes 76, 80, and pp. 192, 213, 225-9, 244-8, 60-2, 79, 83, etc., of this Chronicle.

One of Zarco's caravels was under the command of Alvaro Fernandez, the only captain on this expedition who accomplished much (see ch. lxxxvii, and Introduction to vol. ii, p. xii).]

[Endnote 128: (p. 156). [This bird is the _Buceros nasutus_ of Linnæus, the same that the French call _Calao-Tock_. Notwithstanding some exaggeration which may be noted in the description of Azurara, it is beyond doubt that the bird of which he treats here is that which the Negroes of the Senegal call _Tock_, and which the Portuguese named _Cróes_. Latham calls it _Buceros Africanus_.

Brisson made two species, Linnæus and Latham two varieties; but Buffon considered them as individuals of the same species, a fact which is otherwise witnessed to by Sonini. Buffon says that the beak, considered apart from the body, is a foot in length and of enormous size (see _Buffon_, Plate 933). The "work" of which Azurara speaks is not due only to the pores of the beak, but chiefly to a series of cuts or incisions, in the form of half-moons, which this bird has upon its beak. It was the famous naturalist Aldrovandi who first gave a picture of the enormous beak of this bird; but the oldest description of it is certainly that given by Azurara. It was not, therefore, Père Labat who first among travellers saw and carefully observed this notable bird, but Lourenço Diaz and the other Portuguese, his companions in 1447: that is, at a date almost three hundred years before Labat. On this bird the reader may also consult the Memoir of Geoffroi de Villeneuve (_Actes de la Société d'histoire naturelle de Paris_).]--S.]

[Endnote 129: (p. 158). _Isle of Herons._--[Since it was to these islands on the coast of Africa, that, in the first epoch of our discoveries, expeditions (by preference) usually directed their course, in conformity with the instructions of the Infant, for the reasons which (in part) Barros gives us (note 97, p. 104, note 79, p. 78 of this version). We have already indicated their position to the reader, conformably to the ancient charts, but we have nevertheless thought well, for the better illustration of the matter, to point out here their true position. In some maps, and among others on that of the famous Livio Sanuto, on the first sheet of his _Africa_, these islands are placed thus:--The Isle of Herons in the most northerly part of all the group, Tider in the most southerly of all, and the Isle of Nar (Naar) between the two.]--S.]

[Endnote 130: (p. 159). _What we have been ordered._--[By these expressions it is evident that the views and plans of the illustrious Infant were not concerned with making captives or slaves, or with expeditions against the natives, but only with the prosecution of the discoveries. The passage which occurs in the next chapter, as to the "great joy" of the crews, and especially of the "lower class" at meeting with the other caravels at the Isle of Herons, "in order to put in hand the matter," _i.e._, a new incursion against the Moors, shows us the spirit which] animated those sailors: which spirit, perhaps, some of the captains were not able at times to hold in check and moderate.]--S.]

[Endnote 131: (p. 164). _The Banner of the Crusade ... Gil Eannes._--[Barros omits these details, which are so interesting for the history of those expeditions. This Gil Eannes was the same who had first passed beyond Cape Bojador. (See ch. ix of this Chronicle.)]--S. On the _Banner of the Crusade_, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xviii-xix.]

[Endnote 132: (p. 165). _Alvaro de Freitas._--[Barros says that Alvaro de Freitas was Commander of Algezur. (_Decade I_, Bk. I, ch. ii.)]--S. Cf. in this Chronicle, pp. 152, 157-8, 161, 165-6, 174, 194-5, 197.]

