bell - portuguese portraits (1917)

7/30/2019 Bell - Portuguese Portraits (1917)

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PORTUGUESE PORTRAITS


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By the same AuthorTHE MAGIC OF SPAIN, 1912.IN PORTUGAIy, 1912.POEMS FROM THE PORTUGUESE, 1913-STUDIES IN PORTUGUESE I.ITERATURE, IQM-I^YRICS OF GII< VICENTE, 1914.PORTUGAI, OF THE PORTUGUESE, 1915.

fflcw lock BgcntsLONGMANS, GREEN & CO.FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET


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PORTUGUESE PORTRAITSBY

AUBREY F. G. BELL

A notavel/ala dos exceUntes harSes e ntuito antigilds Aniedessdreidina de perpetiia lembranfaDuARTE Pacheco Pereira, Esjncroldo

WtttKirawn fbm

B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STllEETMCMXVII ' '"' "- ' '

' ' J > >' J 1> J J J J J >


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TOTHE COUNTLESS FORGOTTEN HEROES

OF PORTUGALIn burning sands or Ocean's blinding silt.In Africa, Asia, and the icy North,They lie ; yet came they home who thus went forth,Since of their bones is all their country built.

I . t t ' .' * I 1


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UN "':P.STTY CF C'TjroTlNIASANTA BARBARA COLLI:GE LIBRAS

PrefaceNot seven, nor seventy, names exhaustthe tale of Portugal's great men. Thereader need but turn to the fascinatingpages of Portuguese history. There he willfind a plentiful feast set out before himthe epic strife between Portuguese andMoor, Portuguese and Spaniard, and deedsof high emprise in the foam of perilousseas and the ever-mysterious lands of theEast. His delight will be impahed unlesshe can follow the events in detail in thechronicles and histories of the fifteenthand sixteenth centuries, and for this aknowledge of Portuguese is requisite, sincethere are few satisfactory translations.But it is as easy to acquire a sufficientknowledge of Portuguese to read it with

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pleasure as it is difficult to write orspeak it.There is a whole literature, often not less

attractive in style than in subject, of his-tories, memoirs, travels, accounts of wrecksand sieges, recording the deeds of thePortuguese on and beyond the seas. Ofthe battle of Ourique (1139) Portuguesehistorians have loved to tell how the Moorsnumbered 600,000 (since to say 900,000were an exaggeration) and how, heavy rainhaving fallen after the battle, the streamsthat flowed into the far-distant Guadianaran red with blood. But there were scru-pulous and moderate chroniclers like Fer-nam Lopez and Azurara, and many of thehistorians of India were sober writerswhose narratives (those, for instance, ofFernam Lopez de Castanheda, Diogo doCouto, and Caspar Correa) bear the stampof truth while they delight the reader bytheir wealth of detail and personal anec-dote.They may be pardoned for declaring

that their heroes' achievements outshonevi


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Prefacethose of Greek and Roman. For indeedthe half-century (i498-1548) between thevoyage of Vasco da Gama and the deathof Dom Joao de Castro is thick with names ;the great men tread on one another's heelsin the halls of fame, worthily continu-ing the work of their predecessors duringfour centuries in Portugal. Sousa, Mello,Meneses, Cunha, Castro, Noronha, Mas-carenhas, Coutinho, Pereira, Pacheco, Al-meida, Azevedo, Sa, Silva, Silveiratheseare names the very catalogue of whichmust be music to a Portuguese, and whichwould require a large volume to chroniclein detail.And many women hold a high place in

Portuguese history, as the Queen-SaintElizabeth (or Isabel),' the stout-heartedbakeress of Aljubarrota, Brites (Beatrice)de Almeida, who slew, if we are to trust the

^ Antonio Coelho Gasco in liis Conquista, A ntiguidade e No-breza da mui insigne e inclita Cidade de Coimbra (Lisboa, 1805)drew the following rash picture of her from an ancient por-trait at Coimbra : " This very saintly lady was of giganticframe and very stout, very white and very red, with a longface and large serene green eyes, nose rather low with widenostrils, head long and beautiful."

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tradition, seven Spaniards with her woodenbaker's shovel, or the heroines of Diu.^Among the men there is Affonso Hen-

riquez, first King of Portugal, half Frenchby birth, and grandson of the Spanish Kingof Leon, but in heart and action whollyPortuguese ; loyal Egas Moniz ; GualdimPaes and other legendary heroes in theconflict with the Moors which transformedPortugal from a dependent province intoa free kingdom ; and later, if not lesslegendary, Fernao Rodriguez Pacheco, theastute defender of Celorico, who in starva-tion by a miracle obtained a fish and sent itto the besieger to show that plenty reignedin the town ; or the defender of Coimbra,Martim Freitas, heroically, almost quixoti-cally loyal to the deposed King Sancho II.On the sea the first to signalise himselfwas Fuas Roupinho, in the twelfth cen-tury ; and thenceforth Portugal never failedto produce hardy if obscure seamen, to

1 Isabel Fernandez, Barbara Fernandez, and Isabel Madeira.Later heroines at home were Isabel Pereira in the defenceof Ouguella against the Spanish in 1644 and Elenfi. Perez inthe similar siege of Monjao in 1656,

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Prefacefish for cod in the Northern Seas or to dis-cover the west coast of Africa till Bartho-lomeu Diaz rounded the Cape of Stormsin 1487, and King Joao II rechristened itthe Cape of Good Hope.^

Joao II (1481-95), " the Perfect Prince,"or as Queen Isabella of Spain more bluntlycalled him el homhre, " the man," was oneof a series of great kings of the Plouse ofAvis, founded by Joao I (1385-1433) " ofgood memory," darling of the Lisbonpeople. Joao I was succeeded by his eldestson, the noble but unfortunate student-king Duarte (1433-8). Other brothers ofPrince Henry the Navigator, scarcely lessfamous, were the Infante Pedro, states-man and author, who travelled tlirough" the seven parts of the world," and theInfante Fernando, who died slowly withsaintly patient heroism as a prisoner of theMoors in Africa.Under Manoel I

(i495-1 521) the Great,the Fortunate, and his son Joao III1 The Portuguese accounts of these discoveries are most

vivid and minute, a fascinating introduction to the geographyof what is now largely part of the British Empire,

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That is, of course, a terrible condemna-tion as well as an undying honour, for un-less each generation were to produce anAlbuquerque there could be no hope ofmaintaining conquests so wide, and Albu-querque had had his hands tied by hisown countrymen, so that, like the blindedSamson, he achieved the ruin of his enemiesby his unaided strength and at the expenseof his own life. But if Portuguese states-manship was at fault in India, there neverfailed a sprinkling of individuals who spenttheir lives in ungrudging service and heroiceffort to counterbalance errors committed,and often died heartbroken for their pains.Two anecdotes will give an idea of thespirit that animated the Portuguese in thesixteenth century. During the siege ofDiu a soldier, Fernao Penteado, seriouslywounded in the head, went to the surgeon,but, finding him busy with other woundedand hearing the noise of a Turkish attack,he returned to the fight and came backwith a second serious wound in the head,only to find the surgeon busier than before,


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PrefaceAgain he went to fight, and when the sur-geon was finally able to attend to him hehad a third wound, in his right arm.The second incident occurred in North-

west Africa. During a fight Dom Affonsoda Cunha, aiming a mighty cut with hissword at a Moor, missed him, and the swordleapt from his hand. " Go fetch it, youdog ! " roared Cunha, and the terror-stricken Moor obediently picked it up andgave it to him, trembling. Cunha there-upon spared his life.Such were those Portuguese of old, per-sistent, brave, proud, magnificent. Andsomething of their spirit survives in thePortugal of to-day, ready to reappear ata crisismore of it, perhaps, than is gener-ally imagined.

