Part 3

João Pires went from Ormuz by way of Aden to Abyssinia, where he was well received by the ruler of that country. Here, after all his wanderings he found a home, for as he was not permitted to leave again, he married and had children, living upon property given to him by the government. In 1515 Dom Rodrigo de Lima arrived in Abyssinia as ambassador of the king of Portugal, and found him still alive. With the embassy was a priest, Francisco Alvares by name, who wrote an account of the mission and of the statement made to him by João Pires, and also gave such information on his return home as enabled the Portuguese historians to place on record the above details. As far as actual result in increase of geographical knowledge is concerned, this expedition of Affonso de Paiva and João Pires therefore effected nothing.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

In the laudable spirit of modern times, prompted by a desire to rectify error, men do not hesitate to question the accuracy of even the most renowned writers of old. But the great authority of De Barros requires that very substantial proof should be supplied before any date given by him is overturned, especially when that date is given three different times, and is indirectly corroborated by other contemporary historians. In an article entitled _The Voyages of Diogo Cão and Bartholomeu Dias 1482-88_, by E. G. Ravenstein, in the _Geographical Journal_, Vol. XVI, July to December 1900, page 625, an attempt is made to substitute other dates for the voyages of Diogo Cam and Bartholomeu Dias than those given by João de Barros, but the arguments supplied do not seem to me to be of much weight.

This is what Mr. Ravenstein says:

“We do not know whether Cão was given the command of one or of more vessels, nor have the names of any of his officers been placed on record.

“Cão was the first to carry padrões, or pillars of stone, on an exploring voyage. Up to his time the Portuguese had been content to erect perishable wooden crosses, or to carve inscriptions into trees to mark the progress of their discoveries. King John conceived the happy idea of introducing stone pillars surmounted by a cross, and bearing, in addition to the royal arms, an inscription recording in Portuguese, and sometimes also in Latin, the date, the name of the king by whose order the voyage was made and the name of the commander. The four padrões set up by Cão on his two voyages have been discovered in situ, and the inscriptions upon two of them (one for each voyage) are still legible, notwithstanding the lapse of four centuries and have been deciphered.

“During the first voyage two padrões were set up--one at the Congo mouth, the other on the Cabo do Lobo in latitude 13° 26 S., now known as Cape St. Mary. The latter has been recovered intact. It consists of a shaft 1.69 m. high and 0.73 m. in circumference, surmounted by a cube of 0.47 m. in height and .33 in breadth. Shaft and cube are cut out of a single block of liaz, a kind of limestone or coarse marble common in the environs of Lisbon. The cross has disappeared, with the exception of a stump, from which it is seen that it also was of stone, and fixed by means of lead.

“The arms of Portugal carved upon the face of the cube are those in use up to 1486; in which year João II, being then at Beja, caused the green cross of the Order of Avis, which had been improperly introduced by his grandfather, who had been master of that order, to be withdrawn and the position of the quinas, or five escutcheons, to be changed.

[Sidenote: Criticisms of the Account by Barros.]

“The inscription covers the three other sides of the cube. It is in Gothic letters and in Portuguese, and reads as follows: ‘In the year 6681 of the World, and in that of 1482 since the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most serene, most excellent and potent prince, King D. João II. of Portugal did order (_mandou_) this land to be discovered and these padrões to be set up by Dº Cão, an esquire (_escudeiro_) of his household.’ There is no inscription in Latin.

“As the year 6681 of Eusebius begins on September 1, 1481, we gather from this inscription that the order for the expedition was given between January and August, 1482. Of course the departure may have been delayed, but the delay cannot have been a long one, as Cão was home again before April, 1484.

“Cão came back to Lisbon probably in the beginning of 1484, and certainly before April of that year. The king, first of all, made him a ‘cavalleiro’ of his household. He then, on April 8, 1484, ‘in consideration of the services rendered in the course of a voyage of discovery to Guinea, from which he had now returned,’ granted him an annuity of ten thousand reals, to be continued to one surviving son; and a few days afterwards, on April 14, he separated his ‘cavalier’ from the common herd and made him noble, and gave him a coat-of-arms charged with the two padrões which he had erected on the coast of Africa.

