Part 11

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.[10] 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 North-west 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 João 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 João 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 depôt 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 Elmina, 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 depôt for all the products of the East; 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.

VIII.

THE HEROIC AGE OF PORTUGAL.

John II., surnamed “the Perfect,” the only son of Affonso V., succeeded his father as King of Portugal in 1481, and his short reign was marked by events of the utmost importance at home, as well as by the great discoveries of Diogo Cam and Bartholomeu Diaz. He had shown himself a gallant soldier in his father’s last African expedition, when he was knighted, and at the battle of Toro, and also a capable ruler, as regent, during the absence of Affonso V. in France, and during that king’s frequent periods of abdication. He saw the folly of his father in wasting his strength in African expeditions, and in fruitless wars with Castile, and he therefore recurred to the wise policy of his great-grandfather, John “the Great,” in avoiding all interference with Spanish affairs, and maintaining a close alliance with England. He also, as has already been said, adopted enthusiastically all the schemes of Prince Henry “the Navigator,” and laboured for the discovery of a route to India by sea. He possessed all the hereditary aptitude of the princes of the house of Aviz for literature, and fostered the spirit of the Renaissance in Portugal in the study of the classical languages, the advancement of science, and the encouragement of art. He was a broad-minded, tolerant man, with ideas far in advance of his age in many respects, and possessing at once an inflexible will and remarkable sweetness of disposition.

But John II. was more than all this; he was a politician and a statesman of the first rank, and openly professed himself a disciple of Machiavelli and a believer in the theory of absolute government. He imitated Louis XI. of France, just as one of his predecessors, Sancho II., had imitated Louis IX., and in his policy and in his manner of carrying it out, he showed himself an apt pupil of his wily master. The first great task he set himself, in imitation of that monarch, was to break the power of the feudal nobility of Portugal. In doing this he relied, and with justice, upon the assistance of the mass of the people, who had learned during the last reign to detest and fear the almost unlimited power of the nobles.

The origin of the enormous estates held by the Portuguese nobility has already been pointed out, and the attempt made by King Edward to check accumulations by the “Lei Mental” has also been mentioned; but this regulation had had but little effect, owing to the profuse prodigality of Affonso V. This monarch had granted away nearly the whole patrimony of the crown; and John II. said with justice that his father had left him “only the royal high roads of Portugal.” This liberality had kept Affonso poor in spite of the increasing wealth of his people and his extravagance had been such, that he had been formally rebuked by a Cortes, held at Guarda in 1465, and had been obliged to promise amendment. Under the influence of this headstrong monarch and his favourites the evils, inherent in the feudal system, had increased alarmingly; crimes in country districts were only punished by fines, and every means which rapacity could suggest to wring money out of an impoverished tenantry were resorted to, while the wealth of the great landlords had been increased by the improvement in the cultivation of their lands due to the large importation of slaves. John II. determined to crush the powerful and turbulent feudal nobility, and to draw back some of its wealth into the royal treasury, and for this purpose he summoned a great Cortes to meet at Evora in 1481, the year of his accession. In this Cortes he proposed that a “inquiracão geral” should be held into all titles to landed property, and that the royal corregidors should alone be empowered to dispense and execute criminal justice throughout the country. Both measures were agreed to, but the nobles determined to resist the examination into their titles, and the loss of the lucrative privilege of dispensing criminal justice, and they combined to oppose the king, under the leadership of the Duke of Braganza.

Ferdinand, Duke of Braganza, was the wealthiest and most powerful nobleman, not only in Portugal, but in the whole peninsula. He was the grandson of Affonso, Count of Barcellos, the illegitimate son of John “the Great,” who had been created Duke of Braganza by Affonso V., and he had inherited the vast possessions of his grandfather and of his grandmother, the daughter of the Holy Constable. These possessions had been increased by the lavishness of Affonso V., who had showered favours on the first and second Dukes of Braganza. Ferdinand possessed fifty cities, towns, and castles, and nearly one-third of the land of the kingdom; he was patron of one hundred and sixty canonries and religious benefices; he maintained a royal household, and bore the titles of Duke of Braganza and Guimaraens, Marquis of Villa Viçosa, Count of Barcellos, Ourem, Arrayolos and Neiva, and Lord of Montalegre, Monporto, and Penafiel. His brothers were nearly as powerful as himself. The eldest, João, was Marquis of Monte Mor, and Constable of the kingdom; the second, Affonso, was Count of Faro; and the youngest, Alvaro, held the important office of Chancellor. In the reign of Affonso V. this great nobleman had quarrelled fiercely with John II., then heir apparent, but he believed he had secured his safety by marrying a sister of the future queen, for both Prince John and himself married daughters of Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu and Beja, the brother of Affonso V., and inheritor of the wealth of Prince Henry “the Navigator.” The Duke of Braganza took the lead in opposing the king’s decrees passed in the Cortes of Evora, and John II. was glad of it, not only because he coveted the wealth and lands of the Braganza family, which dimmed the splendour of the Crown, and on account of their former quarrels in the late king’s lifetime, but also because he remembered that he was, through his mother, the grandson of the great regent, Pedro, Duke of Coimbra, who had been defeated and slain at Alfarrobeira by this very Duke of Braganza and his father. For all these reasons John II. decided to strike a sudden and decisive blow, which should at once re-establish the power of the Crown and paralyze the feudal nobility with terror, and he therefore had the Duke of Braganza arrested, and executed, after a very short trial, at Evora, on June 22, 1483.