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Contents

PAGEKing Dinis iII

Nun' Alvarez 17III

Prince Henry the Navigator . . 47IV

Vasco da Gama 61V

Duarte Pacheco Pereira ... 79VI

Affonso de Albuquerque . . , 103VII

DoM JoAO DE Castro .... 127XV


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List of Illustrationsnun' ALVAREZ .... FronHspicce

From the earliest (1526) edition of the Cronica. FAONG PAGEPRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR ... 49VASCO DA GAMA ...... 63AFFONSO DE ALBUQUERQUE .... IO5

From Caspar Correa, Leiidas da India, frontispiece to vol. ii. pt. i.

JOAO DE CASTRO I29

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1

KING DINIS(12611325)

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KING DINIS(12611325)

Co* este o reino prospero florece,Camoes, Os Lnsia'das.

Um Dinis que ha de admirar o mundo.Antonio de Sousa de Macedo, Ulyssippo.When Henry of the French House of Bur-gundy became Count of Portugal in 1095he merely held a province in fealty to theKing of Leon, but by his son, the greatAlfonso I's victories over the Moors italmost automatically became an inde-pendent kingdom. The second king,Sancho I, who has so many points ofresemblance to King Dinis, further estab-lished the new realm, and he and his suc-cessors continued to wrest territorv fromthe Moors. In the reign of the fifth king,Dinis' father, Affonso III, the conquest

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Portuguese JPortrait^of Algarve was completed, and the onlyremaining difficulty was the claim of thekings of Castille to this region.

Dinis, born on October 9, 1261, was buta few years old when he was sent to Sevilleto win the consent of his mother's father,the celebrated Alfonso the Learned, towaive his right to the latest Portugueseconquest. As the shrewd Affonso III hadforeseen, he proved a successful diplomatist.Alfonso X, enchanted with the grave,courtly bearing of his little grandson,knighted him and sent him home with allhis requests granted.Thus it came about that when Dinis, towhom his father had given a separatehousehold but a few months before, as-cended the throne at the age of seventeen,he was the first king to begin to reign overPortugal with its modern boundaries, fromthe River Minho to Faro. Two centuriesof great deeds had achieved this resulttwo more were to pass before Spain waslikewise entirely free of the Moorish in-vader^and lUnis now in a reign of half

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King Dinisa century (1279-1325) saw to it that theheroism and sacrifices of his ancestors hadnot been in vain.

His tutor had been a Frenchman, Ebrardde Cahors, who now became Bishop ofCoimbra, and the fame of his grandfatherAlfonso X was spread through the Vv'holePeninsula. But, young as he was, Dinisat once made it clear that he intended torule as the national King of Portugal andhad resolution enough to withstand theCastilian influence of his mother andAlfonso X. His first care was to acquainthimself thoroughly with his kingdom, andhe spent the great part of the first year ofhis reign in visiting the country, payingespecial attention to the still almost de-serted region of Alentejo.But the first years of his reign were notentirely peaceful, for his younger brotherAiionso laid claim to the throne. Diniswas born before the Pope had legitimisedAffonso HPs second marriage ; Affonso,two years his junior, afterwards: hencethe partisans of the latter aflected to

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Portuguese Portraitsconsider Dinis illegitimate. The disputewas scarcely settled when Dinis marriedIsabel, daughter of Pedro III of Aragon,who proved so efficacious a mediator inthe even more serious troubles at the endof his reign, and, after sharing his thronefor forty-three years, is still venerated asthe Oueen-Saint of Portugal.

In his differences with Castile, Tiniswas successful, both in peace and war, andit was a tribute to his character and au-thority that he was chosen as arbitratorbetween the claims of the kings of Castilleand Aragon. At home he was confrontedby a powerful secular clergy, by the exces-sive and growing wealth of the religiousorders, and by an overweening nobility,while his newly conquered kingdom urgentlyrequired hands to till it and walls andcastles for its defence. Dinis dealt withall these problems in a spirit of equal wis-dom and firm.ness, upholding the rights ofthe tlirone and the rights of the people tillhe had welded a scattered crowd of indi-viduals into a nation.

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King DinisHis quarrel with the clergy, who pro-

tested that the King had infringed theirrights, was referred to Rome, and in 1289a formal but not a lasting agreement wasreached.Two years later the King checked the

ever-growing possessions of the religiousorders by a law limiting their right to giftsand legacies. Their wealth was the resultof the great part they had played duringthe long conflict against the Moors, but itnaturally began to prove inconvenient toKing and people in time of peace. Thenobles were in like case, and Dinis showedthe same resolution towards them andabolished certain of their privileges.He could protect as well as check.When' the Knights Templar were abolishedby the Pope, Dinis secured an exceptionfor Portugal and reorganised them as theOrder of Christ in 131 9. Indeed he wasessentially a builder, not a demolisher.In 1290 he founded the University ofCoimbra ; in 1308 he renewed and consoli-dated the treaty between Portugal and

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Portuguese Portraits

England ; in 1317 he invited to Portugala Genoese, Manuel Pezagno, to organise hisfleet and command it as Admiral.He encouraged agriculture, calling the

peasants the '* nerves of the republic," andpassed many laws to ensure their security,so that in his reign men began to goin safety along the roads of Portugal,hitherto infested by brigands, and hedivided grants of land among the poorof the towns. He planted near Leiriathe pines which still form so delightful afeature of the country between that townand Alcobaga.Some have called King Dinis a miser,others declare that in his reign there was asaying " liberal as King Dinis." H ij| cer-tain that he expended his money wisely,and, while no early king .ever accomplishedmore for the land over which he ruled, heleft a full treasury at his death. Thecharge of avarice perhaps arose from thecharming legend which so well exemplifiesthe simplicity of those times.The Queen was in the habit of distri-

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King Dinis

buting bread daily to a large number ofpoor, and Dinis, who perhaps would ratherhave seen them digging the soil, forbadethe charity. Queen Isabel continued asbefore, and one morning the King met heras she went out with her apron full ofbread." What have you there ? " said KingDiniz.

** Roses," said the Queen." Let me see them," said King Dinis.And behold the Queen's apron was filled

with roses.In the matter of buildings King Dinis not

only fortified many towns with castles andwalls, but founded numerous churches andconjints. The traveller in Portugal evenno^Blan scarcely pass a day without com-ing upon something to remind him of thesixth King of Portugal. The convent ofOdivellas, the cloisters of Alcobaga, thebeautiful ruins of the castle above Leiriaare but three of many instances which showhow King Dinis' work survives even in thetwentieth century.

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Portuguese Portraitsit was said of him that

Whate'er he willedDinis fulfilled.

