The Portuguese Explorers
From Portugal by Henry Morse Stephens, 1891.
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From Portugal by Henry Morse Stephens, 1891.
The internal history of Portugal under the rule of John "the Great," his son Edward, and his grandson Affonso V., has an interest of its own, yet it is not at home that the most important development of Portuguese energy is to be perceived. Great as were the services rendered to Portugal by King John, they mark no stages in the progress of Europe as the achievements of Dom Henry, his son, have done. Around the name of this prince, the discoveries of the Portuguese navigators may best be grouped, for he was the guiding spirit of these adventurers, and alike inspired and rewarded them.
Henry, Duke of Viseu, Grand Master of the Order of Christ, and governor of the Algarves, was the third son of John "the Great" and Philippa of Lancaster, and after winning great credit in the capture of Ceuta, he took up his residence at Sagre, near Cape St. Vincent, in 1418, and devoted himself to the task of maritime exploration. His father and his brothers assisted him, but they recognized his special fitness for the work, and therefore, though encouraging him as much as possible, they did not interfere with his projects, and made no attempts to contest his well-earned title of Prince Henry "the Navigator."
The prince was too wise to neglect scientific knowledge, and he therefore summoned learned mathematicians and astronomers from all parts of Europe to his aid. Enjoying immense wealth, he established an observatory and a school of navigation at Sagre, where he employed the men of science in making charts and, above all, in improving the working of the compass. This was the theoretical side of his work; the practical was not less important. He collected together all the most daring captains and mariners he could find, and sent them forth year by year on voyages of discovery along the western coast of Africa. He never went on any of these expeditions in person, but he was acknowledged by all the men of science and sailors in his pay to be their master and presiding genius.
The idea in Prince Henry's mind was that it was possible to sail round Africa to India, and thus trade directly with the East, and he died after more than forty years of endeavour without having fulfilled his dreams. There were legends of old time, which he knew well, that the southern continent could be sailed round, legends probably founded on the tales of Carthaginian sailors, but no geographer of that period could assert that these legends were founded upon fact. If it were true, and ships could sail direct from
Lisbon to India, it was easy to see what enormous profits must accrue to the people who found and followed this route. At that time the products of the East came by a long and dangerous journey to Venice, whence they were distributed over Europe. They had either to be conveyed by land all the way to the Levant, or else to be borne up the Red Sea and carried across Egypt. By either way the expenses and risk were enormous, and the prices of the commodities of the East were proportionately great. Could a direct sea route be discovered, it was obvious that these risks and expenses would be avoided, and that Lisbon would take the place of Venice as the distributor of the treasures of the East to Europe.
Dom Henry understood this, and, urged by patriotism, as well as by an ardent zeal for the cause of exploration, he devoted his wealth and time to discovering this direct sea route. As has been said, he did not himself succeed in attaining this great end, but he did much towards it, and the navigators who were successful, Vasco da Gama and Pedro Alvares Cabral, were men imbued with his ideas and in a way his disciples. In speaking of the explorers of Prince Henry's' time, the word "ship" must not be taken to mean the comparatively well-built and well-appointed vessels of the end of the sixteenth century.
Modern sailors would think but little of Drake's famous ship the Pelican, yet it was far superior in size and equipments to the wretched sailing boats of the first explorers of the fifteenth century. The enterprise of Dom Henry did much to improve the ship-building of the Portuguese, and towards the end of his life their vessels could carry as many as sixty men, but at the beginning of his career his ships were little better than half-decked sailing boats, with a crew of at most thirty-six sailors.
A mere record of discoveries, a list of names of places along the inhospitable west coast of Africa, may be monotonous in itself; but when the scanty means of these early Portuguese mariners is considered, and the greatness of the goal at which they were aiming, a fresh interest arises in the study of the map of Africa. The first-fruits of Prince Henry's exploring ardour were the discovery of the island of Porto Santo by Bartholomeu Perestrello, in 1419, and of the more important island of Madeira by João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz, in 1420.
These successes delighted Prince Henry and his father, and John "the Great" immediately granted the two islands to the Order of Christ, of which his son was Grand Master. Prince Henry at once rewarded his captains, and leased Porto Santo to Perestrello, and Madeira in equal parts to its two discoverers. The provinces of the larger island were named Funchal, from “funcho,” the Portuguese word for fennel which abounds there, and Machico, said to be derived from the Englishman, Robert Machin. Prince Henry's first effort, before proceeding further with his explorations, was to colonize these two islands. With Porto Santo he was not successful, for the rabbits introduced by Perestrello ate up the whole produce of the island; and a similar fate seemed to await Madeira, where the indigenous vegetation was almost entirely destroyed by a great fire, which lasted seven years. However, he did not despair, and it was Dom Henry who had the sugar-cane and the vine, which are to this day the chief sources of its wealth, introduced into Madeira.