* * * * *

“Far more useful for our purpose is the pillar which formerly stood on Cape Cross, and which Captain Becker of the Falke carried off to Kiel[13] in 1893. Dr. Scheppig has fully described the pillar.

“The Portuguese inscription says--‘In the year 6685 of the creation of the world, and of Christ 485, the excellent, illustrious King D. João II. of Portugal did direct this land to be discovered, and this padrão to be set up by Dº Cão, a cavalleiro (knight) of his household.’

“As the year 6685 of the Eusebian era begins on September 1, 1485, Cão must have departed after that day, and before the close of the year. As he had returned from his first voyage before April, 1484, his departure must have been delayed for reasons not known to us.

“THE VOYAGE OF BARTHOLOMEU DIAS, 1487-88.

“No sooner had Cão’s vessels returned to the Tagus than King John, whose curiosity had been excited by the reports about the supposed Prester John, brought home by d’Aveiro, determined to fit out another expedition to go in quest of him by doubling Africa, Friar Antonio of Lisbon and Pero of Montaroyo having already been despatched on the same errand by way of Jerusalem and Egypt. The command of this expedition was conferred upon Bartholomeu Dias de Novaes, a cavalier of the king’s household.... It certainly was our Bartholomew who commanded one of the vessels despatched in 1481 with Diogo d’Azambuja to the Gold Coast.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

“The appointment seems to have been made in October, 1486, for on the 10th of that month King John, ‘in consideration of services which he hoped to receive,’ conferred upon Bartholomeu Dias, the ‘patron’ of the _S. Christovão_, a royal vessel, an annuity of 6,000 reis.

“The account which João de Barros has transmitted to us of the remarkable expedition which resulted in the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope is fragmentary, and on some points undoubtedly erroneous. Unfortunately, up till now no official report of the expedition has been discovered; but there are a few incidental references to it, which enable us to amplify, and in some measure to correct, the version put forward by the great Portuguese historian.

“Most important among these independent witnesses is a marginal note on fol. 13 of a copy of Pierre d’Ailly’s _Imago mundi_, which was the property of Christopher Columbus, and is still in the Columbine Library at Seville. This ‘note’ reads as follows:--

“‘Note, that in December of this year, 1488, there landed at Lisbon Bartholomeu Didacus [Dias], the commander of three caravels, whom the King of Portugal had sent to Guinea to seek out the land, and who reported that he had sailed 600 leagues beyond the furthest reached hitherto, that is, 450 leagues to the south and then 150 leagues to the north, as far as a cape named by him the Cape of Good Hope, which cape we judge to be in Agisimba, its latitude, as determined by the astrolabe, being 45° S., and its distance from Lisbon 3100 leagues. This voyage he [Dias] had depicted and described from league to league upon a chart, so that he might show it to the king; at all of which I was present (_in quibus omnibus interfui_).’

“The same voyage is referred to in a second ‘note’ discovered in the margin of the _Historia rerum ubique gestarum_ of Pope Pius II., printed at Venice in 1477. From this second note we learn that ‘one of the captains whom the most serene King of Portugal sent forth to seek out the land in Guinea brought back word in 1488 that he had sailed 45° beyond the equinoctial line.’

“Las Casas (_Historia de las Indias_, lib. i. c. 7) assumed these notes to have been written by Bartholomew Columbus, whom, as the result of a misconception of the meaning of the concluding words of the note, he supposed to have taken part in this voyage. These assumptions, however, are absolutely inadmissible, for as early as February 10, 1488, Bartholomew had completed at London a map of the world for Henry VII. If we remember that Bartholomew was detained by pirates for several weeks before he reached England, he must have left Lisbon towards the end of 1487. He did not return to that place until many years afterwards.

