 Chapter 10 of Prince Henry the Navigator, the Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Prince Henry the Navigator, by Charles Raymond Beasley. Chapter 10, Cape Bojado and the Azores, 1428-1441. But in spite of Zarco's success, Cape Bojado had not yet been passed, though every year from 1418 caravals had left Sagres to find the coasts of Guinea. In 1428, Dom Pedro, Henry's elder brother, had come home from his travels with all the books and charts he had collected to help the explorers, and it is practically certain that the Mapamundi given him in Venice acted as a direct suggestion to the next attempts on west and south, westward to the Azores, southward towards Guinea. Kept in the Royal Monastery of Alcobaza till late in the 16th century, though now irrecoverably lost, this treasure of Dom Pedro's, like his manuscripts of travel, would seem to have been used at the Sagres School till Prince Henry's death, and at least as early as 1431 its effect was seen in the first Portuguese recovery of the Azores. All the West African islands, plainly enough described in the Map of 1428, were half within, half without the knowledge of Christendom, ever and on being brought back or rediscovered by some accident or enterprise, and then being lost to sight and memory through the want of systematic exploration. This was exactly what the Portuguese supplied. The Azores, marked on the Laurentian Portulano of 1351, were practically unknown to semen, when, after eighty years had passed, Gonzalo Cabral was sent out from Sagres to find them, 1431. He reached the Formiga Group, the And Islands, and next year, 1432, returned to make further discoveries, chiefly of the island Santa Maria. But the more important advances on this side were made between 1444 and 1450, after the first colony had been planted twelve or fourteen years, and were the result of the Prince's theoretical correction of his captain's practical oversight. From a comparison of old maps and descriptions with their accounts, he was able to correct their line of sail, and so to direct them to the very islands they had searched for in vain. But as yet these results were far distant, and the slow and sure progress of African coasting toward Cape Bojado was the chief outcome of Pedro's help. In 1430, 1431, and 1432, the infant urged upon his captains the paramount importance of rounding the Cape, which had baffled all his caravals by strong ocean currents and dangerous rocks. At last this became the Prince's one command, pass the Cape if you do nothing beyond. Yet the years went by, King John of Good Memory died in 1433, and Jiu-Eranish, sent out in the same year with strong hopes of success, turned aside at the canneries, and only brought a few slaves back to Portugal. A large party at court and the army, and among the nobles and merchant classes, complained bitterly of the utter want of profit from Henry's schemes, and there was at this time a danger of the collapse of his movement. For though as yet he paid his own expenses, his treasury could not long have stood to drain without any incoming. Bojado, the pound for bulging Cape, 180 miles beyond Cape Nonne, had been since the days of the Laurentian Portulano, 1351, and the Catalan and Portuguese voyages of 1341 and 1346, the southmost point of Christian knowledge. A long circuit was needed here, as at the Cape of Good Hope, to round a promontory that stretched, men said, fully 100 miles into the ocean, where tides and shoals formed a current 20 miles across. It was the sight or the fancy of this furious surge which frightened Henry's crews, for it plainly forbade all coasting, and compelled the seaman to strike into the open sea, out of sight of land. And though the discovery of Porto Santo had proved the feasibility and the gain of venturing boldly into the sea of darkness, and though since that time, 1418, the Prince had sent out his captains due west to the Azores, and southwest to Madeira, both hundreds of miles from the continent, yet in rounding Bojado, there were not only the real terrors of the Atlantic, but the legends of the tropics to frighten back the boldest. Most mariners had heard it said that any Christian who passed Bojado would infallibly be changed into a black, and would carry to his end this mark of God's vengeance on his insolent prying. The Arab tradition of the Green Sea of Night had too strongly taken hold of Christian thought to be easily shaken off, and it was beyond the cape which bounded their knowledge that the Saracen geographers had fringed the coast of Africa with sea monsters, and serpent rocks and water unicorns, instead of place names, and had drawn the horrible giant hand of Satan raised above the waves to seize the first of his human prey that would venture into his den. If God made the firm earth, the devil made the unknown and treacherous ocean. This was the real lesson of most of the medieval maps, and it was this ingrained superstition that Henry found his worst enemy, appearing as it did sometimes even in his most trusted endearing captains. And then again the legends of tropical Africa of the mainland beyond Bojado were hardly less terrible than those of the tropical ocean. The dark continent, with its surrounding sea of darkness, was the home of mystery and legend. We have seen how ready the Arabs were to write uninhabitable over any unknown country. Dark seas and lands were simply those that were dark to them, like the dark ages to others. But nowhere did their imagination revel in genies and fairies and magicians, and all the horrors of hell, with more enthusiastic and genial interest than in Africa. Here only the northern parts could be lived in by man, and the south and central deserts, as we have heard from the Muslim doctors themselves, the sun poured down sheets of liquid flame upon the ground, and kept the sea and the rivers boiling day and night with the fiery heat. So any sailors would of course be boiled alive as soon as they got near to the torrid zone. It was this kind of learning, discredited but not forgotten, that was still in the minds of Zhueonis and his friends when they came home in 1433 with lame excuses to Henry's court. The currents and south winds had stopped them, they said. It was impossible to get round Bojadour. The prince was roused. He ordered the same captain to return next year and try the cape again. His men ought to have learned something better than the childish fables of pastime. And if, said he, there were even any truth in these stories that they tell, I would not blame you, but you come to me with the tales of four seamen who perhaps know the voyage to the low countries or some other coasting route, but except for this, don't know how to use needle or sailing chart. Go out again and heed them not, for by God's help fame and profit must come from your voyage if you will but persevere. The prince was backed by the warm encouragement of the new king, Edward, his eldest brother, who had only been one month upon the throne when he bestowed himself to shoo his favour to a national movement of discovery. King John had died on August 14, 1433, the anniversary of Aujo Barota, and on September 26 of the same year, by a charter given from Sintra, King Edward granted the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo with the desertas to Henry as grandmaster of the order of Christ. With this encouragement, the infant sent out Jue Anis in 1434 under the strongest charge not to return without a good account of the cape and the seas beyond. Running far out into the open, his caravelle doubled Bojador, and coming back to the coast found the sea as easy to sail in as the waters at home, and the land very rich and pleasant. They landed and discovered no trace of men or houses, but gathered plants, such as were called in Portugal St. Mary's Roses, to present to Don Henry. Not even the southern cape of tempests or good hope was so long an obstinate a barrier as Bojador had been, and the passing of this difficulty proved the salvation of the prince's schemes. Though again and again interrupted by political troubles between 1437 and 1449, the advance at sea went on, and never again was there a serious danger of the failure of the whole movement through general opposition and discontent. In 1435, Jue Anis was sent out again to follow up his success with Afonso Baldaya, the prince's cut-bearer, in a larger vessel than had yet been risked in exploration, called a verinal, or oared galley. The two captains passed fifty leagues, one hundred and fifty miles, beyond the cape, and found traces of caravans, reached as far as an inlet they named Gernet Bay from its shoals of fish, and again put back to Lagos early in the year. They were still several months left for ocean sailing in 1435, and Harriet once dispatched Baldaya again in his verinal, with orders to go as far as he could along the coast, at least till he could find some natives. One of these he was to bring home with him. Baldaya, accordingly, sailed a hundred thirty leagues, three hundred ninety miles, beyond Cape Bojador, till he reached an estuary, running some twenty miles up the country, and promising to lead to a great river. This might prove to be the western Nile of the Negroes, or the famous River of Gold, Baldaya thought, and though it proved to be only an inlet of the sea, the name of Rio de Ouro, then given by the first hopes of the Portuguese, has outlasted the disappointment that found only a sandy reach instead of a waterway to the mountains of the moon and the kingdom of Prestur John. Baldaya anchored here, landed a couple of horses which the infant had given him to scour the country, and set two young noble gentlemen upon them to ride up country, to look for signs of natives, and if possible to bring back one captive to the ship. Taking nobody armor, but only lance and sword, the boys followed the river to its source, seven leagues up the country, and here came suddenly upon nineteen savages armed with asigais. They rode up to them, and drove them out of the open, up to a loose mound of stones. Then, as evening was coming on, and they could not secure a prisoner, they rode back to the sea, and reached the ship about the dawn of day. And of these boys, says the chronicler, I myself knew one when he was a noble gentleman of good renown and arms. His name was a Torhome, and you will find him in our history well-proved and brave deeds. The other, named Lopes de Almeida, was a noble man of good presence, as I have heard from those who knew him. The first landing of Europeans on the coasts of unknown Africa, since the days of Carthaginian colonies, is one of the great moments in this story of western expansion and discovery. For it means that Christendom, on her western side, has, at