It is but fair to mention that many authors have held these great discoveries to be merely rediscoveries. Some people affirm that Madeira was really discovered by Emmanuel Pessanha, the first Lord High Admiral of Portugal, in 1351, during the reign of Affonso "the Brave," and there seems to be more foundation for the story of Robert Machin, which is at all events of great antiquity. The story runs that Robert Machin, son of a merchant in Bristol, loved and was beloved by a lady of noble birth, whose relations refused to countenance him, and threw him into prison. About the year 1370, on his release, he found that his lady love had married a wealthy baron, but he continued his suit and she consented to elope with him. He took her on board a ship intending to go to France, but a gale came on and the ship, after being driven south for thirteen days, struck upon an island. They found the island uninhabited and very beautiful, and Machin and some of his companions took up their residence upon it, and built huts under the branches of a spreading tree. Here they lived very happily until a storm one day drove the ship from its moorings, which so grieved the lady that she died in despair at the thought of never seeing her native land again. She was buried beneath the tree, and Machin soon followed her to the grave, having first erected a cross with a brief inscription, narrating his adventures, and begging any Christians who might come to the island to erect a church over the place where her remains rested.
After his death, those of his companions, who remained, determined to try to escape in the ship's boat, but they were taken by a Moorish cruiser and sold for slaves. While in captivity in Morocco, one of the Englishmen told a Spanish fellow-captive, named Juan Morales, the whole history, and this Morales, being afterwards taken prisoner by João Gonçalves Zarco, related the narrative to his captor and to Prince Henry. Morales, according to this tale, was the pilot of Zarco and Tristão Vaz on their voyage of discovery, and the story goes on to say that the grave of the two English lovers was discovered, and that Machin’s dying desire was fulfilled, and a church erected over their remains. Whatever may be the truth of this legend, and whether Machin ever landed on Madeira or not, the fact remains that the first occupation of the island, and its being marked upon the chart, were due to the enterprise of Prince Henry.
The discovery of these islands formed no part of Prince Henry's plan. His desire was to circumnavigate Africa; the expeditions of Perestrello, Zarco, and Tristão Vaz were all intended to sail south and double Cape Bojador, and it was certainly in an attempt to achieve this purpose that Perestrello was driven out to sea to the island of Porto Santo. Many years passed, during which Cape Bojador remained the great obstacle to the Portuguese mariners. Year after year Prince Henry despatched fleets of two or three ships at a time, which sometimes made important discoveries among the islands off the north-west coast of Africa, but they never doubled the great cape.
Among these discoveries the most important were the Canary Islands and the Azores. With regard to the former group, the Portuguese were met by a prior claim on the part of Castile; and after a dispute, into the details of which it is not necessary to enter, John the Great, in pursuance of his consistent policy of maintaining peace with Spain, and at the request of Dom Henry, who did not wish to waste his strength in occupying islands, surrendered the Canary Islands to Castile. The Portuguese, however, successfully maintained their claim to the Azores, which still belong to them. This group was first touched at by Bartholomeu Perestrello, the discoverer of Porto Santo, in 1431; and in the following year Gonçalo Velho Cabral discovered the island of Santa Maria. To this captain was allotted the task of further exploring and occupying this cluster of islands; and in 1444 he discovered the island of St. Miguel or St. Michael, where he founded the beautiful little town which gives its name to the St. Michael oranges.
Prince Henry's endeavours were crowned with partial success, though not in the reign of his father, for in 1434 Gil Eannes doubled Cape Bojador, and in 1436 Affonso Gonçalves Baldaya reached the Rio d' Ouro. The attention of "the Navigator" was, however, soon absorbed by the progress of political affairs at home, and he had for a time to abandon his schemes of exploration. He served with distinction in the unfortunate expedition to Tangier, and then played an important part in the events, which ended in confirming the power of his brother Dom Pedro, the Duke of Coimbra, as Regent of Portugal. This enlightened prince took the greatest interest in the African explorations, and he assisted Prince Henry with even greater ardour than King John or King Edward. These were the most successful years of Prince Henry's career. In 1441 Antão Gonçalves went a hundred leagues further than the Rio d'Ouro, and in the same year Nuno Tristao, the greatest and most daring of all Prince Henry's captains, reached the cape which closes on the south the sort of shoulder formed by North-west Africa, and named it the Cabo Branco or White Cape. He did more than this; he brought home several captives, including a native prince. The capture was hailed with enthusiasm, and from this time the slave trade on the coast of Africa really began.