The nobles, however, were not yet defeated, and they continued to intrigue against the king’s authority under the leadership of a yet nearer relation of his own, Diogo, Duke of Viseu and Beja, the eldest son of Dom Ferdinand, and grandson of King Edward, and the brother-in-law alike of the king and of the executed Duke of Braganza. But John II. was not dismayed: imitating Louis XI. of France, he determined not to spare his own relations, and on August 23, 1484, he stabbed the Duke of Viseu with his own hand in his palace at Setubal. This murder he followed up with decision: he had the Bishop of Evora, one of his father’s favourites, thrown down a well; and he executed, with or without trial, about eighty of the leading noblemen of the country. By these means John II. broke the power of the feudal nobility for ever, and as happened in France under Louis XI., and in England under Henry VII., the fall of the nobility was followed by the absolutism of the monarch. Now that the nobles had lost their power, and the Crown had become wealthy by the confiscation of their property, John II. needed the support of the people, as represented in the Cortes, no longer, and he became a despot, though a benevolent one. But the weight of this despotism was not yet felt, for John II. possessed all the political ability of his grandfathers. He tried to find means for encouraging his nobility, now that they were frightened out of treason, to enter into the career of maritime exploration, which had been opened by Prince Henry, while at home he won the love of his people by reorganizing the government of the kingdom, and proved so good an administrator that the Portuguese gave him the title of “the Perfect King.”

It has been said that in his foreign policy John II. followed in the course set before him by John the Great. With the great monarchs then ruling in Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, he consistently remained on friendly terms, and in 1490 his only legitimate son, Affonso, was married to Isabella, eldest daughter of these sovereigns. The death of this son in the following year, without leaving children, was a terrible blow to him, but he nevertheless maintained his friendship with Ferdinand and Isabella, and in 1494 concluded the Treaty of Tordesillas with them. By this treaty, which was confirmed by a Bull, issued by Pope Alexander VI., the limit of the future possessions of the Spaniards and Portuguese in the regions explored and discovered by their mariners was 370 leagues west of Cape Verde, and it was agreed that the Spaniards were to have full right to all lands discovered to the west of this line, and the Portuguese to all to the south and east. What a curious commentary this treaty forms on that of Cella Nova, concluded three hundred years before between Affonso Henriques of Portugal and Ferdinand of Leon, by which these two monarchs agreed to take the course of the Guadiana as the line to separate their future conquests from the Moors. Both nations had now developed; the energies of both, heightened by the long struggle with the Mohammedans, sought for fresh fields, and expanding far beyond the boundaries of Europe, were to prove themselves, in the one case in Mexico and Peru, and in the other in India and the countries of the East.

In the other cardinal point of the policy of John “the Great,” the maintenance of a close alliance with England, John II. carefully followed the example of the founder of the house of Aviz. Affonso V. had not neglected this important tradition, and had even promised his sister, Donna Catherine, to Edward IV., in 1461, a marriage only frustrated by the death of the princess in 1463; and the English monarch had solemnly ratified the Treaty of Windsor in 1471, and again after the battle of Barnet in 1472, and he had also included the name of the King of Portugal, as an ally of England, in his treaty with Louis XI. of France, in 1475. John II. drew the bonds of friendship still closer, and sent important embassies to the three kings of England, who ruled in quick succession in this country. In 1482 Edward IV. ratified the Treaty of Windsor in the presence of the ambassadors of John II., and recognized his new title of “Lord of Guinea,” and in 1484 Richard III. did the same. In 1485 the King of Portugal proposed in a Cortes held at Alçobaça, that his only sister Joanna should be given in marriage to Richard III., but the princess, who was famed for her piety and wished to become a nun, fortunately for herself, refused the alliance, as she afterwards did the hand of Charles VIII. of France. Henry VII. bore no enmity towards John II. on account of his friendship with Richard III., but, on the contrary, showed every disposition to assist him in his struggle with his nobility, and in 1488 went so far as to arrest the Count of Pennamacor, one of the insurgent Portuguese noblemen who had escaped to England, and to imprison him in the Tower. It was in this year also that the last treaty of commerce between England and Portugal, before the famous Methuen treaty in 1703, was concluded at Lisbon by Richard Nanfran and Thomas Savage, who had been sent for that purpose, and to invest John II. as a Knight of the Garter.