[Endnote 133: (p. 167). _Fra Gil de Roma_ [lived in the time of Philippe le Bel, King of France. The treatise _De Regimine Principum_, which he wrote in 1285 for the education of that Prince, was a book of the highest reputation (in its time), especially at the close of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. By the notice which is given us in the _Chronicle of the Count D. Pedro_, and by the quotation of Azurara, we perceive the estimation in which this book was held amongst us at the beginning of the latter century (the fifteenth).]--S. In fact, King John I (of Portugal), in his discourse at Ceuta in 1415, recalled to his fidalgos and knights the maxims and precepts which they had read in the same book, _De Regimine Principum_, and which he always kept in his own room. And if we are to believe Barbosa (_Bibliotheca Lusitana_), the Infant D. Pedro had made a Portuguese translation of the same treatise; but this learned bibliographer calls Fr. _Gil de Roma_, Fr. _Gil Correa_. This note is not a fitting place to show whether the name of _Correa_, which Barbosa gives to that author, is or is not exact. We must confine ourselves here to saying that King D. Edward (Duarte), quoting this book several times in chs. xxxi, xxxii, xxxvi, lii, lvi of his _Leal Conselheiro_, calls the author, like Azurara, Fr. _Gil de Roma_. In the library at Cambrai there exists a manuscript, No. 856, of the _De Regimine Principum_, which was finished in 1424, and consequently at an epoch subsequent to the one of which King John I made use. This is probably one of those used by King Edward and by Azurara. The first printed edition was published in 1473 (see _Dictionnaire bibliographique, La Serna Santander, etc._) If, as we have just said, the manuscript used by King John I, by King Edward, and by Azurara, is one of the most ancient of which any notice survives, the Portuguese translation of the book of Fr. Gil de Roma by the Infant Don Pedro is also one of the most ancient versions--if we except the French translation attributed to Henry of Ghent. (On this consult the Abbé Lebœuf, _Dissertation sur l'histoire ecclésiastique et civile de Paris_, II, p. 41.) We think it well to give the reader this notice, in view of the importance of Azurara's citation in this place, which shows us the state of learning and literary culture among our people at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and at the same time the literary relations which existed between Portugal, France, and other countries at the end of the Middle Ages.]--S. See Martins, _Os Filhos de D. João I_, chs. i, iv, v, vi.]

[Endnote 134: (p. 169). _Pero Allemain, etc._--See p. 55 of this Chronicle, on Balthasar, an undoubted German of the "household of the Emperor."]

[Endnote 135: (p. 173). _Directions from the Lord Infant._--These seem to have been rather vague for purposes of exploration, and are differently given by _Gomez Pirez_ (p. 173). See text of this version pp. 95, 173, etc., and next note.]

[Endnote 136: (p. 174). _River of Nile._--[Compare this passage with our remarks in the notes to chs. liii, xxxii, xv, and xiii, about the true plans of the illustrious Infant, author of these discoveries. These passages reveal to us, in spite of the brevity of the Chronicler, the intention and the system of the Prince in relation to these expeditions. It is clear that he desired not only to discover those countries, but above all to obtain information from the natives themselves of the interior of Africa, in order to compare it with the scientific, historical, and geographical ideas of antiquity and of the Middle Ages, with a view of prosecuting his discoveries till the East was reached. Thus, Garcia de Resende says, with good reason (_Chronicle of the King D. John II_, ch. cliv), when treating of the discovery of the Congo, made twenty-five years after the death of the Infant:--"In the year 1485, the King desiring the discovery of India and Guinea, which the Infant D. Henry, his uncle, first among all the Princes of Christendom, commenced,..."]--S. What Gomez Pirez says here implicitly contradicts Lançarote's statement, p. 172; see note 135.]

[Endnote 137: (p. 174). _The terrestrial Paradise._--[We call the attention of the reader to this passage, in itself very interesting, especially because the words of Alvaro de Freitas indicate beyond doubt a certain geographical idea as to the situation of the terrestrial Paradise agreeing with the cosmographical knowledge of the Middle Ages, and as to the distance at which they found themselves from those delicious parts of the world.