“On the other hand, the note is unhesitatingly recognized as in the handwriting of Christopher by such competent authorities as Varnhagen, d’Avezac, H. Harrisse, Asensio, and Cesare de Lollis.

[Sidenote: Criticism of the Account by Barros.]

“And if Christopher is the author of these notes, they must have been written in 1488, for it was in March, 1488, that King Manuel, in response to an application, cordially invited his ‘especial friend,’ Christopher Columbus, to come to Lisbon, promising him protection against all criminal and civil proceedings that might be taken against him. Columbus, when he received this royal invitation, was at Seville, where his son Ferdinand was born unto him on September 28, 1488. If he left Seville soon afterwards, he may certainly have been present on the memorable occasion, in December, 1488, when Bartholomeu Dias rendered an account to the king of the results of his hope-inspiring voyage.

“If then, Bartholomeu Dias returned in December, 1488, after an absence (according to De Barros) of sixteen months and seventeen days, he must have started towards the end of July or in the beginning of August, 1487; and if the Bartholomeu Dias referred to in the royal rescript of October 10, 1486, is the discoverer of the Cape, which hardly admits of a doubt, he cannot have started in July, 1486, as usually assumed. He cannot have been in Lisbon in December, 1487.

“This date (namely 1488) is further confirmed by Duarte Pacheco Pereira, the ‘Achilles Lusitano’ of Camoens, for in his _Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis_, written soon after 1505, but only published in 1892, we are told that the Cape was discovered in 1488. And Pacheco is a very competent witness, for Dias, on his homeward voyage, met him at the Ilha do Principe.

“A further statement respecting the date of the discovery of the Cape appears in the _Parecer_, or ‘Opinion,’ of the Spanish astronomers and pilots already referred to. They say, ‘And beyond this [the Sierra Parda, where Cão died], Bartolomé Diaz, in the year 1488, discovered as far as the Cabo d’El-Rei, a distance of 350 leagues; and thence to the Cabo de boa Esperança, 250 leagues; and thence D. Vasco da Gama discovered 600 leagues.’”

This evidence does not seem to me to be by any means conclusive.

The marginal note supposed to have been made by Christopher Columbus I reject at once, as I cannot believe that the latitude named in it was given by Dias or recorded by Columbus.

As for the work of Duarte Pacheco, it cannot for a moment be placed in the scale against Barros. Its author was born in Lisbon about 1451, and is believed to have died in poverty some time between the years 1524 and 1553. It was he who was rescued at Prince’s Island and taken to Lisbon, so that he must have been acquainted with the correct date, but as his original manuscript has perished and the copy made from it was done carelessly and certainly contains transcriber’s errors, I do not think much dependence can be placed on his statements. There are two manuscript copies of his work in existence. The oldest, now in the library at Evora, is supposed from the style of the writing to have been made about the close of the sixteenth century, and the other, now in the National Library in Lisbon, is merely a transcript of the first made at a much later date. The work was published at Lisbon in 1892 in a foolscap folio volume of xxxv+125 pages, and is divided into four books. It is entitled _Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, por Duarte Pacheco Pereira. Edição commemorativa da Descoberta da America por Christovão Colombo no seu quarto centenario, sob a direcção de Raphael Eduardo de Azevedo Basta, Conservador do Real Archivo da Torre do Tombo_.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

I give here the two references to the voyage of Dias, from which the reader can see how little this work of Duarte Pacheco is to be depended upon. In a reference to the first voyage of Diogo Cam he states, as in the second of these, that the inscription on the cross was in three languages: Latin, Portuguese, and Arabic. That identical cross is still in existence, and there is no Arabic upon it. See also the confusion between the Penedo das Fontes and the Ilheo da Santa Cruz.

Terceyro Liuro, pagina 90.