last, got beyond the first circle of her enemies, the belt of settled Muslim ground, and has begun to touch the wider world outside, on the shores of the ocean, as well as along the eastern trade routes. And it almost seemed to be of little practical value that Marco Polo and the friars and traders who followed him had passed Islam in Asia and reached even furthest tartary, for it only made more clear that Asia was not Christian, and that there would have to be a deadly struggle, before European influence could be restored on this side to what it had been under Alexander. But on the west, by the Atlantic coasts, when Morocco had been passed, there were only scattered savage tribes to be dealt with. Baudaia had now reached the pagans beyond Islam. The rival civilization of the Arabs and their converts had been almost outflanked by Don Harry's ships, and the boys who rode up the Hiodoru beach in 1435 were the first pickets of a great army. Their charge upon a body of grown men ten times their number was a prophecy of the coming conquests of Christian Europe in the new worlds it was now in Sarchev, in south and east and west. Now Baudaia instantly followed up his pioneers. He took a party in his ship's boat and rode up the stream to the scene of the fight, with the boys on horseback riding by the bank and chewing him the stone heap where the natives had rallied on the day before. But in the night they had all fled further up country, leaving most of their miserable goods behind. All these were carried off and the Portuguese left the Bay of the Horses as they called his farthest reach of the Hiodoru and pulled back to the verano without any further success than a wholesome disappointment. They must go farther southward if they were to find the Western Isle and the way round Africa. Still, Baudaia was not content. He wished to carry back a prisoner as Henry had charged him and so he coasted along 50 leagues more from the Hiodoru to the Port of Gali, a rock that looked like a galley where there was a more prominent headland than he had passed since Bojadu. Here he landed once again and found some native nets made of the bark of trees but none of the natives who made them. In the early months of 1436 he and his verano were again in Portuguese waters, but the land had now been touched that lay 300 miles beyond the old African Finestary and in two years, 1434, 1436, Portugal and all the Christian nations through Henry's work had entered on a new chapter of history. The narrower world of the Roman Empire and the medieval church was already growing into the modern globe in the breakup of that old terror of the sea which had so long fixed for men the balance that they must not pass. The land routes had been cleared to Western knowledge, though not mastered by the Crusades. Now the far more dreaded and unknown waterway was fairly entered. For up to this time there is no fair evidence that either Christian or Moorish enterprise had ever rounded Bojadu and the theoretical marking of it upon maps was a very different thing from the experience that it was just like any other Cape and no more an end of the world than Capes and Vincent itself. Neither Genoese nor Catalans nor Normans of Dieppe nor the Arab Wanderers of Idrisi and Ibn Said were before Don Henry now. His discoveries of the Atlantic islands were findings, rediscoveries. His coast voyages from the year 1433 are all ventures in the true unknown but from 1436 to 1441 from Baldaia's second return to the start of Nunu Tristão and Antón Gonçalves for Cape Blanco exploration was not successful or energetic. The simple cause of this was the infant's other business and these years to place the fatal attempt on Tangier the death of King Edward and the troubles of the minority of his child Afonso V Afonso the African conqueror of later years. True it is we read in our chronicle of the discovery of Guinea that in these years there went to those parts two ships one at a time but the first turned back in the face of bad weather and the other only went to the Rio Douro for the skins and oil of sea wolves and after taking in a cargo of these went back to Portugal and true it is too that in the year 1440 they were armed and sent out two caravals to go to that same land but in that they met with contrary fortune we do not tell any more of their voyage. End of chapter 10 Chapter 11 Prince Henry the Navigator the hero of Portugal and of modern discovery this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Butros Prince Henry the Navigator by Charles Raymond Beasley Chapter 11 Henry's political life 1433 to 1441 the prince's exile from politics in his hermitage at Sagres could not be absolutely unbroken he was ready to come back to court and to the battlefield when he was needed so he appeared at the deathbed of his father in 1433 and of his brother in 1438 at the siege of Tangier in 1437 and during the first years of the Regency 1438 to 1440 he helped to govern for his nephew Edward's son Afonso from 1436 till 1441 he did not seriously turn his attention back to discovery. What is chiefly interesting in the story of these years is they have religious reverence paid to Henry by his brothers by Cortez and the whole people he was above and beyond his age but not so much as to be beyond its understanding he was not a leader where there are no followers he was one of the fortunate beings who are most valued by those who have lived on the closest terms with them by father and by brothers it was believed throughout the kingdom that King John's last words were an encouragement to the infant to persevere in his right laudable purpose of spreading the Christian faith in the lands of darkness whether true or not at any rate it was felt to fit the place and the man and Henry's brothers Pedro and Edward took up loyally their father's commission to keep peace at home and sailing ships on the sea but the new reign was short and full of trouble King Edward had scarcely been crowned when the scheme of an African war was revived by Don Ferdinand the fourth of the famous infants of the house of Avis 1433 Ferdinand always a crusader at heart had refused a cardinal's hat that he might keep his strength for killing the enemies of Christ and in Henry he found a ready listener it was the navigator in fact who planned and organized the scheme of campaign now pressed upon the king and the country it was perfectly natural that he should do so the war of Kuwaita had been of the first importance to his work of discovery it had been largely his own achievement and his wish to conquer heathens and saracens and to make good Christians of them was hardly less strong than his natural bent for discovery and exploring settlement he now took up Ferdinand's suggestion made of it a definite project for a storm of Tangier and rung a reluctant consent from Edward and from Cortez the chief hindrance was lack of money even the popularity of the government could not prevent sore grudging and murmuring among the people Don Pedro himself was against the whole plan and from respect to his wishes the question was referred to the pope are we to make war on the infidels or no if the infidels in question answered the curia were in Christian land and used Christian churches as mosques of Muhammad or if they made incursions upon Christians though always returning to their own land or if doing none of these things they were idolaters or sinned against nature the princes of Portugal would do right to levy war upon them but this should be done with prudence and piety lest the people of christ should suffer loss further it was only just to tax a christian people for support of an infidel war when the said war was of necessity in defense of the kingdom if the war was voluntary for the conquering of fresh lands from the heathen it could only be waged at the king's own cost but before this answer arrived the armament had been made ready and things had gone too far to draw back the queen was eager for the war and had brought king Edward to a more willing consent so in the face of bad omens and illness of prince Ferdinand's and the warning words of Don Pedro the troops were put on board ship august 17th 1437 on august 22nd they set sail and on the 26th landed at Cueta where menensis still commanded the european triumphs of 1415 and 1418 were still fresh in the memories of the moors and Don Henry was remembered as their hero so it was to him that the tribes of the Beni Hamid sent offers of submission and tribute on the first news of the invasion the prince accepted their presence of gold and silver cattle and wood and left them in peace during the war for the forces he had with him were barely sufficient for the siege of Tangier out of 14 000 men levied in Portugal only 6 000 answered the roll call in Cueta a great number had chirped the dangers of Africa and the room on shipboard had in itself been absurdly insufficient the transports provided were just enough for the battalions that actually crossed and for a fresh supply they must be sent back to Lisbon in the council of war most were agreed upon this as the best thing on paper but the practical difficulties were so great that Henry decided not to wait for reinforcements but to push forward with the troops in hand the direct road to Tangier by way of Ximera was now found impassable and it was determined to march the army round by Techuon while the fleet was brought up along the coast Ferdinand who was still suffering and unequal to the land journey was to go by sea while his elder brother as chief captain of the whole armament undertook to force his way along the inland routes in this he was successful in three days he came before Techuon which opened its gates at once and on September 23rd without losing a single man he appeared before old Tangier where Ferdinand was already waiting his arrival a rumor was now spread that the Moors were flying from Tangier as they had fled from Cueta castle two and twenty years before but Zala Benzala who commanded here as he had done there now knew better how to defend a town with the desperate courage of his Spanish foes the attack instantly ordered by Henry on the gates of Tangier were roughly repulsed and for the next fortnight the losses of the crusaders were so heavy that the siege was turned into a blockade on September 30th 10,000 horse and 90,000 foot came down from the upland to the coast for the relief of Tangier Henry promptly led his little army into the open and ordered an attack and the vast Moorish host which had taken up its station on a hill within sight of the camp not daring to accept the challenge wavered broke and rushed headlong to the mountains but after three days they reappeared in greater numbers and even ventured down into the plain