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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.

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

The dispute as to his birthplace between the Azurara in Minho and the Azurara in Beira⁵ is not easy to settle, but tradition favours the former, and until the end of the last century no writer had ventured to doubt that the ancient town at the mouth of the River Ave, which received its first charter, or "foral", from the Count D. Henrique in 1102 or 1107, was the early home of the Chronicler.⁶ Such evidence as exists in favour of the latter place is slight, consisting only of inferences drawn from a document, dated August 23rd, 1454, in which Affonso V grants certain privileges to two inhabitants of Castello Branco, who were accustomed to collect the Chronicler's rents and bring them to Lisbon. From this it has been argued by such able critics as Vieira de Meyrelles and Rodriguez d'Azevedo that these rents must have issued out of family property situate at the Azurara in Beira, which happens to be in the district of Castello Branco, and hence that the Chronicler was a native of Beira rather than of Minho.⁷ The conclusion seems far-fetched, to say the least, for it is just as likely that these two men were agents for a benefice, or "commenda", at Alcains, in the same district, which Azurara possessed at the time this grant was made.⁸

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The following is a summary of the contents of the Chronicle:—

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

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

Chapter III deals with the ancestry of D. Henrique, and Chapter IV describes the man himself, "constant in adversity and humble in prosperity", his appearance, habits, and manner of life, all with much force of diction.

In Chapter V we have an account of the early life of D. Henrique, of his prowess at the capture of Ceuta, and during its siege by the Moors, with his fruitless assault on Tangiers, which resulted in the captivity of the Holy Infant. His peopling of Madeira and other islands in "the great Ocean sea", and presence at the gathering that ended in the battle of Alfarrobeira are referred to, as also his governorship of the Order of Christ and the services he rendered to religion by the erection and endowment of churches and professorial chairs. The chapter ends with a description of the Town of the Infant at Cape St. Vincent, "there where both the seas meet in combat, that is to say, the great Ocean sea with the Mediterranean sea", a place designed by the Prince to be a great mercantile centre, and a safe harbour for ships from East and West.

In Chapter VI, Azurara returns to his laudations of the Infant, whom he apostrophises thus: "I know that the seas and lands are full of your praises, for that you, by numberless voyages, have joined the East to the West, in order that the peoples might learn to exchange their riches"; and he winds up with some remarks on "distributive justice", the non-exercise of which had been attributed to D. Henrique as a fault by some of his contemporaries.

Chapter VII is occupied with a recital of the reasons that impelled the Infant to send out his expeditions. They were shortly as follows. First and foremost, pure zeal for knowledge; secondly, commercial considerations; thirdly, his desire to ascertain the extent of the Moorish power in Africa; fourthly, his wish to find some Christian King in those parts who would assist in warring down the Moors; and last but not least, his purpose to extend the Faith. To these reasons Azurara, quite characteristically, adds a sixth, which he calls the root from which they all proceeded—the influence of the heavenly bodies, and he essays to prove it by the Prince's horoscope.

The narrative of the expeditions really begins in Chapter VIII, which opens with an account of the reasons why no ship had hitherto dared to pass Cape Bojador, some of them being at first sight as sensible as others are absurd. The fears of the mariners prevented for twelve years the realisation of their master's wish, and for so long the annual voyages were never carried beyond the terrible cape.

Chapter IX relates how at length, in 1434, Cape Bojador was doubled by Gil Eannes, a squire of D. Henrique, and how, on a second voyage with one Affonso Gonçalvez Baldaya, Eannes reached the Angra dos Ruivos, fifty leagues beyond it.

In the next Chapter (X) Baldaya passes one hundred and twenty leagues beyond Cape Bojador to the Rio d'Ouro, and a short way beyond; but failing to take any captives, as the Prince wished him to do, he loads his ship with the skins of sea-calves and returns to Portugal in 1436.

Chapter XI is a short one, and merely tells that for three years, i.e., from 1437 to 1440, the voyages were interrupted by the affairs of the Kingdom, which required all the attention of D. Henrique. These affairs were the death of D. Duarte, and the struggle that followed between the Queen, supported by a small section of the nobles, and the Infant D. Pedro, backed by Lisbon and the people as a whole, over the question of the Regency and the education of the young King Affonso.

Chapters XII and XIII relate how Antam Gonçalvez took the first captives, and how Nuno Tristam went to Cape Branco.

In Chapter XIV Azurara dwells on the delight D. Henrique must have felt at the sight of the captives, though he opines that they themselves received the greater benefit: "for, although their bodies might be in some subjection, it were a small thing in comparison with their souls, that would now possess true liberty for evermore."

Chapter XV contains an account of the embassy sent to the Holy Father by D. Henrique to obtain "a share of the treasures of Holy Church for the salvation of the souls of those who in the labours of this conquest should meet their end." The Pope, Eugenius IV, granted a plenary indulgence, on the usual conditions, to all who took part in the war against the Moors under the banner of the Order of Christ; and D. Pedro, the Regent, made D. Henrique a present of the King's fifth to defray the heavy expenses he had incurred by the expeditions.

In Chapter XVI Antam Gonçalvez obtains the Infant's leave for another voyage, and is charged to collect information about the Indies and the land of Prester John. He receives ten negroes, in exchange for two Moors whom he had previously taken, together with some gold dust, and then returns home.

In Chapter XVII Nuno Tristam goes as far as Arguim Island and makes some captures; this in the year 1443.