But he nearly always wrought even betterthan he knew. He realised no doubt thatPortugal was an all-but-island, especiallywhen the relations with Castille were un-friendly ; but he could scarcely foresee thatof his pinewoods would be built the " shipsthat went to the discovery of new worldsand seas " ; that a future Master of hisnew Order of Christ would devote its vastrevenues to the great work of exploring theWest Coast of Africa, the work Vv^hich boreso important a share in transforming Europefrom all that we connect with medicevalismto all that is modern ; that his em^^ofleet would grow and prosper till Portugalbecame the foremost sea-power ; or thatthe treaty with England would still bebearing fruit six centuries after his death.The University, too, lasted and becameone of the glories of Portugal, and a sourcepf many of her greatest men in the sixteenth

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King Diniscentury. Since the sixteenth century, afterbeing several times moved from Coimbrato Lisbon and from Lisbon to Coimbra,it has been fixed in the httle town on theright bank of the Mondego and remains oneof the most treasured possessions of modernPortugal. The quality that explains howso many of King Dinis' institutions enduredand prospered marvellously in succeedingcenturies was thoroughness, the convictionthat any work, however humble, if thor-oughly done must bear excellent fruit, anda certain solidity which finds little satis-faction in feeding beggars precariously, butgreat satisfaction in setting them to workon the land.

Perhaps, then, it may come as a surprisethat King Dinis was also a poet, one of thegreatest of Portugal's early poets. Wehave nearly one hundred and fifty poemsunder his name. He may not have wTittenthem all, some may have been composedby the palace jograes, but he showed hisgood taste and inclination for the nationaland popular elements in writing or collect-

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Portuguese Portraitsing not only poems in the Provencalmanner, then on the wane in Portugal, butthat older, indigenous poetry which is themost charming feature of early Portugueseliterature.

And King Dinis' poems are among themost charming of all. Here is one of hisquaint popular songs, the fascination ofwhich is only faintly discernible in transla-^tion :

Friend and lover mineBe God our shield !See the flower o' the pineAnd fare afield.Friend and lover, ah me 1Be God our shield !See the flower on the treeAnd fare afield.See the flower o' the pineBe God our shield !Saddle the colt so fine .And fare afield.See the flower on the treeBe God our shield !The bay horse fair to seeAnd fare afieldSaddle the little bayBe God our shieldHasten, my love, away,And fare afield.

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King Dini^The horse so fair to se6Be God our shield !^My friend, come speedilyTo fare afield.

It was King Linis' affection for his ille-gitimate son, Dom Affonso Sanchez, also apoet,

that brought trouble on the latteryears of his reign. His eldest son and theheir to the throne, Affonso, jealous of theregard, the lands, and privileges bestowedupon Dom Affonso Sanchez, afraid perhapsthat the King might devise a way of leav-ing him the thi-one, rose in rebellion in1320 and advanced through Minho to Leiriaand Coimbra, ravaging the country as hecame. The King, now nearly sixty yearsold, set out against him and several en-gagements were fought : it was not till1322 that Oueen Isabel succeeded afterstrenuous exertions in bringing about peace.The reconciliation was but temporary.Dom Affonso Sanchez retired to Spain, but

returned, and the Prince Affonso rose inarms again in 1323. Again Queen Isabel,going from one to the other, exerted herselfto make peace. King Dinis, his anger now

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Portuguese Portraitsthoroughly roused, was not easily appeased.Finally he agreed to increase the Prince'sincome, and, much against his will, to partonce more from Dom Affonso Sanchez.Not many months after this settlement

King Dinis fell ill at Lisbon, where he hadbeen born, and which he made the realcentre of his kingdom (his instinct unfail-ing in this as in other matters concerningthe future greatness of his countr}^) . PrinceAlfonso was summoned from Leiria, and asincere reconciliation followed. The Queenwatched day and night by her husband'sbedside, and to her his last words werespoken when on January 7, 1325, one ofthe greatest of Portugal's kings died. Hewas buried according to his wish in theConvent of Sao Dinis de Odivellas, whichhe had founded near Lisbon.Three hundred years after his death it

was still the custom in Portuguese law-courts for a prayer to be said for his soul ;and if we consider how far-reaching, howimmense were the results of the measurestaken by this strong-willed, wise, and ener-

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King Dinisgetic ruler, we may conclude that the custommight well be continued in the twentiethcentury. Humane and affable (conversavel,the quality of so many great men), he wonthe personal love of his people and gavethem immediate prosperity, but he also,apparently, saw deep into the future.

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II

NUN' ALVAREZ(13601431)

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II

NUN' ALVAREZ(13601431)

Mas quern podera dignamente contar os louvores destevirtuoso barom, cujas obras e discretes autos seemdo todospostos em escrito ocupariam gram parte deste livro ?Fernam Lopez, Cvonica del Rei Dom Joam.Fifty years after the death of King Tinizit seemed as if the kingdom that he had socarefully built up was to crumble awaylike dry sand. The disorders and extra-vagances of King Ferdinand's reign hadbrought it to the verge of ruin, and themarriage of his only child Beatrice withthe King of Castille in 13S3 appeared todestroy the last hope of an independentPortugal.

It is ten years before that date that Nun'19


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Alvarez Pereira, to whom mainly Portugalwas to owe her continued existence as aseparate nation, first comes on the scene.His father was the powerful Prior of Crato,Dom Alvaro Gongalvez Pereira, in highfavour at Court, son of the Archbishopof Eraga and descendant of a long lineof nobles. His mother, Iria Gon9alvez,was lady - in - waiting to the PrincessBeatrice.

In 1373 there was war between Portugaland Castile, and a rumour spread that theenemy was approaching Santarem. ThePrior sent Nuno and one of his brotherswith a few horsemen to reconnoitre. Ontheir return they were received by the Kingand Queen. Queen Lianor, struck by thebearing of the shy, precocious boy ofthirteen, took him for her squire, and theKing knighted him, after a suit of armourof his size had at last been found, belongingto the king's half-brother John, the Masterof Avis, he who was king thereafter.For three years in the palace the Queen's

squire gave his days to riding and the20


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Nun' Alvarezchase, and to the reading of books ofchivali-y, of Sir Galahad and the knightsof the Round Table. Then his fatherarranged a marriage for him with the richand noble Dona Lianor d'Alvim, a youngwidow of Minho.

Marriage was not in Nuno's thoughts,but Dona Lianor had consented, the Kingapproved, and reluctantly he yielded. Hislife on their estate was happy. Fifteensquires and thirty henchmen were in atten-dance in theii- house, and after hearing hisdaily mass Nun' Alvarez would spend longdays hunting the boar and the wolf in thewooded hills of Minho or exchanging visitswith the Minhoto nobility.

Of then- thi"ee children two sons died ininfancy ; the daughter, Beatriz, was marriedto the Count of Earcellos, son of KingJoao I, and through her Nun' Alvarez wasthe ancestor of that line of kings which vv^asstill reigning in 1910.

It was a life too quiet for the times, anda few years later Nuno was ordered toPortalegre to defend with his brothers the

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Portuguese Portraitsfrontier against the Spanish. As theymarched from Villa Vigosa to Elvas, Nuno,the wish father of the thought in his keen-ness to encounter the enem}/, mistook theglint of the morning sun on the lances oftheir own footmen, who had been sent onahead, for the enemy advancing and gavethe alarm. To his vexation there was nofighting, and when he challenged the sonof the Master of Santiago to combat, tenagainst ten, the king forbade the en-counter, and the Earl of Cambridge, thenat the Portuguese Court, to whom Nun'Alvarez appealed, pleaded for him invain.