It is strange that Prince Henry "the Navigator" should have been the founder of the African slave trade, but so it was, and the reasons are not hard to find. The provinces of the Alemtejo and the Algarves had never been thoroughly populated since their conquest, and the great lords and religious military orders, the owners of those districts, had never been able to bring them properly under cultivation. Slavery was not regarded with the modern sentiment of abhorrence; it was the natural fate of prisoners of war, and flourished greatly in the neighbouring country of Morocco. Prince Henry and the Duke of Coimbra felt the need of procuring labour to cultivate the southern provinces, and it seemed quite natural to them to carry off the unfortunate savages of the African coast.
This idea greatly impressed the Portuguese nobles with Prince Henry's sagacity; they did not understand his schemes about discovering a direct route to India, but they highly appreciated the introduction of cheap forced labour. The commencement of the slave trade greatly favoured the progress of the Portuguese navigators; they no longer came home empty-handed, and exploring became a profitable as well as an adventurous business. In 1444 Lançarote, with a fleet of eight ships, went upon a slave-taking expedition, and brought home two hundred captives, who were set to work on the domains of the Order of Christ in the Algarves, and in 1445 the same captain sailed with a fleet of fourteen ships from Lagos and brought home a still larger body of unfortunate slaves.
From this time forth the tracks made by the explorers were followed closely by the slave-dealers. Large profits were made in the trade, which had its centre at Lagos, and by the labour of the captives the great estates of southern Portugal were speedily brought under cultivation. The employment of slave labour was to have serious consequences in the near future; but at this period, during the life of Dom Henry, it had not yet begun to drive the poorer class of the Portuguese people out of work in the fields, and into more precarious modes of earning a livelihood.
It is not necessary to do more than notice the commencement of the slave trade here; it is far more important to trace the progress of the explorers. In 1445 Nuno Tristão sailed as far as the Senegal river, and in the same year, Diniz Dias, his most daring rival, discovered Guinea, and first saw the really black negroes. This advance, as a glance at the map will show, meant much; the Portuguese explorers had now thoroughly learnt how to find their way round the inhospitable shoulder of Northwest Africa; Cape Bojador and Cabo Branco had no terrors for them, and their hopes of reaching India were excited by finding that the coast trended abruptly to the east. The country, too, was very different to that which they had toiled around so slowly; the fertile land of Guinea with its powerful negroes, its spices and ivory, and its prospect of gold, gave them encouragement, and on their return, the acute merchants of Lisbon were not long in opening up a trade with the newly-discovered country. Unfortunately the slave trade accompanied the ventures of the Lisbon merchants, and the white men, instead of making friends with the blacks, did not hesitate to seize them and to sell them into slavery. The Church made no effort to restrain this traffic; the blacks were heathen, and so it was to their advantage to be brought to a Christian land to work, and perhaps to be converted.
The next two years were marked by the greatest activity. In 1446 Diniz Diaz reached Cape Verde, which he called by that name from its green appearance; and in the same year, Nuno Tristam was killed in a chase after slaves, and Alvaro Fernandes, the nephew of Joāo Gonçalves Zarco, who had discovered Madeira, starting from that island, went one hundred leagues further than Cape Verde, and left João Fernandes at his own request among the negroes. It is a strange commentary upon the death of Nuno Tristão, that Joao Fernandes was able to remain among the negroes for seven months in safety, learning their language and studying their customs. It shows that there was no deep-rooted antipathy between the whites and the blacks, and that the latter only attacked the Christians, when they showed themselves enemies, and tried to rob them of their liberty. João Fernandes was taken off in safety by Antam Gonçalves, in the year 1447, and testified to Prince Henry that the blacks, if heathen, were not monsters, but people of peaceful and affectionate dispositions.
This activity was followed by another pause. Dom Henry was deeply affected by the overthrow of his brother Dom Pedro; and his nephew, Affonso V., failed to give him the moral and material support he had formerly received. It is indeed a blot upon the reputation of "the Navigator” that he made no greater effort to assist the great regent, and that he was not by his side at Alfarrobeira. The next decade is marked only in the history of maritime exploration by the discoveries of Luigi Cadamosto, a Venetian, who had entered the service of Dom Henry, and who had become his right hand both as a cartographer and an explorer. On the voyages of Cadamosto there has been much controversy.