again Henry drove them back again next day they returned at last after their force had been swollen to 130,000 men and by overwhelming numbers had compelled the Christians to keep within their trenches they threw themselves upon the Portuguese outposts after a desperate struggle they were repulsed and a sally from the town was beaten back at the same time the Europeans seemed ready to meet any odds with these victories Henry was confident that Tangier must soon fall he ordered another escalade but all his scaling ladders were burnt or broken and many of his men crushed beneath the overhanging parts of the wall that were pushed down bodily upon the storming parties in this final assault of the 5th of October two Moors were taken who told Henry of immense soakers now coming up under the kings of Fez of Morocco and of Tafelet they had with them said the captives at least 100,000 horse their infantry was beyond count sure enough on the 9th of October the hills round Tangier seemed covered with the native armies and it became clear that the siege must be raised all that was left for Henry was to bring off his soldiers in safety he tried his best with quiet energy he issued his orders for all contingents the Marines and seamen were to embark at once the artillery was given in charge of the Marshal of the Kingdom Almada the Hercules of Portugal was to draw up the foot in line of battle the infant himself took his station with the cavalry on a small piece of rising ground when the Moors charged they were well received in spite of all their strength one army being held ready to take another's place as men grew tired the Portuguese held their own Henry had a horse killed under him Cabral his master of horse fell at his side with five and 20 of his men the cowardice of one regiment who fled to the ships almost ruined the defense but when night fell the Moorish columns fell sullenly back and left the infant one more chance of flight and safety it was the only hope and even this was lost through the desertion of a trader Martin Vieira the apostate priest once Henry's chaplain now gave up to the enemy's generals the whole plan of escape after a long debate it was determined not to massacre the Christian army but to take sureties from them that Kuwaita should be restored with all the Moorish captives in the prince's hands these terms were accepted for it was soon known that escape was hopeless but next morning a large party of Moors with more than the ordinary Muslim treachery made a last fierce attempt to surprise the camp for eight hours eight separate attacks went on when all had failed the retreating Berbers tried to set fire to the woodwork of the entrenchments with the greatest trouble Henry saved his timbers and undercover of night fortified a new and smaller camp close to the shore food and water had both run short and the besiegers who were now become the besieged had to kill their horses and cook them with saddles for fuel they were saved from a fatal drought by a lucky shower of rain but their ruin was only a matter of time for it was hopeless to try an embarkation under the walls of the city with all the hosts of Morocco waiting for the first chance of a successful storm but the losses of the native kings and chiefs had been so great that they were ready to sign a written truce and to keep their cutthroats to the terms of it on the 15th of October Don Henry for the Portuguese agreed that Kuwaita with all the Moorish prisoners kept in guard by Manenzes should be given up and that no further attack should be made by the king of Portugal on any side of Barbary for 100 years the arms and baggage of the crusaders were to be surrendered at once directly this was done they were to embark with none of the honors of war and to sail back at once to europe Don Ferdinand was left with 12 nobles as hostages for the treaty till Kuwaita was restored on the other side Zala Benzala's eldest son was all the security given even after this a plot was laid to massacre the Christian dogs as they passed through the streets of Tangier on their free passage to the harbor which the treaty secured them Henry got wind of this just in time and instantly embarked his men by boats from the shore outside the walls but his rear guard was set upon just as they were leaving the land and about 60 were killed it was a terrible disaster although his losses were but some 500 killed and disabled Henry was overcome with the disgrace as he thought of his brother among the Moors he refused to show his face in Portugal and shut himself up in Kuwaita here as he worried himself to find some means of saving Ferdinand he fell dangerously ill till fresh hope came to him with the arrival of Don John whom Edward had sent to the help of his brothers with some reserves from Algarve Henry and John consulted about Ferdinand's ransom and at last offered their chief hostage Zala Benzala's boy as an exchange for the infant it was the only ransom they told the Moors that would ever be thought of Kuwaita would never be surrendered Don John's mission was a failure as might have been expected and both the princes were now recalled to Portugal where Henry steadily refused to go to court staying at Sagras in an almost complete retirement from his usual interest till King Edward's death forced him again into action it was the unavoidable shame of the only choice given to himself and the kingdom that paralyzed his energy and made him moody and helpless through this time of inaction and disgrace captive he saw his brother Bright Ferdinand the saint aspiring high with purpose brave who as a hostage in the Saracen's hand betrayed himself his Ligard host to save lest bought with price of Ceeta's potent town to public welfare be preferred his own the mere failure to storm Tangier was brilliantly atoned for by the bravery of the army and the repeated victories over immensely superior force but now either Kuwaita must be exchanged for Ferdinand or the youngest and favorite brother of the House of Evies must be left to die among the Berbers many if not most of the Cortes summoned in 1438 to Laria to discuss the ransom were in favor of letting Kuwaita go but all the chiefs of the government except the King himself thought it not just to deliver a whole people to the fury of the infidels for the liberty of one man even Henry at last agreed in this with Don Pedro and Don John Edward was in despair he was willing to pay almost any price to recover Ferdinand and in hopes of finding support he now appealed from his own royal house and his nobles to the Pope the Cardinals and the crowned heads of Europe all agreed that a Christian city must not be bartered even for a Christian Prince Edward's offers of money and perpetual peace were scornfully rejected by the Moors who held to their bond Kuwaita or nothing and their wretched captive treated to all the filthy horrors of Muslim imprisonment and slavery and torture died under his agony in the sixth year of his living death and the 41st of his age 5th June 1443 before this his loss had dragged down to the same fate his eldest brother King Edward and but for the inspiration of a great purpose which again put meaning into his life Henry might have died of the same illness of soul every Portuguese burned to revenge the constant Prince the Pope was called upon to approve a new crusade levies were made and vessels built when the plague broke out with terrible violence and ravaged every class and every district as it had not since the days of the black death the king seized by it in his misery and weakness and bitter disappointment fell a victim the wreck of all his hopes left him with hardly a wish to live and on September 9 1438 at the age of 47 and after a reign of five years he died at Thommar in the act of breaking open a letter but not before Henry had come to his side to the last he kept on working for his people and it was in the fatigue of traveling from one plague stricken town to another that he caught the pest among all the kings of Christendom there was never a better or nobler or more luckless and Alfred with the fortune of unready ethyl red by his last will there was fresh trouble provided for Don Henry and Don Pedro and the Cortez his successor the child of Fonso the 5th now six years of age was strictly charged to rescue Ferdinand even at the price of quota this was nothing to practical politics but in naming his wife Leonor of Aragon along with Don Pedro and Don Henry as guardian of his children and regent of the kingdom he put power in the wrong place the Portuguese were always intensely suspicious of foreign government and after the age of Leonora tell us they might well refuse a female regent on the other side king Edwards queen who had won his absolute trust as a wife and a mother was not willing to stand aside for Pedro or for Henry she began to organize a party and she worked on her side the nobles and the patriots counterworked on theirs Don John was the first of her husband's brothers to take his natural place as a leader of the national opposition Henry for a time seemed to waiver between friendship and loyalty all who knew the queen loved her but the people hated the very notion of a foreign female reign like John Knox they could not be fair to the monstrous regiment of women and their voices grew clearer and clearer for Don Pedro and his rights real or supposed the eldest of the young king's uncles the right hand man of the state since his return from travel in 1428 he was the proper guardian of the kingdom Henry was a willing exile from most of court life though his support was the greatest moral strength of any government John had begun the movement of discontent but no one thought of him before his brothers while they lived his only part was in helping them on their way Donna Leonor recognized her chief danger in Don Pedro and tried to win him over when she summoned Cortez she pressed him to sign the royal ritz then she offered to betroth his daughter Isabel to her son Pedro secured a written promise and waited for the opening of the national assembly in 1439 here a fierce outcry was raised by a party of the nobles against the marriage settlement of their king but Don Pedro was too strong to be put down he moved on by slow and steady intrigue towards the regency he claimed Henry had now appeared as peacemaker and in his brother's interests arranged a compromise the queen was to keep the actual charge of her children and to train the little king for his duties Pedro was to govern the state as defender of the kingdom and of the king the count of barcelos soon to be Duke of Braganza the leader of the factious and fractious party was to be bought off with the administration of the justice of the interior the queen at first struggled