Chapter XVIII begins the relation of the first expedition on a large scale, and the first that sprang from private enterprise—namely, that of Lançarote and his six caravels from Lagos. Azurara takes the opportunity to insert here a short but interesting sketch of the change that had taken place in public opinion with reference to these voyages. In the beginning, they were decried by the great not a whit less than by the populace, but the assurance of commercial profit had now converted the dispraisers, and the voyage of Lançarote gave a tangible proof of it.

The next six Chapters (XIX to XXIV) relate the doings of this expedition, which ended in the capture of two hundred and thirty-five natives.

Chapter XXV, which treats of the division of the captives at Lagos, is the most pathetic in the book, and one of the most powerful by virtue of the simple realism of the narrative.

Chapter XXVI gives a lucid summary of the after-lives of the captives, and their gradual but complete absorption into the mass of the people.

Chapter XXVII narrates the ill-fated expedition of Gonçalo de Cintra and his death near the Rio d'Ouro; while, in the next, Azurara refers the accident to the heavenly bodies, and draws a profitable lesson from it, which he divides into seven heads, for the benefit of posterity.

Chapter XXIX contains a short notice of a voyage undertaken by Antam Gonçalvez, Gomez Pirez, and Diego Affonso to the Rio d'Ouro, which had no result.

Chapter XXX deals with the voyage of Nuno Tristam, who passed the furthest point hitherto discovered, and reached a place he named Palmar. Azurara confesses himself unable to give more details about this expedition, "because Nuno Tristam was already dead at the time King Affonso ordered this Chronicle to be written"—a statement which proves that he did not rely only on documents for the facts he related, but was careful to glean as much as possible from the actors therein.

Chapter XXXI tells how Dinis Dyaz sailed straight to Guinea without once shortening sail, and how he was the first to penetrate so far, and take captives in those parts. He pushed on to Cape Verde, and, though he brought back but little spoil, he was well received by the Infant, who preferred discoveries to mere commercial profits.

Chapters XXXII to XXXVI recite the expedition of Antam Gonçalvez, Garcia Homem and Diego Affonso to Cape Branco, Arguim Island and Cape Resgate, where, besides trafficking, they took on board a squire, Joham Fernandez, who had stayed full seven months at the Rio d'Ouro, among the natives, to acquire for the Infant a knowledge of the country and its products.

Azurara refers in Chapter XXXII to Affonso Cerveira, whose history of the Portuguese discoveries on the African coast, now lost, was used by him in the compilation of this Chronicle; and in the next chapter he employs one of those rhetorical periphrases of which his other works afford many an example, though they are rather scarce in this his masterpiece in point of style.

Chapters XXXVII to XLVIII relate the doings of the first expedition from Lisbon, which was under the command of Gonçalo Pacheco, and penetrated to Guinea, or the land of the Negroes, the result being a large number of captives, seemingly the chief object it had in view.

Chapters XLIX to LXVII contain the acts of the great expedition of fourteen sail which set out from Lagos in 1445, under the leadership of Lançarote, for the purpose of punishing the Moors on the Island of Tider and avenging Gonçalo de Cintra. In all twenty-six ships left Portugal that year, being the largest number that had perhaps ever sailed down the Western side of the Dark Continent at one time.

After accomplishing their object some returned home, but others, more bold, determined to explore further South, if perchance they might find the River of Nile and the Terrestrial Paradise. Arriving at the Senegal they thought they had found the Nile of the Negroes, and went no further. A curious description of the Nile, and its power according to astronomers, forms the subject of Chapters LXI and LXII, where Azurara has collected all the learning and speculation of the Ancients and Mediævals on the question.

Chapters LXVIII to LXXV describe the doings of the remaining ships that left Portugal in 1445, and relate descents on the Canaries and the African coast, and the voyage of Zarco's caravel to Cape Mastos, the furthest point yet reached.

Chapters LXXVI and LXXVII contain valuable notes on the life of the peoples south of Cape Bojador, together with an account of the travels of Joham Fernandez, the first European to penetrate far into the interior of Africa.

In Chapter LXXVIII Azurara adds up the sum of the African voyages, and finds that up to 1446 fifty-one caravels had sailed to those parts, one of which had passed four hundred and fifty leagues beyond Cape Bojador.

Chapters LXXIX to LXXXII are taken up by a description of the Canary Islands, while Chapter LXXXIII deals with the discovery and peopling of the Madeiras and Azores.²⁵

Chapter LXXXIV tells how D. Henrique obtained from the Regent a charter, similar to the one he had previously secured in the case of Guinea, to the effect (inter alia) that no one was to go to the Canaries, either for war or merchandise, without his leave; and the following chapter (LXXXV) relates a descent on the Island of Palma.

In Chapter LXXXVI Azurara narrates in feeling terms the death of the gallant Nuno Tristam in Guinea-land.

In Chapter LXXXVII we read how Alvaro Fernandez sailed down the African coast past Sierra Leone, and more than one hundred and ten leagues beyond Cape Verde.

Chapter LXXXVIII describes the voyage of another Lagos fleet of nine 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 be 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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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 pg xxviii]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.

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

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

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.

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 pg xxxiii]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.

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

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.

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

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 pg xxxvii]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

On July 27th, 1467, in answer to a petition of the inhabitants, Azurara issued a certificate⁵⁴ 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, pg xxxviii]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.

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.

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