In 1382 a powerful Spanish fleet besiegedLisbon. The defence of the city was en-trusted to Nun' Alvarez and his brothers.It was in late summer, quando Vuva im-bruna, and jjarties from the fleet wouldland to gather grapes and other fruit.Nun' Alvarez saw his opportunity and,leaving the city one night with some fiftyhorse and foot, lay in ambush in the vinesby the bridge of Alcantara. The first

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Nun' Alvarezboatload of twenty Spaniards to land wasdriven headlong into the sea, but a largerforce came ashore and the Portuguese,seeing themselves outnumbered five to one,fled.Nun' Alvarez, left alone, spurred his

horse to a gallop and dashed into the midstof the enemy. His excellent armour stoodhim in good stead, but his lance was shat-tered, his horse cut down, and one of hisspurs caught in the saddle as he fell. Thusdisabled he still fought on, and then forvery shame his followers turned to assisthim. The first to come up was a Lisbonpriest, afterwards Canon of Lisbon Cathe-di'al.Nun' Alvarez, hearing a few monthslater that the King was to engage the enemy

between Elvas and Badajoz, proposed tohis elder brother Pedr' Alvarez, who hadsucceeded their father as Prior of Crato,that they should have a hand in the fight-ing. Pedro, who had orders to defendLisbon and intended to obey them, re-fused, and, having previous acquaintance

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Portuguese Portraitsof Nuno's methods, gave instructions thatno armed persons should be allowed toleave the city. Nuno with a few atten-dants dashed past the guard at the gateand rode post-haste to Elvas. He waswell received by the king, but again therewas no fighting. Peace and the betrothalof Beatrice were celebrated in a banquetat Elvas. King Ferdinand was too ill toattend, but King Juan was present.Nun' Alvarez, in his bitterness at seeing

Portugal given over to Castille, for onceforgot his manners. He and his brotherFernao, going in more leisurely than therest, found all the tables crowded, and, un-able to obtain a place, he pushed away thesupport from one of the tables, which wentcrashing to the ground, and calmly wentout. King Juan remarked that be whoso acted had a heart for greater things,but, in the words of the old chronicle, hadthey been Castilians he might have spokendifferently.

After King Ferdinand's death Nun'Alvarez, brooding over his country's wrongs,

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Nun' Alvarezkeenly took the part of the young Masterof Avis. He was not present at the mur-der of the Queen's favourite, the CountAndeiro, but he approved the act, andwhen news of it reached him at Santaremhe hastened to Lisbon to the Master ofAvis.

It was at Santarem one evening as hosauntered along the banks of the Tagusafter supper that he chanced to pass thedoor of an armourer and sent for his swordto be sharpened. The alfageme refusedany payment till he should return as Countof Ourem. Hail to thee, Thane of Caw-dor ! The story adds that Nun' xA.lvarez,returning Conde de Ourem to Santaremafter the battle of Aljubarrota, found thearmourer in prison as a friend of Castilleand his property confiscated, and was able,by protecting him, to pay his debt.Nun' Alvarez now became one of the

Prince of Avis' Council, his most loyal andmost trusted counsellor to the end of theirlives. His first important command wasin Alentejo, and after delaying in order to

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Portuguese Portraitstake part in a fight with eight Spanishships in the Tagus he set out at the headof his two hundred horsemen. Hence-forth Evora, the ancient walled city in thewide plain of Alentejo, was his headquar-ters. He instilled confidence into his menand increased his army, although it rarelyexceeded five hundred horse and as manythousand foot, and was often very muchbelow that number.The war continued with varying success.

At one time Nun' Alvarez advanced toBadajoz, at another the Spanish were atViana, but a couple of leagues from Evoraacross the flowered charneca. But Nun'Alvarez seized town after town and morethan once defeated the enemy in the openfield. Monsaraz was taken by a wile, forsome cows v/ere driven temptingly beneaththe walls and when the commander salliedout to seize them the Portuguese rushedin through the open gate. Nun' Alvarez'favourite method was to ride all nightacross the charneca and appear unex-pectedly before a town in the early dawn,

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Nun' Alvarezso that the enemy called him " DawnNuno," Nuno Madrugada.Thus he attacked Almada. He had but

recently taken Palmella on the height over-looking the Tagus, and, hunting in theneighbourhood, had slain a boar and sentit as a present to the commander of Al-mada, promising to pay him a visit soon.He now set out to ride thither by nightacross the charneca, but they lost theirway in the many paths, and the sun was upwhen Nun' Alvarez, in his eagerness out-riding his companions, advanced alone intothe town. Four squii^es presently cameup to his support, and Almada was takenwithout difficulty.The Master of Avis had summoned Nun'x\lvarez to Lisbon or Nun' Alvarez haddetermined to see the Master. From Pal-mella one night looking across the river hesaw the whole city apparently in flames.Not knowing that the fires were lit by theKing of Castille, whom plague in his camphad forced to raise the siege, and awarethat the Master had powerful enemies

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within the walls, he watched the con-flagration in dismay, but next morning thecity reappeared in all its beauty.The Spanish fleet remained in the Tagus,and a squire besought Nun' Alvarez not tocross, saying that he had dreamt that theenemy had captured him as he passed,tlii'ough their fleet. Nun' Alvarez wenton his way, leaving the squire vvith hisdream on the further shore. When he wasin mid-stream, still perhaps thinking ofthe timid cscudeiro, he bade his trumpetsblow the enemy a challenge. But theCastiHans little imagined what a prey waswithin their grasp, and his small boat passedthrough safely to Lisbon.A little later he joined the Master ofAvis at Torres Vedras and together they

advanced to Coimbra, w^here the Masterwas crowned king as Joao I. His first actwas to appoint Nun' Alvarez his Constable.At Oporto, whither he went to organisea fleet, Nun' Alvarez found his wife and

daughter, who had been prisoners of theCastilians for a time at Guimaraes.

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Nun' AlvarezFrom Oporto he set out on a pilgrimageto Santiago de Compostela. His purpose

was threefold, " to serve God in pilgrim-age," to reduce Minho on the way, and tosecure mounts for his men. But theRiver Minho was too swollen to cross, andthe news that Braga was wavering thuscame opportunely. Leaving Viana do Cas-tello he turned east along the beautifulvalley of the Lima and seized the littlegranite town of Ponte do Lima and Bragaon its steep hill. The King had also comenorth, but the news that King Juan hadcrossed the Beira frontier and was ad-vancing rapidly into the heart of Portugalbrought them south again.At Abrantes the King held a council.