The sailors whom the Infant employed in these navigations and discoveries were well instructed in nautical science. They set out from Portugal furnished with "naval charts" in which the cosmographers of that time had designed not merely the hydrographical configuration of the coasts of the various countries then known, but also which is more curious, the interior of the Continents, in which they represented, by a multitude of figures, the various sovereigns, animals, birds, woodland, and other details, both real, fantastic, and hypothetical: as the curious reader may see in the Planisphere of Andrea Bianco of 1436, published in the work of Formaleone, entitled _Saggio sulla nautica antica de Veneziani_, and in the other planisphere of the famous Fra Mauro, published by Cardinal Zurla in his work, _Sulle antiche Mappe lavorate in Venezia_ (1818).

The idea, then, which Alvaro de Freitas had of his distance from the terrestrial Paradise, according to his own words, shows that he considered it to be at the extremity of the earth: that idea, we repeat, proves the influence which the geography of the Middle Ages exercised upon our sailors. As a matter of fact, that idea of the position of the terrestrial Paradise dates from the time of the _Topographia Christiana_ of Cosmas Indicopleustes (see Montfaucon, _Nova Collectio Patrum_, vol. ii), an idea which the journeys accomplished by land during the Middle Ages fortified and reduced to a systematic opinion. On the map of Andrea Bianco, the terrestrial Paradise is to be found marked in the most easterly part of Asia.

Alvaro de Freitas in these words of his, alluded either to the locality in which Paradise was to be found on the ancient charts--and this, we think, is the more probable supposition--or he referred to the _Cosmology_ of Dante, according to which Paradise was situate in the middle of the seas of the southern hemisphere (Dante, _Purgatorio_, cant. xxvi, ll. 100, 127.)]--S.

Santarem's commentary here needs a word of supplement, which we take from the _Dawn of Modern Geography_, pp. 332-3.

"The position of the Garden of Eden, the habitat of the people of Gog Magog and other monstrous races, and the existence of a literal centre for the earth-circle, were problems which exercised the patristic mind only less than the great controversy upon the 'Spherical,' 'Tabernacular,' or other shape of the world itself.

"As to the earthly Paradise, the plain word of Scripture [Genesis, ii, 8; iii, 24] compelled most Theologians to place it in the Furthest East, though a minority inclined to give a symbolic meaning to the crucial words, 'The Lord God planted a garden _eastward_ in Eden ... and placed Cherubim at the East of the Garden, to keep the way of the Tree of Life.' Augustine, here as elsewhere, shows himself inclined to compromise, as well became one who attempted such a task as the re-statement of the whole Catholic Faith. His knowledge was too many-sided, and his intelligence too keen, for him not to perceive the importance of a certain liberality of temper in a creed which aspired to conquer the world, and his treatment of the question of the terrestrial Paradise is a good example of his method. For himself, he holds fast to the real existence of Eden, and the literal sense of Scripture on its position, but he allows any one who will to give the texts at issue a symbolical meaning (_De Civ. Dei_, XIII, ch. xxi; see also Eucherius, Comm. on Genesis in the _Max. Bibl. Vet. Pat._ vi, 874, and A. Graf's interesting essay on the _Legends of the terrestrial Paradise_, Turin, 1878). To the same effect, though more doubtfully, speaks St. Isidore of Seville, who in so many ways reproduces at the end of the sixth century the spirit and method of the Bishop of Hippo in the fifth. In one place the Spanish Doctor repeats the traditional language about Eden, placed in the East, blessed with perpetual summer, but shut off from the approach of man by the fiery wall which reached almost to the Heaven: yet elsewhere he seems to countenance a purely figurative sense. His scepticism is expressed in the _De Differentiis_, i, 10; his traditionalism in the _Etymologies_ or _Origins_, XIV, 3 (De Asia).