on against this dethronement fortified herself in Alamque and sent for help from her old home in Aragon at this the mob rose in fury and only Henry was able to prevent a massacre and a war that would have stopped the expansion of Portugal abroad for many a day he went straight to Alamque 1439 talked Queen Leonor into reason and brought her back with him to Lisbon where she introduced Afonso to his people and his parliament for another year Henry stayed at court completing his work of settlement and reconciliation and towards the end of 1440 that work seemed fairly safe the fear of civil war was over Don Pedro's government was well started Henry could now go back to Sagras to his other work of discovery it was time to do something on this side for in the past five years a scarcely any progress had been made to Guinea and the Indies end of chapter 11 chapter 12 part one Prince Henry the navigator the hero of Portugal and of modern discovery this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Rita Boutros Prince Henry the navigator by Charles Raymond Beasley chapter 12 part one from Bohedor to Cape Verde 1441 to 1445 but with the year 1441 discovery begins again in earnest and the original narratives of Henry's captains which old Azurara has preserved in his chronicle become full of life and interest from this point to the year 1448 where ends the chronica its tale is exceedingly picturesque as it was written down from the remembrance of eyewitnesses and actors in the discoveries and conquests it records and though the detail may be wearisome to a modern reader as a wordy and emotional and unscientific history yet the story told is delightfully fresh and vivid and it is told with a simple naivete and truth that seems now almost lost in the self-consciousness of modern literature it seems to me says our author Azurara's favorite way of alluding to himself that the recital of this history should give as much pleasure as any other matter by which we satisfy the wish of our prince and the said wish became all the greater as the things for which he had toiled so long were more within his view wherefore i will now try to tell of something new of some progress in his wearisome seed time of preparation now it was so that in this year 1441 as the affairs of the kingdom had now some repose though it was not to be a long one the infant caused them to arm a little ship which he gave to antem ganzalves his chamberlain a young captain only charging him to load a cargo of skins and oil for because his age was so informed and his authority of needs so slight he laid all the lighter his commands upon him and looked for all the less in performance but when antem ganzalves had performed the voyage that had been ordered him he called a fanso goteiras another stripling of the infant's household and the men of his ship who were in all 21 and said to them brothers and friends it seems to me to be shame to turn back to our lord's presence with so little service done just as we have received the less strict orders to do more than this so much more ought we to try it with the greater zeal and how noble an action would it be if we who came here only to take a cargo of such wretched merchandise as these sea wolves should be the first to bring a native prisoner before the presence of our lord in reason we ought to find some here about for it is certain there are people and that they traffic with camels and other beasts who bear their merchandise and the traffic of these men must be chiefly towards the sea and back again and since they have yet no knowledge of us they will be scattered and off their guard so that we can seize them with all which our lord the infant will be not a little content as he will thus have knowledge of who and what sort of people are the dwellers in this land then what shall be our reward you know well enough from the great expense and trouble our prince has been at in past years only to this one end the crew shouted a hardy do as you please we will follow and in the night following antungan salvus set aside nine men who seemed to him most fit and went up from the shore about three miles till they came on a path which they followed thinking that by this they might come up with some man or woman whom they might catch and going on nine miles farther they came upon a track of some 40 or 50 men and boys as they thought who had been coming the opposite way of that our men were going now the heat was very great and by reason of that as well as of the trouble they had been at the long tramp they had on foot and the failure of water and time guns alvis saw the weariness of his men that it was very great so let us turn back and follow after these men said he and turning back toward the sea they came upon a man stark naked walking after and driving a camel with two spears in his hand and of our men as they rushed on after him there was not one who kept any remembrance of his great weariness as for the native though he was quite alone and saw so many coming down upon him he stood on his defense as if wishing to show that he could use those weapons of his and making his face by far more fierce than his courage was warrant for a font so go terrace struck him with a dart and the more frightened by his wounds threw down his arms like a conquered thing and so was taken not without great joy of our men and going on a little farther they saw upon a hill the people whose track they followed and they did not want the will to make for these also but the sun was now very low and they very weary and thinking that to risk more might bring them rather damaged than profit they determined to go back to their ship but as they were going they came upon a blackamore woman a slave of the people on the hill and some were minded to let her alone for fear of raising a fresh skirmish which was not convenient in the face of the people on the hill who were still in sight and more than twice their number but the others were not so poor spirited as to leave the matter thus and Tim Gunsalvis crying out vehemently that they should seize her so the woman was taken and those on the hill made a show of coming down to her rescue but seeing our men quite ready to receive them they first retraced their steps and then made off in the opposite direction and so and Tim Gunsalvis took the first captives and for that the philosopher seeth resumes the next chapter of the chronicle that the beginning is two parts of the whole matter great praise should be given to this noble squire who now received his knighthood as we shall tell for now we have to see how Nuno Tristam a noble knight valiant and zealous who had been brought up from boyhood at the infant's court came to that place where was Anton Gunsalvis bringing with him an armed caravelle with the express order of his lord that he was to go to the port of galley and as far beyond as he could and that he should try and make some prisoners by every means in his power and you may imagine what was the joy of the two captains both natives of one and the self-same realm and brought up in one and the self-same household thus to meet so far from home and now Nuno Tristam said that an arab he had brought with him a servant of the infant should speak with Gunsalvis's prisoners and see if he understood their tongue and that if he understood it it would profit them much thus to know all the state and conditions of the people of that land but the tongue of the arab was very different from that of the captives so that they could not understand each other and when Nuno Tristam perceived that he could not learn any more of the manner of that land he would feign be gone but envy made him wish to do something before the eyes of his fellows that should be good for all you know he said to Anton Gunsalvis that for 15 years the infant has been seeking in vain for certain news of this land and its people in what law or lordship they do live now let us take 20 men 10 from each of the crews and go up country in search of those that you found not so said the other for those whom we saw will have warned all the others and pair adventure when we are looking out to capture them we may in our turn become their prisoners now where we have gained a victory let us not return to suffer loss Nuno Tristam said this council was good but there were two squires whose longing to do well outran all besides Gonzalo de Sintra was the first of these whose valor we shall know more of in the progress of this history and he counseled that as soon as it was night they should set out in search of the natives and so it was determined and such was their good fortune that they came early in the night to where the people lay scattered in two dwellings now the place between the two was but small and our men divided themselves in three parties and began to shout at the top of their voice portugal saint james for portugal the noise of which threw the enemy into such confusion that they began to run without any order as ours fell upon them the men only made some show of defending themselves with asigais especially to who fought with Nuno Tristam till they received their death three others were killed and ten were taken of men women and children but without question many more would have been killed or taken if all our men had rushed in together at the first and among those who were taken was one of their chiefs named adahu who shooed full well in his face that he was no blur than the rest then when the matter was well over all came to entom gonzales and begged him to be made a night while he said it was against reason that for so small a service he should have so great an honor and that his age would not allow it and that he would not take it without doing greater things than these and much more of that sort but at last by the instant demand of all others Nuno Tristam knighted entom gonzales and the place was called from that time port of the cavalier when the party got back to the ships Nuno Tristam's arab was set to work again with no better success for the language of the captives was not moorish but as a negai of Sahara the tongue of the great desert zone of west africa between the end of the northern strip of fertile country round fez and morocco and the beginning of the rich tropical region at the senegal where the first real blacks were found the portuguese were in despair of finding a prisoner who could tell the lord infant what he wanted to know but now the chief even as he showed that he was more noble than the other captives so now it appeared that he had seen more than they and had been to other lands where he had learned the moorish tongue so that he understood our arab and answered to whatever was asked of him and so to make trial of the people of the land