Many were of opinion that he should notadvance further against the enemy. Nun'Alvarezthe same Nuno who had riddenalone into two hundred and fifty of theenemy on the banks of the Tagus andadvanced alone into Almadathereuponset out with his men, and in the name ofGod and Saint George sent a challenge

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Portuguese Portraitsto the King of Castille. Each fresh suc-cess of Nun' Alvarez had raised himenvious backbiters in Portugal, and herewas a new opportunity to accuse him ofarrogance. King Joao silenced his accusersby following him to Thomar.They then went west to Ourem andtook up a position towards Leiria. Theadvance of the King of Castille caused themto turn the front of their battle towardsthe little village of Aljubarrota. The Por-tuguese, barely 5,000 strong, were out-numbered seven to one, but they weredrawn up on foot in a small compact forceand desperate, flight being practically cutOil. On the right was the Ala dos Naniora-dos, the lovers' wing, pledged to yield noinch of ground ; on the left fought a fewhundred English archers, gens-d'armes An-glois si peu qu'il en y avoit, says Froissart.The Spanish chronicler and poet, PeroLopez de Ayala, and Nun' Alvarez' brotherDiogo rode over before the battle andasked to speak with him alone, but suc-ceeded neither in winning him to their side

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Nun' Alvareznor in casting suspicion on his loj-^alty.As he had said when fighting against hisbrothers earUer in Alentejo, for the landthat gave him birth he would fight againsthis own father.At nine o'clock on the morning ofAugust 15, 1385, the battle began with a

great hurling of stones, followed by fight-ing with the lance, and then at still closerquarters with axe and sword. Nun' Al-varez was constantly where the fight ragedmost fiercely, and his words " Fight, Portu-guese, fight for king and country " keptringing out above the din. The flower ofCastilian chivalry fell that day and manyPortuguese nobles fightmg for Castille.Nun' Alvarez saw his brother the Masterof Calatrava fall pierced by a lance, butwas never able to find his body. The Kingof Castille fled to Santarem. The Conventof Alcoba9a still preserves a huge cauldrontaken from the enemy^^t Aljubarrota, butthe noblest memorial of Nun' Alvarez'victory is the Church and Monastery ofBatalha.

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Portuguese PortraitsNun' Alvarez, not yet as old as Napoleonwhen he conquered Italy, crossed the

Guadiana with a few hundred horse and afew thousand foot and advanced intoCastille. All the nobles from the south ofSpain who had not been present at Alju-barrota collected to give him battle. Theenemy, he was told, were as the grass of thefield in number. " All the greater will beour honour," said Nun' Alvarez.A trumpeter with a bundle of rods kneltbefore Nun' Alvarez seated to receivehim : " My Lord Constable, the Masterof Santiago, my lord, sends to defy youwith this rod," and the Master of Cala-trava, the Master of Alcantara, the Countof Medina Celi and many another had senthim rods of defiance. The Constable re-ceived them one by one patiently, gavethe messenger a hundred gold pieces andbade him thank the senders for the rodswith which he would presently come andbeat them.The battle of Valverde that followed was

an attack of several hills from which the32


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Nun' Alvarezenemy had to be dislodged. " If Portuguesekneel in battle," said a later, sixteenth-century historian, "it is to the Cross ofChrist " ; and certainly it was from no fearor weakness that Nun' Alvarez, woundedby an arrow in the foot, knelt to pray inthe thickest of the fight. Anxious mes-sengers came up with news that his menwere hard pressed, imploring his presence,but he, without answering, still knelt inprayer. At last rising with a look of greatjoy he ordered on his standard to theattack, and a few hours later no Spaniardwas to be seen.

It was in memory of this battle that theConstable built the Church and Conventof Carmo, still in its ruins one of the mostbeautiful of Lisbon's buildings. This wasthe last of his great battles, although hesaw much more fighting (for peace withCastille did not come for many years),and when fifty-five years old took part inthe expedition that conquered Ceuta.But his abiding fame was won when hewas twenty-five. His success was due toD 33


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Portuguese Portraitshis singleness of purpose. The indepen-dence of Portugal was his object, and tosecure that object he put forth his wholestrength not only ungrudgingly, but witha passionate eagerness, his strength basedon deep piety and faith. A keen judge ofmen, he was terrible in his calm disdain tothose whom he suspected of shirking ortreachery ; without a word of abuse on hispart he made their humiliation unbearable.But he inspired his followers with extra-ordinary devotion. His clear, piercing eyesand his self-possession gave them confi-dencedes yeux j)leins de mitraille et unair de tranquillite~3.nd he was alwaysgenerous in rewarding constancy andvalour. His energy, fearless courage andfervent serenity won many a fight againstoverpowering odds.

His fame extended throughout Spain.One evening near Caceres ten henchmenappeared before him. The Count receivedthem kindly, and on hearing that they werefrom Castille asked how they were so boldas to come without safe-conduct. Relying

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Nun' Alvarezon his great goodness, they said. He thenasked what he could do for them, and theyannounced that their only object in comingwas to see him, and now they had seenhim ; and so, refusing the supper heordered for them, they departed as theyhad come.Many incidents show his power over hisown men. Once, when they were unwill-

ing to go forward to attack a superiorforce, he just stepped across a stream andbade those who were willing to follow himcross it, and not one held back.On another occasion an uproar arose inhis camp owing to the fact that the day'sbooty had consisted of " many and goodwines." The Constable came unarmedfrom his tent, but many soldiers, seeinghim thus and hearing the noise, rushedforward to protect him and formed acanopy of swords over his head.The irregular pay and supplies receivedfor his men made it difficult to maintain

strict discipline ; for some days they livedentirely on figs, then as now one of the

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Portuguese Portraitsprincipal fruits south of the Tagus ; for onewhole day Nun' Alvarez' own food con-sisted merely of a piece of dry bread, aturnip, and a drink of wine from the flaskof a common soldier. Another time therewas no bread in the whole camp except fivesmall loaves reserved for Nun' Alvarez'table ; five starving Englishmen came up,and he entertained them to dinner, givingeach a loaf of bread.

It was impossible in such circumstancesto forbid or prevent plunder when it wasobtainable. But, although he was obligedto allow his followers to live on the land,he set his face against any unnecessarypilfering, and one squire, convicted of tak-ing a chalice from a church, he sentencedto be burntindeed, the wood was piledand the fire lit before he pardoned him atthe instance of his captains.

In the teeth of great opposition, too, heresolutely forbade the presence of womenin his camp.He was not less renowned for his chivalrytowards the weak, women, prisoners, and

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Nun' Alvarez

peasants,than for his victories in battle.

He provided pensions for " women whohad been honoured and prosperous andwere now poor."But his chivalry went further. A coun-

tess at Coimbra who had held out againsthim, and then plotted to seize his personby treachery, he secured from the reprisalsof his followers ; the wife of the commanderof a captured town he sent away free toCastille. And these were no isolated in-stances ; his conduct never varied in itssimplicit}^ dignity and charming thoughtfor others.

His biographers love to tell of the poorblind man of Torres Vedras who had noway of escaping from the advancing Cas-tilians and whom Nun' Alvarez carried be-hind him on his mule for four leagues outof the town. " Oo que humano e caridososenor ! " exclaims the old chi'onicler.But it is the incidents of an illness when

he was between thirty and forty thatthrow most light on his character and onthe devoted attachment of those around

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Portuguese Portraitshim. The fever and deep depression thatcame over him seem to have been in part,at least, due to the perpetual self-seekingand mendicity with which he had to dealnow that he was a power in the land asgreat as the King himselfgreater, saidhis enemies. Sometimes, we are told, heseemed to have recovered from his illness,and then the very sight of a stranger,especially of a man with a letter, wouldgive him a relapse. His secretary foundit necessary to intercept all letters.