"The ordinary conclusion of the more philosophic school of Churchmen is perhaps expressed by Moses Bar-Cepha, 'Bishop of Bethraman and Guardian of sacred things in Mozal' [_i.e._, Mosul? or Nineveh], near Bagdad, about A.D. 900 [Migne's editor of Moses, in _Pat. Græc._, cxi, pp. 482-608 (1863), places him later, about A.D. 950; but Marinelli, Erdkunde, 20-1, dates him about A.D. 700, doubtless with the assent of S. Günther and L. Neumann, who are responsible for the enlarged German edition of Marinelli's admirable essay. The most interesting passages of Moses' geography are in Pt. I, chs. i, ii, vii-ix, xi-xiv]. In his _Commentary on Paradise_, the ingenious prelate solves past difficulties in the spirit of Hegel himself. The terrestrial Eden had one existence under two conditions, visible and invisible, corporeal and incorporeal, sensual and intellectual. As pertaining to this world, it existed, he considers, in a land which was on, but not of, the earth that we inhabit; for it lay on higher ground, it breathed a purer air, and, though many of the saints had fixed it in the East, it was really beyond our ken.

"From Augustine onwards, through the writings of Eucherius of Lyons [_Commentary on Genesis_], of St. Basil the Great, and many others, something of this tendency to compromise between the literal meaning of Scripture and the tacit opposition of geography, may be traced in this attempt to give reality to the earthly Paradise; and the same comes out in the conjecture of Severian of Gabala, adopted by Cosmas and by many of the traditionalists, that the rivers of Eden dived under the earth for a long space before reappearing in our world as Nile, Euphrates, Tigris and Pison (Severian of Gabala, v, 6; according to S., this subterranean course was to prevent men from tracking their way up to Paradise; cf. _Philostorgius_, III, 7-12.)

"Homeric and other pre-Christian fancies led many in the early Christian period still to look for Paradise in the north, among the Upper Boreans, in the south among the blameless Ethiopians, or in the west in the Isles of the Blessed, of the Hesperides, or of Fortune. Thus Capella, who was probably a pagan survival at the beginning of the most brilliant age of patristic literature, naturally enough looks for his Elysium 'where the axis of the world is ever turning' at the northern pole [_Capella_, vi, 664]; but when we find Archbishop Basil of Novgorod speculating about a Paradise in the White Sea [see Karamsin's _Russian History_, as cited by Marinelli, _Erdkunde_, p. 22, note 84; and by Cardinal Zurla, _Vantaggi derivati alla Geografia_, etc., p. 44] we have a better illustration of the undying vigour of the oldest and most poetic of physical myths, under almost any changes of politics and religion."]

[Endnote 138: (p. 176). _Or else upon their feathers for the rest of the time ... other fish._--[This bird is the _Phœnicopterus_.]--S.

_Ibid_: _Other birds_, etc.--[See note 128 to p. 156, on the _Buceros Africanus_.]--S.

_Ibid_: _Other fish._--[This is the _Pristis_.]--S.]

[Endnote 139: (p. 176). _Quite alive._--[This fish appears to be the _Remora_.]--S.]

[Endnote 140: (p. 176). _The two palm trees, etc._--[These palm trees exist on some old MS. maps. We may compare this passage with what the author says in ch. xxxi, and with the notes on pp. 96, 177; also Introduction, p. iv. Barros (_Decade I_, ch. xiii) says "Lancerote reached the two palm trees which Dinis Fernandez, when he went there, marked out as a feature worthy of notice ... where the natives of the land say the Azanegue Moors are divided from the idolatrous Negroes." And, in fact, the course of this stream forms a remarkable boundary between the Moors, or Berbers, who inhabit the northern bank, and the Negro Jaloffs who dwell on the southern bank (see _Durand_, vol. ii, p. 60, and _Rennell_, Appendix, p. 80).]--S.]

[Endnote 141: (p. 177). _This green land._--[On the manuscript map of João Freire of 1546, appears marked at the entrance of the river Senegal, the "arvoredo" of which Azurara speaks.]--S.]