and to have of them more certain knowledge they put that arab on shore and one of the moorish women there captives with him who were to speak to the natives if they could about the ransom of those they had taken and about exchange of merchandise and at the end of two days there came down to the shore quite 150 moors on foot and 35 mounted on camels and horses and though they seemed to be a race both barbarous and bestial there was not wanting in them a certain sharpness with which they could cheat their enemies for at first there only appeared three of them on the beach and the rest lay in ambush till our men should land and they could rush out and master them which thing they could easily have done so many were they if our men had been a wit less sharp than themselves but when the moors saw that our boats did not land but turned back again to the ship they discovered their treachery and all came down in a body upon the beach hurling stones and making gestures of defiance showing us the arab we had sent to them as a captive in their hands so our men came back to the ship and made their division of the prisoners according to the lot of each and anton gan salves turned back because he had now loaded his caravel with the cargo that the infant had ordered him but nuno tristam went on as he for his part had in charge but as his vessel was in need of repair he put to shore and careened and refitted it as well as he could keeping his tides as if he were before the port of lisbon at which boldness of his many wondered greatly and sailing on again he passed the port of galley and came to a cape which he called the white cape blanco where the crew landed to see if they could make any captures but after finding only the tracks of men and some nets they turned back seeing that for that time they could not do any more than they had already done and tim can salves came home first with his part of the booty and then arrived nuno tristam whose present reception and future reward were answerable to the trouble he had borne like a fertile land that with but little sowing answers the husband man the chief or cavalier as he is called whom anton gan salves brought home was able to make the infant understand a great deal of the state of that land where he had been though as for the rest they were pretty well useless except as slaves for their tongue could not be understood by any other moors who had been in that land but the prince was so encouraged by the sight of the first captives that he at once began to think how it would be necessary to send to those parts many a time his ships and crews well armed where they would have to fight with the infidels so he determined to send at once to the holy father and ask of him that he should give him of the treasures of holy church for the salvation of the souls of those who in this conquest should meet their end pope eugenius the fourth then reigning if not governing in the great apostolic sea of the west answered this appeal with great joy and with all the rhetoric of the papal register as it hath now been notified to us by our beloved son henry duke visu master of the order of christ that trusting firmly in the aid of god for the confusion of the moors and enemies of christ in those lands that they have desolated and for the exultation of the catholic faith and because that the knights and brethren of the said order of christ against the said moors and other enemies of the faith have waged war with the grace of god under the banner of the said order and to the intent that they may be stir themselves to the said war with yet greater fervor we do to each and all of those engaged in the said war by apostolic authority and by these letters grant full remission of all those sins of which they shall be truly penitent at heart and of which they have made confession by their mouth and whoever breaks contradicts or acts against the letter of this mandate let him lie under the curse of the almighty god and of the blessed apostles peter and paul and besides adds the chronicle rather quaintly of more temporal and material benefits the infant d paedral then regent of the kingdom gave to his brother henry a charter granting him the whole of the fifth of the prophets which appertained to the king and considering that it was by him alone that the whole matter of the discovery was carried out at infinite trouble and expense he ordered further that no one should go to these parts without d henry's license and express command the chronicle which has told us how entom gonzales made the first captives now goes on to say how the same one of the princes captains made the first ransom for the captive chief that cavalier of whom we spoke henry's first prize from the lands beyond bohador pined away in europe and many times begged of entom gonzales that he would take him back to his own land where as he said they would give for him five or six black amores and he said to that there were two boys among the other captives for whom they would get a like ransom so the infant sent him back with gonzales to his own people as it was better to save ten souls than three for though they were black yet had they souls like others all the more as they were not of morish race but he then and so all the easier to lead into the way of salvation from the negroes to it would be possible to get news of the land beyond them for not only of the negro land did the infant wish to know more certainly but also of the indies and of the land of prester john so gonzales sailed with his ransom and in his ship went a noble stranger like vey arthe the dane whom we shall meet later on one of a kind which was always being drawn to henry's court this was balthazar the austrian a gentleman of the emperor's household who had entered the infant service to try his fortune at coeta where he had got his knighthood and who now was often heard to say that his great wish was to see a storm before he left that land of portugal that he might tell those who had never seen one what it was like and certainly his fortune favored him for at the first start they met with such a storm that it was by a marvel they escaped destruction again they put out to sea and this time reached the rio dioro in safety where they landed their chief prisoner very well vested in the robes that the infant had ordered to be given him under promise that he would soon come back and bring his tribe with him but as soon as he got safely off he very soon forgot his promises which antem gonzales had trusted thinking that his nobility would hold him fast and not let him break his word but by this deceit all our men got warning that they could not trust any of the natives save under the most certain security the ships now went 12 miles up the rio dioro cast anchor and waited seven days without a sign of anybody but on the eighth there came a moor on top of a white camel with fully 100 others who had all joined to ransom the two boys ten of the tribe were given in exchange for the young chiefs and the man who managed this barter was one martin fernandez the infant's own ransomer of captives who should well that he had knowledge of the moorish tongue for he was understood by those people whom nunal tristems arab more though he was by nation could not possibly get speech with except only the one chief who had now escaped with the black amores antem gonzales got as ransom what was even more precious a little gold dust the first ever brought by europeans direct from the guinea coast which more thoroughly won the prince's cause at home and brought over more enemies and scoffers and indifference to his side than all the discoveries in the world many ostrich eggs too were included in the native ransom such that one day men saw at the infant's table three dishes of the same as fresh and as good as those of any other domestic fouls did the court of sagoras suppose the ostrich to be some large kind of hen what was still more to the prince's mind those same moors related that in those parts there were merchants who trafficked in that gold that was found there among them the same merchants in fact whose caravans henry had already known on the Mediterranean coast and whose starting point he had now begun to touch ever since the days of the first caliphs this sahara commerce had gone on under the control of islam for centuries these caravans had crossed the valleys and planes to the south of morocco and sold their goods pepper slaves and gold dust in muslim kuwaita and muslim and aluja now after 700 years of monopoly this muslim trade was broken in upon by the europeans who in 50 years time broke into the greater monopoly of the indian seas when digama sailed from lisbon to malabar 1497 to 1499 next year 1443 came nuno tristam's turn once more people were now eager to sail in the infant's service after the slaves and still more the gold dust had been really seen and handled in portugal and that noble cavalier for each and all of the three reasons of his fellows to serve his lord to gain honor to increase his profit was eager to follow up his first successes commanding a caravelle manned in great part from the princess household he went out straight to cape blanco the white headland which he had been the first to reach in 1441 passing 25 leagues 75 miles beyond into the bank or bite of arguin he saw a little island from which 25 canoes came off to meet him all hollowed out of logs of wood with a host of native savages naked not for swimming in the water but for their ancient custom the natives hung their legs over the sides of their boats and paddled with them like oars so that our men looking at them from a distance and quite unused to the site thought they were birds that were skimming so over the water as for their size the sailors expected much greater marvels in those parts of the world where every map and travelers tale made the sea swarm with monsters as big as a continent but as soon as they saw they were men then were their hearts full of a new pleasure for that they saw the chance of a capture they launched the ship's boat at once chased them to the shore and captured 14 if the boat had been stronger the tail would have been longer for with a crew of seven they could not hold any more prisoners and so the rest escaped with this booty they sailed onto another island where they found an infinite number of herons of which they made good cheer and so returned Nuno Tristam very joyfully to the prince this last piece of discovery was of much more value than Nuno thought he saw in it a first rate slave hunting ground but it became the starting point for trade and intercourse with the negro states of the senegal and the gambia to the south and east it was here in the bay of arguin where the long desert coast of