Nun' Alvarez, who had sought health invain at Lisbon, set out to return to Evora.Accompanied by his mother and his daugh-ter, he was carried in a litter to Palmella.His illness prevented him from goingfurther, and he was taken to the smallvillage of Alfarrara, where there were manytrees and streams. The very sight of thegarden of the quinta where he was to lodgeseemed to restore his health. Several ofthe foremost citizens of Setubal came towelcome him, and he received them gladly ;but, as they were leaving, one of them

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Nun' Alvarez(who was very stout) had the misfortuneto bid him " remember the town ofSetubal."Nun' Alvarez, thus reminded of " men

with letters," fell into so great a passionand fever that he was like to die. Herefused to eat, and it was only after muchcoaxing that he was persuaded to sit downat table. They brought him water for hishands and roast birds to eat. His daugh-ter began to carve them before him, andhis mother fanned him with a fan ; but herefused to eat, telling his mother that" that bloated churl with his Setubal hasbeen the death of me."

His secretary, Gil Airaz, would haveexcused the offender, but Nun' Alvarezturned on him in a rage : "The fellow,for what he said, deserved a score of blows,and if you cared for me or my health youwould have given him them."

Gil Airaz said that there was still time,if that was his pleasure, and the Constableanswered that such a pleasure would seemto him all too long in coming. So the

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Portuguese Portraitssecretary, in his presence, took a stick andwent out. When he came back and toldhim how he had beaten and kicked andcovered with mud and water the citizenof Setubal, Nun' Alvarez seemed to re-cover instantly and began to eat anddrink.To any other man, lord of half Portugal,

it might perhaps have seemed a littlething to have had a citizen beaten androlled in a ditch, but presently Nun'Alvarez stopped eating, his eyes filled withtears, and he began to wish he was dead." Do you not see, Gil Airaz," he said," that it would have been better for meto die than that you should have donewhat you did to that good man ? " " Nowwould to God I had no part of all thatland that God and my Lord the King havegiven me, so that this thing were un-done ! "When Gil Airaz saw that he was in

earnest he told him how he had only madea pretence of having beaten the man ofSetubal and how all the citizens had gone

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Nun' Alvarezcontentedly home. Nun' Alvarez was sooverjoyed at this that he rose straightwayfrom the table and went out to the orchardand flowing streams. In three months,with the help of the King's physicians,he was well, and going alone with apage he set to cutting the brushwood infront of him, and found his strength hadreturned.

There is something infinitely touchingin this story about a man who was usuallyso calm and restrained that he might bein a passion of anger and only show itto those who knew himby his smile,and whose whole life was marked by ex-ceptional strength of will. But his oldvigour returned, and very soon he waschallenging the Master of Santiago, begginghim not to tire himself in advancingthrough so hot a country, as he, " Nun'Alvarez Pereira, Count of Barcellos andof Ourem and of Arrayolos and Constableof my Lord the King of Portugal," wouldsave him the trouble.The great grief of the latter part of his

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Portuguese Portraitslife was the death of his daughter Beatriz,Countess of Barcellos, and his hfe musthave been lonely despite the friendship ofthe King and especially of Prince Duarte,heir to the throne. Before the expeditionto Ceuta the}^ went to ask his adviceunder pretext of consulting him aboutsome dogs for the chase, so as to keep thesecret of their enterprise. None betterthan the King knew the value of Nun'Alvarez' opinion. He always seemed toknow precisely the right thing to bedone and the right moment to do it,was as far removed from boasting andvanity as from false humility, and re-spected his own rights as well as thoseof others.

In charity he gave liberally, but nevercarelessly. Thus he yearly bestowed thesame quantity of cloth, but bestowed itin different districts, and stored the cornfrom his estates, to be given away in yearsof scarcity.

Before the end of the fourteenth century(1393) he divided most of his land, that

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Nun' Alvarezis a great part of Portugal, between hisfollowers. Large portions of Tras-os-Montes, Minho, and Alentejo belonged tohim. He was Count of Ourem, of Arrayolosand Barcellos, Lord of Braga, Guimaraes,Chaves, Montalegre, and nearly a score ofother towns. His policy of dividing theselands among his vassals under conditionthat they should maintain certain forcesin his and the King's service, proved un-satisfactory. Like the sated Marshals ofNapoleon, they were subsequently lesswilling to leave their estates and risk theirpersons in battle.The King, who had been too lavish inhis gifts, proposed to buy back his grantsof land. Other nobles agreed to sell, butNun' Alvarez was resolved not to brookthe injustice, and, far from agreeing tothe proposal, departed to Alentejo andgathered his followers with a view to leavePortugal, although, as he said, he wouldnever serve any other king.King Joao, thoroughly alarmed, sent

the Bishop of Evora, the Dean of Coimbra43


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Portuguese Portraitsand the Master of the Order of Avis post-haste after him. But Nun' Alvarez then,as always when he seemed to be actingrashly on impulse, was carrying out aquick but well-reasoned decision, and wasonly with difificulty persuaded to a com-promise. It was finally agreed that hisvassals should be transferred to the King,while Nun' Alvarez was to retain in hisown hands most of his territorial posses-sions. Seven years after the victoriouscapture of Ceuta he again renouncedthem.He had always been a man of great

piety ; after one of his victories he hadgone barefoot in pilgrimage to Santa Mariade Assumar ; he had founded churchesthroughout the country, heard mass twiceor thrice daily, and would rise at mid-night to pray the hours. But it was pro-bably the death of his only daughter thatmoved him to retire to serve God in themonastery of Santa Maria do Carmo, whichhe had founded in memory of his victoryof Valverde. There, on August 15, 1423,

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4

Nun' Alvarezhe professed as Frei Nuno de Santa Maria,after giving away all his lands and titles.Of his daughter's three children, Isabelmarried the Infante Joao, Affonso becameConde de Ourem, and, later, Marquez deValenga,

and Fernando, Conde de Arra-yolos and, later, Duke of Braganza.When Nun' Alvarez, penniless, retiredto his cell it was his purpose to beg hisdaily bread in the streets of Lisbon, andhe also intended to end his days where hemight be quite unknown ; but PrinceDuarte went to see him at the Carmo andaffectionately ordered him to accept apension from the King, a great part ofwhich, however, he spent in charities.

In 1431, in his seventy-first year, andtwo years before his life-long friend. KingJoao, the greatest of all Portugal's greatmen died. "God grant him as m.uch gloryand honour as in this world was his," saysthe old chronicle.

Surely no truer man or more chivalrousknight ever donned helmet or drew sword.Tradition says that the Lisbon people long

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Portuguese Portraitsassembled to sing songs and witness manymiracles at his grave. But his fittest andmost enduring monuments are the noblebuildings of Carmo and Batalha, and, aboveall, a free and united Portugal.

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Ill

PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR(13941460)

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PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR.