[Endnote 142: (p. 177). _Azanegue prisoners._--[Compare this important passage with what Azurara says in other places, pp. 41, 45-6, 48-9, 55; and Introduction to vol. ii, pp. iv, xxvi, lviii, lix, about the Infant and the information which he collected from the natives, and which he compared with the geographical charts he was constantly studying.]--S.]

[Endnote 143: (p. 178). _Entereth into it so._--[This same confusion which the Portuguese mariners made between the Senegal and the Nile is one more proof of the influence which the geographical system of the ancients exercised over them. According to Pliny, the Niger was an arm of the Nile. The river Senegal traverses in its course nearly 350 leagues from its source in the country of Fouta (Jallon) to the Atlantic (see Durand, _Voyage au Sénégal_, p. 343, and Demanet, _Nouvelle histoire d'Afrique_, vol. i, p. 62, iv, xii, xxii-xxv, xxxiii, xlii-xliii, xlvii-xlix, lviii.)]--S. Also see Introduction to vol. ii, p. lviii, etc.]

[Endnote 144: (p. 180). _Mediterranean Sea, etc._--[This passage shows that Azurara only had notice at that time of the ivory commerce which was carried on through the ports of the Levant situated on the Mediterranean, and that he had no knowledge that a like commerce was carried on through the ports of the empire of Marocco, situated on the west coast of Africa. "I learnt," says he, "that in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea," etc. ... and these words of his are important, as showing that a man, otherwise well informed in matters of commerce and navigation, was not aware that the ivory trade was carried on by the western coast; which gives us one more proof of the priority of the Portuguese in the discovery of Guinea. Our author, then, knew the truth: for until that epoch the trade in ivory was carried on by the Arabs by way of Egypt, the Arabs going to the coast of Zanzibar to seek for the same, since there the better quality was to be found (see Masudi, _Notices et Extraits des MSS. de la Bibliothèque du Roi_, i, p. 15; _Ibn-al-Wardi, ibid_, ii, p. 40; _El Bakoui, ibid_, pp. 394, 401). The Arab caravans also brought ivory from places in the neighbourhood of the Niger. These caravans followed the routes of the ancient Itineraries (see _Ibn-al-Wardi, Notices et Extraits des MSS._, ii, pp. 35-7, and Edrisi (Jaubert), vol. i, pp. 10-26, 105-120, 197-293). But the principal centre of this commerce with the interior of Africa was in the northern part, then already known under the name of Barbary, and in the countries which form to-day the kingdoms of Fez and Marocco. The expressions of Azurara about the size of the elephant are evidently exaggerated, because the species indigenous to Africa is only the second in size in the (animal) family of the Proboscidians, or "trunked" Pachyderms. The African elephant is smaller than the Asiatic elephant, although the tusks of the latter are smaller than those of the former. The details given in this part of our Chronicle are, in our opinion, so important for the information they give about the state of knowledge among our first discoverers, the influences of ancient tradition, and the mediæval spirit which dominated them, that it seems opportune to indicate here to the reader what we consider most worthy of study and of reflection, in order that we may be able to estimate the state of instruction in Portugal relative to those matters in the beginning of the fifteenth century, seeing that up to now no (writing) work has yet appeared upon the subject from any one of our nation. Among other passages of this Chronicle we noted, on p. 156, note 128, the extraordinary exaggeration with which our seamen described the beak of the _Buceros Africanus_, of which they said "the mouth and maw of these birds is so great that the leg of a man, however large it were, could go into it as far as the knee." We have also seen another marvellous description of the beak of the _Phœnicopterus_, and finally the one which was inspired by the account given them of the elephant by the Negroes--an exaggeration which reminds one of the description given by a Byzantine writer of the eleventh century, Michael Attaliotes, when he saw an elephant for the first time in Constantinople (see the extract from the Greek MSS. of the Royal Library at Paris [Bibliothèque Nationale], on p. 499 of the work of M. Berger de Xivrey: _Recits de l'antiquité sur quelques points de la fable, du merveilleux et de l'histoire naturelle_). In these exaggerated and