The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. Vol. I

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WORKS ISSUED BY

The Hakluyt Society.

THE CHRONICLE OF THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF GUINEA.

VOL I.

No. XCV.

THE CHRONICLE OF THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF GUINEA.

WRITTEN BY

GOMES EANNES DE AZURARA;

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

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

AND

EDGAR PRESTAGE, B.A.OXON.,

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

VOL. I

(CHAPTERS I-XL).

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

BURT FRANKLIN, PUBLISHER NEW YORK, NEW YORK

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

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY REPRINTED BY PERMISSION

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

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

COUNCIL OF THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.

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

WILLIAM FOSTER, ESQ., Honorary Secretary.

EDITORS' PREFACE.

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

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

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

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

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

C. R. B. E. P.

October, 1896.

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF AZURARA.

LIFE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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