the Sahara makes its last bend toward the rich country of the south that henry built in 1448 that fort which catamos still found in the next 10 years had become the center of a great european commerce which was also among the first permanent settlements of the new christian exploration one of the first steps of modern colonization and now the volunteer movement had fairly begun where in the beginning says azurara people had murmured very loudly against the prince's enterprise each one grumbling as if the infant was spending some part of his property now when the way had been fairly opened and the fruits of those lands began to be seen in portugal in much greater abundance men began softly enough to praise what they had so loudly decried great and small alike had declared that no prophet would ever come of these ventures but when the cargos of slaves and gold began to arrive all were forced to turn their blame into flattery and to say that the infant was another alexander the great and as they saw the houses of others full of new servants from the new discovered lands and their property always increasing there were few who did not long to try their fortune in the same adventures the first great movement of the sort came after nuno's return at the end of 1443 the men of lagos took advantage of henry's settlement so near to them in his town of sagras to ask for leave to sail at their own cost to the prince's coast of guinea for no one could go without his license one lancerot a squire brought up in the infant's household an officer of the royal customs in the town of lagos and a man of great good sense was the spokesman of these merchant adventurers he won his grant very easily the infant was very glad of his request and bad him sail under the banner of the order of christ so that six caravans started in the spring of 1444 on the first exploring voyage that we can call national since the prince had begun his work so as the beginning of general interest in the crusade of discovery which henry had now preached to his countrymen for 30 years as the beginning of the career of henry's chief captain the head of his merchant allies as the beginning in fact of a new and bright period this first voyage of lancerots this first armada sent out to find and to conquer the moors and blacks of the unknown or half known south is worth more than a passing notice and this is not for its interest or importance in the story of discovery pure and simple but as a proof that the cause of discovery itself had become popular and as evidence that the cause of trade and of political ambition had become thoroughly identified with that of exploration the expansion of the european nations which had languished since the crusades had begun again what was more unfortunate from a modern standpoint the african slave trade as a part of european commerce begins here too it is useless to try to explain it away henry's own motives were not those of the slave driver it seems true enough that the captives when once brought home to spain were treated under his orders with all kindness his own wish seems to have been to use this manhunting traffic as a means to christianize and civilize the native tribes to win over the whole by the education of a few prisoners but his captains did not always aim so high the actual seizure of the captives moors and negroes along the coast of guinea was as barbarous and as ruthless as most slave drivings there was hardly a capture made without violence and bloodshed a raid on a village a fire and sack and buttery was the usual course of things the order of the day and the natives whatever they might gain when fairly landed in europe did not give themselves up very readily to be taught as a rule they fought desperately and killed the men who had come to do them good whenever they had a chance the kidnapping which some of the spanish patriot writers seem to think of as simply an act of christian charity a corporal work of mercy was at the time a matter of profit and money returns negro bodies would sell well negro villages would yield plunder and like the killing of wild irish in the 16th century the prince's men took a black moor hunt as the best of sport it was hardly wonderful then that the later sailors of catamostos day 1450 to 1460 found all the coast up in arms against them and that so many fell victims to the deadly poisoned arrows of the senegal and the gambia every native believed as they told one of the portuguese captains in a parley that the explorers carried off their people to cook and eat them in most of the speeches that are given us in the chronicle of the time the masters encouraged their men to these slave raids by saying first what glory they will get by a victory next what a prophet can be made sure by a good hall of captives last what a generous reward the prince will give for people who can tell him about these lands sometimes after reprisals had begun the whole thing is an affair of vengeance and thus lansa wrote in the great voyage of 1445 coolly proposes to turn back at cape blanco without an attempt at discovery of any sort because the purpose of the voyage was now accomplished a village had been burnt a score of natives had been killed and twice as many taken revenge was satisfied it was only here and there that much was said about the prince's purpose of exploration of finding the western nile or prester john or the way around africa to india most of the sailors both men and officers seem to know that this or something towards this is the will of their lord but it is very few who start for discovery only and still fewer who go straight on turning neither to right hand nor left till they have got well beyond the farthest of previous years and added some piece of new knowledge to the map of the known world out of the blank of the unknown what terrified ignorance had done before greed did now and the last hindrance was almost worse than the first so one might say impatiently looking at the great expense the energy and time and life spent on the voyages of this time and especially of the years 1444 to 1448 more than 40 ships sell out more than 900 captives are brought home and the new lands found are all discovered by three or four explorers national interest seems awakened to very little purpose but what explains the slow progress of discovery explains also the fact that any progress however slow was made at all apart from the personal action of Henry himself without the mercantile interest the prince's death would have been the end and ruin of his schemes for many a year but for the hope of adventure and of profitable plunder and the certainty of reward but for the assurance so to say of such and such a revenue on the ventures of the time portuguese public opinion would not probably have been much ahead of other varieties of the same organ in deciding the abstract question to which the prince had given his life the mob of lisbon or of lagos would hardly have been quicker than modern mobs to rise to a notion above that of personal gain if the cause of discovery and an empire to come had been left to them the labor leaders might have said then in spain as some of them have said today in england what is all this talk about the empire what is it to us working men we don't want the empire we want more wages and so when the great leader was dead and the people were left to carry out his will his spiritual foresight of great scientific discoveries his ideas of conversion and civilization were not the things for the sake of which ordinary men were reconciled to his scheme and ready to finish his work if they thought or spoke or toiled for the finding of the way to india it was to find the gold and spices and jewels of an earthly paradise this is not fancy it is simply impossible to draw any other conclusion from the original accounts of these voyages in azurara's chronicle for azurara himself the one of henry's first converts a man who realized something of the grandeur of his master's schemes and their reach beyond a merely commercial ideal through discovery to empire yet preserves in the speeches and actions of captains and seamen alike proof enough of the thoroughly commonplace aims of most of the first discoverers on the other hand the strength of the movement lay of course in the few exceptions as long as all or nearly all the instruments employed were simply buccaneers with a single eye to trade profits discovery could not advance very fast or very far till the real meaning of the prince's life had impressed his nearest followers with something of his own spirit there could be no exploration except by accident though without this background of material gain no national interest could have been enlisted in exploration at all real progress in this case was by the slow increase of that inner circle which really shared henry's own ambition of that group of men who went out not to make bargains or do a little killing but to carry the flag of portugal and of christ farther than it had ever been planted before according to the will of the lord infant and as these men were called to the front and only as they were there at all was there any rapid advance if two sailors diego chem and bartholomew Diaz could within four years in two voyages explore the whole southwest coast of africa from the equator to the cape of tempest or of good hope was it not absurd that the earlier caravals after bohador was once passed should hang so many years around the northwest shores of the sahara even some of the more genuine discoverers the most trusted of the prince's household men like gil ianes the first who saw the coast beyond the terrible bohador or dines diaz or antem gan salves or nuno tristem as they came before us in azurara's chronicle are more like their men than their master he thought of the slaves they brought home with unspeakable pleasure as to the saving of their souls which but for him would have been forever lost they thought a good deal more like the crowd that gathered at the slave market in lagos of the distribution of the captives and of the money they would get for each at those sales which azurara describes so vividly henry had the bearing of one who cared little for a massing plunder and was known once and again to give away his fifth of the spoil for his spoil was chiefly in the success of his great wishes but his sweet seems to have been as keenly on the lookout for such favors as their lord was easy in bestowing them to return to lancerot's voyage for that the infant knew by certain wars that nuno tristem had carried off that in the isle of nar in the bay of arguin and in the parts they were about were more than 200 souls the six caravals began with a descent on that island five boats were launched and 