Nom sem muita rasam se poz nome a este promontorio cabo da boa esperança por que Bartholomeu Dias que o descobrio por mandado delRey Dom Joham que Deos tem no anno de nosso senhor de mil quatrocentos & oitenta & oito annos veendo que esta costa & Ribeira do mar voltaua daly em diante ao norte & ao nordest....

Terceyro Liuro, pagina 94.

Item; sinco leguoas adiante dangra do Rico esta hum Ilheo pouco mais de mea leguoa de terra que se chama ho penedo das fontes o qual nome Ihe pos Bertholameu Dias que esta terra descobrio por mandado delRey Dom Joham que Deos tem por que achou aly duas fontes de muito boa augua doce & por outro nome se chama este penedo ho Ilheo da Cruz por que o mesmo Bertholameu Dias pos aly hum padram de pedra pouco mais alto que hum homem com huma cruz em sima & este padram tem tres letreyros.s. hum em latim & outro em harabiguo & outro em nossa lingua portugueza & todos tres dizem huma cousa.s. como elRey Dom Joham no anno de nosso senhor Jesus cristo de mil CCCC & oytenta & oyto annos & em tantos annos da creaçam do mundo mandou descobrir esta costa por Bertholameu Dias capitam de seus nauios; ...

The remaining references seem to me equally weak, and until something more conclusive comes to light I think it would be well to adhere to the dates of Barros. I notice, however, that Mr. K. G. Jayne, in his _Vasco da Gama and his Successors_, has adopted the dates of Mr. Ravenstein.

II.

_First Voyages of the French and English to the Eastern Seas. And a Sketch of the Early History of the Netherlands and of the Establishment of the Dutch in India._

SKETCH II.

I.

FIRST VOYAGES OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH TO INDIA. EARLY HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS.

The debt which the world owes to the Portuguese for weakening the Mohamedan power and thus preventing the subjugation of a larger portion of Eastern Europe than was actually overrun by the Turks should not be forgotten, but long before the close of the sixteenth century they had ceased to be participants in the great progressive movement of the Caucasian race. Upon a conquering nation rests an enormous responsibility: no less than that of benefiting the world at large. Was Portugal doing this in her eastern possessions to such an extent as to make her displacement there a matter deserving universal regret? Probably her own people would reply that she was, for every nation regards its own acts as better than those of others; but beyond her borders the answer unquestionably would be that she was not. Rapacity, cruelty, corruption, have all been laid to her charge at this period, and not without sufficient reason. But apart from these vices, her weakness under the Castilian kings was such that she was incapable of doing any good. When an individual is too infirm and decrepit to manage his affairs, a robust man takes his place, and so it is with States. The weak one may cry out that might is not right, but such a cry finds a very feeble echo. India was not held by the Portuguese under the only indefeasible tenure: that of making the best use of it; and thus it could be seized by a stronger power without Christian nations feeling that a wrong was being done.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

Before recounting in brief the rise of the Northern Netherlands to a proud position among European states, and the commencement of the Dutch conquests in the eastern seas, a glance may be given to the earliest acts of other nations, and especially to those of our own countrymen, in those distant regions.

The French were the first to follow the Portuguese round the Cape of Good Hope to India. As early as 1507 a corsair of that nation, named Mondragon, made his appearance in the Mozambique channel[14] with two armed vessels, and plundered a ship commanded by Job Queimado. He also captured and robbed another Indiaman nearer home. On the 18th of January 1509 a fleet commanded by Duarte Pacheco Pereira fell in with him off Cape Finisterre, and after a warm engagement sank one of his ships and captured the other. Mondragon was taken a prisoner to Lisbon, where he found means of making his peace with the king, and he was then permitted to return to France.