marvellous accounts, therefore, of birds and animals which were unknown as late as then, we find a proof of the influence of the teratological traditions of antiquity and of the Middle Ages, in consequence of the studies which men had previously made of the figures they saw depicted in the planispheres and Mappemondes of their time; and also we may see in this a result of the reading of Pliny, and above all of the _Treatise on Marvels_, attributed to Aristotle, "the philosopher," as Azurara calls him (see p. 12, note 19), whose authority was so great among the Portuguese of the fifteenth century that even the "Proctors of the People" (in the _Cortes_ of 1481), quoted his work on "Politics" (see our _Memoir on the Cortes_, ii, p. 186). We see, then, that our seamen of that period were impregnated with these traditions, and were diligent readers of works which during the Middle Ages were given the title of _Mirabilia_, the reading of which enchanted (in that age) not only men of education, but even students, and often the people, to whom ecclesiastics read in public those marvellous relations, as we see, among other examples from the case of Giraldus Cambrensis, who thrice read to the people in Oxford his description of Ireland; and still more in the celebrated statutes made in 1380 by Bishop Wykeham for the college which he founded in the same city, in which he determined that the chronicles of various realms should be read to the students and the marvels of the world (_Mirabilia Mundi_); see _Sprengel_, p. 221, and Wharton, _History of English Poetry_, i, p. 92. In the period at which the statutes we mention were given to (New) College in Oxford, the relations between Portugal and England were knit more closely than in preceding centuries. The Court of the King, D. John I, adopted most of the English usages, and the literary communication between the two peoples was more extensive than in earlier time. The citation of the romances of chivalry made by the King to his knights, the adoption of the French language (which was then that of the Court of England), the devices and mottoes of which the Infants made use, prove the existence of that influence. Besides this, divers passages of King D. Duarte's _Leal Conselheiro_ show that the Infants of the House of Aviz (often) discussed various literary matters with the King, their father, and other literary persons, and that they even debated about the rules and regulations for properly translating classical works. We have also noticed that King D. John I, in the discourse which he made to the fidalgos who remained at Ceuta in 1415, cited the _De Regimine Principum_ of Fr. Gil de Roma, bidding them recall to memory how they had often read the same in his Privy Chamber. So then, at that epoch of discoveries, in which the greatest enthusiasm prevailed for the prosecution of enterprises of such moment, the reading of the _Marvels of the World_, and of the _Travels of Marco Polo_, which the Infant D. Pedro brought from Venice, formed beyond doubt the delight of all those famous men, courtiers of the Infant D. Henry, of his illustrious father, and of his brothers--courtiers, moreover, who received their education in the royal or princely palaces. The passages, then, which we read in this Chronicle, and which we indicate to the reader, in spite of their brevity, and of the defects which the critical study of our own time enables us to note--these passages, we say, are of the highest importance when they are studied in harmony with other contemporary documents. The great men of the fifteenth century, formed in the school of the Infant Don Henry, were unquestionably possessed of great erudition for those times--an erudition and knowledge which at first eludes observation, through being muffled up in the rudeness of a language without polish, and which was more energetic in action than explicit and agreeable in writing, but it is nevertheless clear that they knew all that was known in their age.

It was this notable school, therefore, which prepared the great body of geographical learning which we note appearing in the famous congress of Portuguese and Spanish geographers at Badajoz in 1524 and 1525: at which, in the discussion which took place on the demarcation of the Moluccas and on the size of the world, Aristotle was quoted along with Strabo, Eratosthenes, Macrobius, St. Ambrose, Pliny, Theodosius, Marinus of Tyre, Alfergani, and Pierre d'Ailly, etc.]--S.

Long as this note is, a word must be added to it:--