30 men in them and they set off from the ships about sunset and rowing all that night we are told they came upon the time of dawn to the island that they sought and as day was breaking they got up to a moorish village close to the shore where were living all the people in the island at sight of this the boat's crews drew up and the leaders consulted whether to go on or turn back it was decided to attack 30 portugals ought to be a match for five or six times as many natives the sailors landed and rushed upon the villagers and saw the moors with their women and children coming out of their huts as fast as they could when they caught sight of their enemy and our men crying out st. james st. george portugal fell upon them killing and taking all they could there you might have seen mothers catch up their children husbands their wives each one trying to fly as best he could some plunged into the sea others thought to hide themselves in the corners of their hovels others hid their children underneath the shrubs that grew about there where our men found them and at last our lord god who gives to all a due reward to our men gave that day a victory over their enemies in recompense for all their toil in his service for they took what of men women and children 165 without counting the slain then finding from the captives that there were other well-peopled islands near at hand they raided these for more prisoners in their next descent they could not catch any men but of women and little boys not yet able to run they seized 17 or 18 soon after this they did meet the Mormon bold who were drawing together on all sides to defend themselves a great power of 300 savages chased another raiding party to their boats that the whole expedition had no thought of discovery was plain enough from the fact that Lancerot did not try to go beyond the white cape Blanco which had been already passed several times but turned back directly he found the hunting grounds becoming deserted and a descent producing no prize except one girl who had chosen to go to sleep when the rest of the people fled upcountry at the first site of the Christian boats the voyage was a slave chase from first to last and 235 blacks were the result their landing and their sail at Lagos was a day of great excitement a long remembered 8th of August very early in the morning because of the heat of the later day the sailors began to land their captives who as they were placed all together in the field by the landing place were indeed a wonderful sight for among them there were some that were almost white of beautiful form and face others were darker and others again as black as moles and so hideous alike in face and body that they looked to anyone who saw them the very images of a lower hemisphere end of chapter 12 part 1 chapter 12 part 2 prince henry the navigator the hero of portugal and of modern discovery this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org recording by Rita butros prince henry the navigator by Charles Raymond Beasley but what heart so stern exclaims the chronicler as not to be pierced with pity to see that company for some held down their heads crying piteously others looked mournfully upon one another others stood moaning very wretchedly sometimes looking up to the height of heaven calling out with shrieks of agony as if invoking the father of nature others groveled upon the ground beating their foreheads with their hands while others again made their moan in a sort of dirge in their own way for though one could not understand the words the sense of all was playing in the agony of those who uttered it but most terrible was that agony when came the partition and each possessor took away his lot wives were divided from husbands fathers from sons brothers from brothers each being forced to go where his lot might send him parents and children who had been ranged opposite one another now rushed forward to embrace if it were for the last time mothers holding their little children in their arms through themselves down covering their babes with their own bodies and yet these slaves were treated with kindness and no difference was made between them and other and freeborn servants the younger captives were taught trades and those who showed that they could manage property were set free and married widow ladies treated the girls they bought like their own daughters and often left them dowries by will that they might marry as entirely free never have I known one of these captives says Azurara put in irons like other slaves or one who did not become a Christian often have I been present at the baptisms or marriages of these slaves when their masters made as much and as solemn a matter of it as if it had been a child or a parent of their own during Henry's life the action of buccaneers on the African coast was a good deal kept in check by the spirit and example and positive commands of the infant who sent out his men to explore and could not prevent some outrages in the course of exploration again and again he ordered his captains to act fairly to the natives to trade with them honorably and to persuade them by gentler means than kidnapping to come to Europe for a time in the last years of his life he did succeed in bettering things by establishing a regular government trade in the Bay of Arguin he brought a good deal more under control the unchained devil tree of the Portuguese free booters catamost and Diego Gomez his most trusted lieutenants of this later time were real discoverers who tried to make friends of the natives rather than slaves in the early days of Portuguese exploration it may also be said information firsthand news of the new countries and their dangers was absolutely needed and if the negroes and the as an egg we more could not or would not speak some Christian tongue and guide the caravans to Guinea they must be carried off and made fit and proper instruments for the work it would be out of place here to justify or condemn this excuse or to enter on the wider question of the right or wrong of the slave trade in general it is enough to see how brutally the work of saving the heathen was carried out by the average explorer when discovery was used as a plea for traffic no one then questioned the right of Christians to make slaves of heathen blacks henry certainly did not for he used slavery as an education he made captives of Gentiles for the highest ends as he believed to save their souls and to help him in the way of doing great things for his country and for Christendom he knew more of the results than of the incidental cruelty more of the hundreds taken than of the hundreds more killed and maimed and made homeless in the taking for centuries past moors had brought back slaves from the south across the Sahara to sell on the coast of tunis and morocco no christian doubted the right and more than the right the merit of the prince and bringing black slaves by sea from guinea to lisbon where they might be fairly saved from the grasp of foul mahumet so if it is said that henry started the african slave trade of european nations that must not be understood as the full blooded atrocity of the west indian planters for the use he made of his prisoners was utterly different though his action was the cause of incessant abuse of the best end by the worst of means at the time the gold question was much more important than the slave trade and most portuguese most europeans nobles merchants burgers farmers laborers were much more excited by the news and the sight of the first native gold dust than by anything else whatever it was the first few handfuls of this dust brought home by guns alves in 1442 that had such a magical effect on public opinion that spread the exploring interest from a small circle out into every class and that brought forward volunteers on every side for a guinea voyage was now the favored plan of every adventurer but however they may be explained however natural and even necessary they may seem to be as things stood in portugal and in latin christendom the slave trade and the gold hunger hindered the prince's work quite as much as they helped it if further discovery depended upon trade profits native interpreters and the attractions of material interest there was at least a danger that the discoverers who were not disposed to risk anything and only went out to line their own pockets would hang about the well known coast till they had loaded all the plunder they could hold and would then simply reappear at sagras with so many more souls for the good prince to save but without a word or a thought of finding of new lands and this after all was the end buccaneering on the northwest coast of africa was not what henry aimed at so he gave a caravalle to one of his household consalo de cintra who had been his stirrup boy and bad him go straight to the land of guinea and that for no cause whatever should he do otherwise but when de cintra got to the white cape blanko it struck him that with very little danger he could make some prisoners there so with a cheerful impudence in the face of the infants express commands he put his ship about and landed in that bay of arguin where so many captures had been made but he was cut off from the rest of the men and killed with seven others by a host of more than 200 moors and the chronicle which tells of all such details at the greatest length stops to give seven reasons for this the first serious loss of life the europeans had suffered in their new african piracies and for the rest may god receive the soul that he created and the nature that came forth from him as it is his very own habillat dus animam quam creavit et naturam quad suam est azurara chapter 27 three other caravales which quickly followed de cintra sailed with special orders to christianize and civilize the natives wherever and however they could and the result of this was seen in the daring venture of hoen fernandez this man the pattern of all the crusades of after time offered to stay on shore among the blacks to learn what he could of the manners and speech and customs of the people and so was left along with that bestial and barbarous nation for seven months on the shores of the bank of argwin while in exchange for him and old moor went back to portugal yet a third voyage was made in this spring of 1445 by nuno tristam and of this says azurara i know nothing very exact or at first hand because nuno tristam was dead before the time that king afonso d henry's nephew commanded me to write this history but this much we do know that he sailed straight to the isle of herons in argwin that he passed the sandy wilderness and landed in the parts beyond in a land fertile and full of palm trees and having landed he took a score of prisoners and so