Twenty years later three ships, fitted out by a merchant named Jean Ango, sailed from Dieppe for India. The accounts of this expedition are so conflicting that it is impossible to relate the occurrences attending it with absolute accuracy. It is certain, however, that one of the ships never reached her destination. Another was wrecked on the coast of Sumatra, where her crew were all murdered. The third reached Diu in July 1527. She had a crew of forty Frenchmen, but was commanded by a Portuguese named Estevão Dias, nicknamed Brigas, who had fled from his native country on account of misdeeds committed there, and had taken service with the strangers. The ruler of Diu regarded this ship with great hostility, and as he was unable to seize her openly, he practised deceit to get her crew within his power. Professing friendship, he gave Dias permission to trade in his territory, but took advantage of the first opportunity to arrest him and his crew. They were handed over as captives to the paramount Mohamedan ruler, and were obliged to embrace his creed to preserve their lives. They were then taken into his service and remained in India.

[Sidenote: Early Voyages of the French.]

Early in 1529 two ships commanded by Jean and Raoul Parmentier, fitted out partly by Jean Ango, partly by merchants of Rouen, sailed from Dieppe. In October of the same year they reached Sumatra, but on account of great loss of life from sickness, on the 22nd of January 1530 they turned homeward. As they avoided the Portuguese settlements, nothing was known at Goa of their proceedings except what was told by a sailor who was left behind at Madagascar and was afterwards found there. This expedition was almost as unsuccessful as the preceding one. On their return passage the ships were greatly damaged in violent storms, and they reached Europe with difficulty.

From that time until 1601 there is no trace of a French vessel having passed the Cape of Good Hope. In May of this year the _Corbin_ and _Croissant_, two ships fitted out by some merchants of Laval and Vitré, sailed from St. Malo. They reached the Maldives safely, but there the _Corbin_ was lost in July 1602, and her commander was unable to return to France until ten years had gone by. The _Croissant_ was lost on the Spanish coast on her homeward passage.

On the 1st of June 1604 a French East India Company was established on paper, but it did not get further. In 1615 it was reorganised, and in 1617 the first successful expedition to India under the French flag sailed from a port in Normandy. From that date onward ships of this nation were frequently seen in the eastern seas. But the French made no attempt to form a settlement in South Africa, and their only connection with this country was that towards the middle of the seventeenth century a vessel was sent occasionally from Rochelle to collect a cargo of sealskins and oil at the islands in and near the present Saldanha Bay.

[Sidenote: Historical Sketches.]

The English were the next to appear in Indian waters. A few individuals of this nation may have served in Portuguese ships, and among the missionaries, especially of the Company of Jesus, who went out to convert the heathen, it is not unlikely that there were several. One at least, Thomas Stephens by name, was rector of the Jesuit college at Salsette. A letter written by him from Goa in 1579, and printed in the second volume of Hakluyt’s work, is the earliest account extant of an English voyager to that part of the world.[15] It contains no information of importance.

The famous sea captain Francis Drake, of Tavistock in Devon, sailed from Plymouth on the 13th of December 1577, with the intention of exploring the Pacific ocean. His fleet consisted of five vessels, carrying in all one hundred and sixty-four men. His own ship, named the Pelican, was of one hundred and twenty tons burden. The others were the _Elizabeth_, eighty tons, the _Marigold_, thirty tons, a pinnace of twelve tons, and a storeship of fifty tons burden. The last named was set on fire as soon as her cargo was transferred to the others, the pinnace was abandoned, the _Marigold_ was lost in a storm, the _Elizabeth_, after reaching the Pacific, turned back through the straits of Magellan, and the _Pelican_ alone continued the voyage. She was the first English ship that sailed round the world. Captain Drake reached England again on the 3rd of November 1580, and soon afterwards was made a knight by Queen Elizabeth on board his ship. The _Pelican_ did not touch at any part of the South African coast, but there is the following paragraph in the account of the voyage:--

[Sidenote: First Englishmen in the East.]

“We ran hard aboard the Cape, finding the report of the Portuguese to be most false, who affirm that it is the most dangerous cape of the world, never without intolerable storms and present danger to travellers who come near the same. This cape is a most stately thing, and the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumference of the earth, and we passed by it on the 18th of June.”