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IllPRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR

(13941460)Ca trabalho seria de se achar antre os vivos seu semel-

hante.Gomez Eannez de Azurara, Cronica de GuiiU.Mestre insigne de toda a arte militar.D. Francisco

Manoel de Meli.o.O homem a quern a Europa deve mais,Jose Agostin-Ho DE Macedo, Motim Literario.For some years before his death, Nun'Alvarez might well rest satisfied with theprosperity which largely by his own exer-tions had fallen upon his country. Norwas it a careless or degenerate prosperity.The five noble sons of King Jgao I andhis English wife, Queen Philippa, daughterof " time-honoured Lancaster," had grownto manhood, and the time was pregnantwith great deeds. If Duarte was per-haps Nun' Alvarez' favourite among theprinces, he certainly must have discerned

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Portuguese Portraitsin his younger brother his own successorin guiding the destinies of Portugal. Al-though possibly less chivalrous than Nun'Alvarez, Prince Henry possessed his strongwill and intensity of purpose, with a widerrange of vision. A Portuguese writer re-presents him living in retirement at Sagres,his eyes fixed exclusively on Heaven ; butPrince Henry believed that he could bestserve Heaven by bringing to success theearthly affairs on which he had set hisheart.

It was certainly with the keenness whichmarked the young Nun' Alvarez thatHenrique, then twenty-one, embarked withhis father, King Joao I, and his brothers,Duarte and Pedro, in the expedition againstCeuta in 1415. He had his father's pro-mise that he should be the first to land,and in the storming of the town he wasever in the thickest of the fighting. TheMoors defended the town obstinately, anda fresh danger arose when the victoriousPortuguese dispersed to plunder. Henry,with a little band of seventeen followers,

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Prince Henry the Navigatorsaved the situation against such odds thatnews was at first brought to the King thathis son was dead. For his gallant be-haviour on that day he was made Dukeof Vizeu and Lord of Covilha, while hisbrother Pedro became Duke of Coimbra.But Henry returned from North-West

Africa with perhaps a still greater prizeincreased knowledge of the Dark Continentand a fixed determination to explore furthera land which he now knew to be no meresandy and unfertile desert. To this workhe devoted the next forty-five years, with-out a shadow of turning, since politicalevents might hamper but could not weakenhis purpose, merely delaying the promisedend.

It is often asked what was his object, asthough the wish to win fresh knowledge,to acquire new territory for his country,and glory and riches, and to extend theChristian faith were unaccountable or un-worthy aims. Rather we cannot wonderthat the discoveries became the absorbingpassion of his life, so that he has been

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Portuguese Portraitsblamed for his lukewarm intervention incontemporary politics and his weak de-fence of his brother, the Duke of Coimbra.On the discoveries as Grand Master ofthe Order of Christ he spent its princelyrevenues, and in 1418, retiring from theCourt, he settled on the Sacred Cape, orSagres, now Cape St. Vincent. His palaceand observatory soon drew a village roundit, known as Ter9a Naval, or the Villa doInfante (Princestown). Here, as Governorof Algarve, he spent the greater part ofhis life, fitting out ships in Lagos harbour,welcoming travellers, poring over mapsbrought to him by Prince Pedro and othersfrom their travels, observing the heavens,and watching for the return of his ships.

His keenness was not inconsistent witha certain shyness and reserve. He was astudent prince, but less literary and morescientific than his brothers. All day, andoften far into the night, he would be atwork, an energetic hermit such as theMiddle Ages had not known. His eyes inthe intensity and even fierceness of their

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Prince Henry the Navigatorglance repelled the timid, but IfRey alsohad the far-away look as of one watchingand dreaming, while his firm lips and jawswere those of one planning and \villing.His iron will and self-discipline curbed hisequally strong temper and impatient eager-ness, so that when most moved to angerhe would merely say, like an Irishman, " Ileave you to God."

Courageous and persistent, he preparedall his schemes with the utmost thorough-ness, and all the help that science couldafford, and he carried them out with un-faltering resolution. All through his lifehe acted up to his French motto. Talent dehien jairc, which we ma}^ translate by the" love of useful glory " to which, accord-ing to the poet Thomson, he roused man-kind. And if we do not sit coweringbefore the unknown on all sides it is toPrince Henry and a few men of similarlykeen intellect and stout will that we owe it.

It must not be thought that he metwith no opposition, apart from the greatdifficulties that naturally beset all dis-

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Portuguese Portraitscoverers and innovators. On the one hand,the perils of navigating down the coast ofAfrica were considered insurmountable,and, on the other, the gains to be derivedfrom it were held to be nugator}^ It wasnot till the first slaves and the first goldarrived that men began to realise thor-oughly that Prince Henry was somethingmore than an empty dreamer. No onewith less faith, a faith based both on re-ligion and science, would have persevered,as Prince Henry persevered, in face of theslight support at first given by publicopinion and the slight success obtained.But, although there were many disappoint-ments and progress was slow, the mysteriesof the African coast did gradually recedebefore his persistency, as year after yearhe sent out ships with definite instructionsbased on his maps and scientific knowledge.The death of King Joao I in 1433 didnot seriously interfere with his plans ; his

brother Duarte gave him every possiblesupport, and the expedition against Tangierin 1437 was not an interruption but rather

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Prince Henry the Navigatorone aspect of his Hfe-work. Indeed, he wasthe leading spirit of the enterprise. Heand his younger brother, Fernando, ob-tained from King Duarte the consent forwhich they had ceased to hope from theirfather ; but Duarte at first, and Pedrothroughout, were opposed to the expedi-tion. It set out in August, and the Httlearmy of some six thousand men disem-barked at Ceuta, and, without waiting forthe ships to return to Portugal for rein-forcements, marched to attack Tangier.

Failing to take the place by storm, theprinces settled down to blockade it. Thedanger of such a course was obvious, buteven when the Moors, who trooped downfrom the hinterland, outnumbered theChristian force by twenty to one theywere driven back in a series of magnificentattacks. But the Moorish host continuedto grow by scores of thousands daily, andin the second week of October it becameapparent even to the fiery heart of PrinceHenry that he was embarked on a hope-less enterprise.

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Portuguese PortraitsThe siege was raised and the small army

attempted to regain their ships. Henrywith the cavalry protected their retreat.But the cowardice of some, the treacheryof others, and the overwhelming numberof the enemy proved too much for hissplendid defence, and on October 15 hewas forced to come to an agreement withthe enemy. By this capitulation the Por-tuguese were to be allowed to re-embarkwithout their arms, Ceuta, their twenty-two years' possession, was to be given up,and Prince Fernando, with certain otherhostages, was to remain in the hands ofthe enemy until the Portuguese shouldhave evacuated the town.

Prince Henry, in his despair, fell ill atCeuta and afterwards retired to Sagres.He would not give up Ceuta, and hecould not save Fernando otherwise. KingDuarte, confronted by the same cruel alter-native, succumbed to grief and illness atThomar in the following year.To Henry's sorrow for the death of onebrother and the living death of another-

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Prince Henry the Navigatorthe tortures of Fernando' s captivity endedin a miserable dungeon in 1443^wasadded the crushing of his hopes and pro-jects. For the new King was but a boy,and it needed no pecuhar foresight toprophesy impending trouble in Portugal.It required all Prince Henry's fortitudeand faith to persevere, in loneliness andremorse. Prince Pedro had strongly op-posed the expedition : it was on Henrythat its failure rested. Nor was he one towish to shirk responsibility, and many anhour he nmst have spent brooding over thefatal effects of his rashness.Henry is too great a man to need to have

his mistakes glossed over. He had under-estimated the difficulty of the enterprise,he had been rash in advancing from Centawithout awaiting reinforcements, he hadbeen rasher in not retiring after the firstunsuccessful attempt to scale the walls ofTangier. His object certainly had beena noble one, based on no personal greedor ambition, and the results of his failurewere felt by none more than by himself.