nuno tristam was the first to see the country of the real blacks in other words nuno reached cape palmar far beyond cape blanco where he saw the palms and got the all important certainty that the desert did end somewhere and that beyond instead of a country unapproachable from the heat where the very seas were perpetually boiling as if in a cauldron there was a land richer than any northern climate through which men could pass to the south still further was this proved by the next voyage which reached the end of the great western trend of the african coast and found that instead of the continent stretching out farther and farther to an infinite breath there was an immense contraction of the coast diniz diaz the eldest of that family which gave to portugal some of her greatest men and makers now begged a caravelle from the prince with the promise of doing more with it than any had done before he had done well under old king john and now he kept his word passing argwin and cape blanco and cape palmar he entered the mouth of the senegal the western nile which was now fixed as the northern limit of guine or black men's land nor was this a little honor for our prince whose mighty power was thus brought to bear upon the peoples so far distant from our land and so near to that of egypt for azurara like diaz like henry himself thought not only that the senegal was the niger the western nile of the blacks but that the caravals of portugal were far nearer to india than was the fact we're getting close to the mountains of the moon and the sources of the nile but diaz was not content with this he had reached and passed as he thought the great western stream up which men might sail in the belief of the time to the mysterious sources of the world's greatest river and so down by the eastern and northern course of the same to cairo and the christian seas he now sailed on to a great cape which he named cape verde a green and beautiful headland covered with grass and trees and dotted with native villages running out into the western ocean far beyond any other land and beyond which in turn there was no more western coast but only southern and eastern from this point diaz returned to portugal but great was the wonder of the people of the coast in seeing his caraval for never had they seen or heard tell of the like but some thought it was a fish others were sure it was a phantom others again said it might be a bird that had that way of skimming along the surface of the sea four of them picked up courage to venture out in a canoe and try to settle this doubt out they went in their little boat all made from one hollow tree but when they saw that there were men on board the caraval they fled to the shore and the wind falling our men could not overtake and though the booty of dinis diaz was far less than what others had brought home before him the prince made very much of his getting to that land of negroes and cape verde and the senegal and with reason for these discoveries assured the success of his work and from this time all trouble and opposition were at an end mariners now went out to sail to the golden country that had been found or to the spice land that was now so near men passed at once from extreme apathy or extreme terror to an equally extreme confidence they seem to think the fruit was within reach for them to gather before the tree had been half climbed long before fernando po had been reached while the caravals were still off the coasts of sierra leone men at home from king afonso to the common seaman of the ports thought the line of tunis and even of alexandria had been long past the difficult first steps seemed all now three volunteers and tem ganzales and two others who had already sailed in the princess service applied for the command of ships for the discovery and conquest of the lands of guinea and to bring back hohan for nanda's from his exile sailing past cape blanco they set up there a great wooden cross and much would it have amazed anyone of another nation that should have chance to pass that way not knowing of our voyages along that coast says as a rara gleefully giving us proof enough in every casual expression of this sort often dropped with perfect simplicity and natural truthfulness that to his knowledge and that of his countrymen to the europe of fourteen fifty the portuguese had had no forerunners along the guinea coast a little south of the bite of arguin the caravals cited a man on the shore making signals to the ships and coming closer they saw for nanda's who had much to tell he had completely won over the natives of that part during his seven months stay and now he was able to bring the caravals to a market where trinkets were exchanged for slaves and gold with a moorish chief a cavalier called ahude may mum then he was taken home to tell his story to the prince the fleet wasting some time in descents on the tribes of the bay of arguin when he was first put on shore hohan for nanda's told don henry the natives came up to him took his clothes off him and made him put on others of their own make then they took him up the country which was very scantily clothed with grass with a sandy and stony soil growing hardly any trees a few thorns and palms were the only relief to the barren monotony of this african prairie over which wandered a few nomad shepherds in search of pasture for their flocks there were no flowers no running streams to light up the waste so for nanda's thought at first till he found one or two exceptions that proved the rule the natives got their water from wells spoke a tongue and wrote a writing that was different from that of the other moors though all these people in the upland were muslims like the berbers nearer home for they themselves were a tribe the asenegui tribe of the great berber family who had four times in the 11th 12th 13th and 14th centuries come over to help the muslim power in spain yet said for nanda's these moors of the west are quite barbarous they have neither law nor lordship their food is milk and the seeds of wild mountain herbs and roots meat and bread are both rare luxuries and so is fish for those on the upland but the moors of the coast eat nothing else and for months together i have seen those i lived among their horses and their dogs eating and drinking only milk like infants tis no wonder they are weaker than the negroes of the south with whom they are ever at war fighting with treachery and not with strength they dress in leather leather breeches and jackets but some of the richer wear a native mantle over their shoulders such rich men as keep good swift horses and brood mares it was about the trade and religion of the country that for nanda's was specially questioned and his answers were not encouraging on either point the people were bigoted ignorant worshipers of the abominations of mahumat he said and their traffic in slaves and gold was a small matter after all the only gold he saw in their country was in ankle rings on the women of the chiefs the gold dust and black bodies they got from the negroes they took to tunas and the mediterranean coast on camels their salt on which they set great store was from the taghaza salt quarries far inland the chief a who they may mum who had been so kind to for nanda's lived in the upland the christian stranger had been induced to ride up from the coast and had reached the court only after tortures of thirst the water fell them on the way and for three days they had nothing to drink all together for nanda's report discouraged any further attempts to explore by land where all the country as far as could be reached seemed to yield nothing but desert with a few slender oases it was not indeed till the european explorers reached the congo on their coasting voyages to the south that they found a natural and inviting pathway into the heart of africa the desert of the north and west the fever haunted swamps and jungle of the guinea coast only left narrow inlets of more healthy and passable country and these the portuguese did their best to close by occasional acts of savage cruelty and impudent fraud in their dealings with the natives another expedition and that an unlucky one under gonzalo pacheco a gentleman of lisbon followed this last of entom gonzales pacheco got leave to make the voyage equipped a caravale that he had built for himself and got two others to share the risk and profits with him and so says azerora hoisting the banners of the order of christ they made their way to cape blanco here they found one league from the cape a village and by the shore a writing that entom gonzales had set up in which he counseled all who passed that way not to trouble to go up and sack the village as it was quite empty of people so they hung about the bank of arguin making raids in various places and capturing some 120 natives all of which is not of much interest to anyone though as pacheco and his men had to pay themselves for their trouble and make a profit on the voyage these man hunts were the chief thing they thought about and the main thing in their stories when they got home men like pacheco and his friends were not explorers at all they stopped far short of the mark that deniz diaz had made for the european furthest and their only discovery was of a new cape 100 miles and more beyond the bank of arguin sailing south because the natives fled at their approach and left the coastland all bare they came to a headland which they called cape saint n by which an arm of the sea ran four leagues up the country where they hunted for more prisoners still in search of slaves and gold they sailed on 250 miles 80 leagues to negro land where diaz had been before and where they saw a land to the north of the great western cape all green peopled with men and cattle but when they tried to near the shore and land a storm drove them back for three days they struggled against it but at last they found themselves near cape blanco more than 300 miles to the north where they gave up all thought of trying to push into the unknown south and turn cheerfully to their easier work of slave hunting and one of these raids a party of seven in a boat away from all the rest was overpowered and killed like desintras men by a large body of natives whose souls may god in his mercy receive in the habitation of the saints the moors carried off the boat and broke it up for the sake of its nails and azurara was told by some that the bodies of the dead were eaten by their brutal conquerors to certain at least he adds that their custom is to eat the livers of their victims and to drink their blood when they are avenging the death of parents or brothers or children as they do it to have full vengeance on such as have so greatly injured them end of chapter 12 part 2