Some writers, resting upon certain notes of his, assert that he discovered the Gambia as early as 1445, and the Cape Verde Islands in 1446; but modern inquirers believe that he greatly antedated his discoveries in order to enhance his own glory. It is now generally believed that in his famous voyage in 1455 and 1456 he managed to get past the Senegal, and discovered the Gambia, and that the Cape Verde Islands were discovered in 1460 by Diogo Gomes. The tale that Cadamosto went as far as the Rio Grande is quite discredited, and seems in itself, apart from the evidence, to be most improbable.
The period of the discoveries made under the direction and inspiration of Prince Henry "the Navigator" was then at an end, for he died at Sagre on November 13, 1460. What he had done appears better from a study of the map then in any number of words. He had not discovered a direct sea route to India, but he had paved the way for it, and it was quite certain that, if it existed, the gallant captains trained by him would find the route in time. His services are beyond dispute, and though he left no successor to carry on the work he had given it such an impulse, that it remained only for the sailors themselves to complete it. He was never married, but was succeeded as Duke of Viseu, Lord of Beja and Madeira, and Grand Master of the Order of Christ, by his nephew, Dom Ferdinand, the second son of King Edward, and brother of Affonso V., whom he had adopted. This prince had also become Grand Master of the Order of Santiago by his marriage with his first cousin, Donna Leonor, daughter of Dom John, the fourth son of John "the Great," by whom he was father of Dom Manoel, or Emmanuel, who reigned under the title of Emmanuel "the Fortunate," and was to reap the fruits of the discoveries of Vasco da Gama and Pedro Alvares Cabral.
The death of Prince Henry did much to check maritime exploration for exploration's sake, and for the purpose of discovering the direct route to India; but the slave trade and the general trade with the Guinea Coast were growing into importance, and the results of the labours of the early Portuguese navigators were not forgotten. Affonso V. was more bent on his Moorish expeditions and his schemes upon the crown of Castile, than upon maritime discoveries; but, nevertheless, something of importance was done during his reign in strengthening the hold of the Portuguese upon the part of the African coast already known, and in making their topographical information more exact. What Affonso did was done rather to improve trade or protect it for the benefit of his own exchequer than for love of exploration.
It was for these reasons that he built a fort on the island of Arguin, near Cabo Branco, which became the depot for the trade with Guinea, and eventually he granted the monopoly of the trade with the African coast to Fernan Gomes for five hundred crusados a year. This enterprising merchant employed able captains, of whom the chief were João de Santarem, Pedro Escobar, and Lopo Gonçalves, who worked their way further along the coast; and in 1471, in which year Fernando Po discovered the islands of St. Thomas, Fernando Bom and Anno Bom, they crossed the equator, and explored as far as Cape St. Catherine.
John II., the successor of Affonso V., set the seal upon Prince Henry's labours. He it was who built the fort of Eimina, and took the title of Lord of Guinea; and it was in his reign that Diogo Cão or Cam discovered the Congo in 1484, and Bartholomeu Diaz reached Algoa Bay in 1486, and doubled the cape, which he called Cabo Tormentoso, or Stormy Cape, from the winds he met there, but which his sovereign, presaging from this fortunate voyage the future glory of his country, called the Cape of Good Hope. John II., like Prince Henry, was fated not to see the fulfilment of his dearest hopes, and it was not until the fifteenth century was within three years of its close that Vasco da Gama made his way from Lisbon to Calicut.
While, in political life and commercial prosperity, the people of Portugal had been at home becoming more civilized, more self-controlled, and more wealthy during the fifteenth century, its sailors had been growing more daring and enterprising. In the sixteenth century the Portuguese were to have their reward. Lisbon was to take the place of Venice as the depot for all the products of the Kast; the trade of Persia, India, China, Japan, and the Spice Islands, was to fall into their hands; they were to produce great captains and writers, and were to become the wealthiest nation in Europe. But that same sixteenth century was to see the Portuguese power sink, and the independence, won by Affonso Henriques and maintained by John "the Great," vanish away; it was to see Portugal, which had been the greatest nation of its time, decline in its fame, and become a mere province of Spain.
Hand in hand with increased wealth came corruption and depopulation, and within a single century after the epoch-making voyage of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese people, tamed by the Inquisition, were to show no sign of their former hardihood. This is the lesson that the Story of Portugal in the sixteenth century teaches, that the greatness of a nation depends not upon its wealth and commercial prosperity, but upon the thews and sinews and the stout hearts of its people.
Stephens, Henry Morse. Portugal. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1891.
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