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Portuguese PortraitsIn the eyes of others his magnificentcourage and steadfast retreat placed himeven higher than before.

Fortunately for him, there was plentyof work ready to his hand, for, although hedid not personally accompany the ships ofexploration, he scientifically worked outtheir instructions, equipped them, and fol-lowed their progress on his maps. Perhapsa certain estrangement between Pedro andHenry was natural after 1437 ; Henry, atleast, did not very actively support hisbrother in his quarrel with the Queen-Regent, and failed to stand by him laterwhen he had resigned his Regency andwas venomously attacked and slanderedby his enemies before his weak son-in-law,King Affonso V. When the matter cameto open conflict Pedro, with his small bandof followers, could not hope for victory,and again Henry did not resolutely inter-vene. Pedro's tragic death at x\lfarrobeirain 1449 cannot have diminished Henry'sremorse for the death of Duarte and Fer-nando eleven and six years earlier,

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Prince Henry the NavigatorMeanwhile, his austere devotion to thework of discovery bore increasing fruit,

and before he died the rich islands of theAzores, Madeira, the Canaries, and CapeVerde were discovered, and the coast ofAfrica explored as far as Sierra Leone,which was reached by the famous Vene-tian, Luigi Cadamosto, in the service ofPrince Henry, nearly a quarter of a cen-tury after Gil Eannez had rounded CapeBojador in 1434. The Infante himselfhad lost little of his energy, and althoughnearly sixty-five, accompanied his nephewAffonso V in the expedition against Moroccoin 1558, and took a prominent part in thesiege and capture of Alcacer.The last two years of his life were spent

at Sagres. In September 1460 he disposedof certain of his revenues, potential ratherthan actual, to the Order of Christ andto the State, which had hitherto recognisedhis right to receive the profits of the dis-coveries as it had allowed him to bear itsburden. 1 he burden to the day of hisdeath was far greater than the profits.

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Portuguese PortraitsYet he must have reaUsed that his Hfe'spurpose was attained, and that the restwas but a matter of time, as surely asthough he had planted an orange-tree anddied when it was covered with blossom.His body was taken to Batalha, and, ifit was not to remain on Cape St. Vincentlooking southwards over the sea to Africa,no worthier resting-place could be foundfor it than the splendid church built tocommemorate the victory of his father andof his friend Nun' Alvarez. Prince Henryspent himself, his time, and his revenueswithout stint in the service of a great ideaand a high ambition. Nun' Alvarez hadworked for the independence of Portugal ;Prince Henry left it well on the road toan imperishable glory.A generation later, when the full effectsof his life's work were manifest, his coun-trymen and the world recognised in thisstrong, tenacious ascetic, with his burningzeal for God and country, his fearlessnessand unwavering devotion, the inspirer andorigin of Portugal's new greatness.

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-IVVASCO DA GAMA

(1460?1524)

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DOM V/K^CO ^T>A G-AI^KVASCO DA GAMA

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IVVASCO DA GAMA

(1460 ?1524)O qual Vasco da Gama era homem prudente e de bom

saber e de grande animo para todo bom feito.CasparCoRREA, Lendas da India.King Joao II pressed on vigorously withthe discovery of the west coast of Africa.The year of liis accession was not endedbefore Diogo de Azambuja set out with tenships (1481), and after his return the Kingassumed the title of " Lord of Guinea."Diogo Cam in 1484 and 1485 carried thediscovery still further, past the River ofCrabs (Cameroons), past Congo and Angolato Walvisch Bay, and two years laterBartholomeu Diaz rounded the Cape, andwith that the problem of the sea-route to

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Portuguese PortraitsIndia was practically solved, so that KingJohn died (October 1495) in sight of thepromised land. Indeed, the departure ofthe ships which Vasco de Gama was de-stined to command was only delayed bythe King's death. He had given " ordersfor such wood to be cut in wood andforest as the carpenters and buildersshould desire, and this was brought toLisbon, where at once three small shipswere begun."In appointing Vasco da Gama, a knightof his household, to the command KingManoel showed that he knew the valueof the men who had grown up in the sternschool of Joao II. The Gamas were adistinguished family of the south of Por-tugal ; they had already rendered goodservice to the StateVasco himself mayhave had a part in the work of discoveringthe coast of Africaand if they were attimes quarrelsome and unruly their loyaltyand courage were never in doubt. In1497 the meekest of them, Paulo, Vasco' seldest brother, was in trouble for having

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Vasco da Gamawounded a judge at Setubal/ and receivedthe King's pardon before he sailed ascaptain of one of the ships.

Vasco, a man of medium height andknightly bearing, was bold and daring inenterprise, patient and determined in adver-sity, but harsher and more irascible than hisbrother. It is a curious instance of the con-tinuous if often slight connection betweenthe two nations of seafarers, the English andthe Portuguese,

that Vasco da Gama hadEnglish blood in his veins. The name ofhis mother. Isabel Sodre. which survivesin Lisbon's Cues do Sodre, was a corruptionof Sudley, her grandfather having beenFrederick Sudley, of the family of the Earlsof Hereford. Vasco was born probably in1460, in the little sea-town of Sines, of whichhis father was Alcaide Mor, and in honourof which Vasco later is said to have been inthe habit of firing a salute as he passed.

1 This may have been the occasion on which Vasco daGama, closely wrapped in his capa, one night in the streetsof Setubal refused to reveal his identity to the Alcaide goinghis rounds, declaring that he was no malfeitor. The Alcaide'sattempt to arrest him failed.

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Portuguese PortraitsThe third captain appointed by KingManoel was Nicolao Coelho.The three ships, of about a hundred tons,

Sao Gabriel (Vasco da Gama), Sao Raphael(Paulo da Gama), and Sao Miguel ^ (NicolaoCoelho), after solemn procession and leave-taking of the King, on July 8, 1497, saileddown the Tagus from Belem and roundedCape Espichel to the south. The crewsaveraged little over fifty men, being per-haps 170 in all, including six convicts ineach ship to be cast ashore in order to spyout the land at different points. Bartholo-meu Diaz, bound for the fortress of SaoJorge da Mina, accompanied them as far asthe Cape Verde Islands.

In November they reached the bay ofSt. Helena where Vasco da Gama wasslightly wounded in an affray with thenatives. Hitherto their voyage had beenprosperous ; but they encountered heavystorms both before and after rounding the

^ Also apparently called Berrio, after the pilot from whomit was bought (?). Since Berrio = New (Basque berri) itwas an appropriate name for a ship going to the discoveryof mares nunca dantes navegados.

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Vasco da GamaCape of Good Hope, and it required allVasco' s resolution and Paulo's persuasive-ness to keep the crews to their voyage.The mutinous crew of the Sao Gabriel hadcounted without its host, and found Gamalittle less formidable than the storms ofthese unknown seas. Not if he were con-fronted with a hundred deaths, he said,and not if the ships were all filled withgold, would he go back a single yard ; buthe did not wholly disregard the murmuringsof the men, for he clapped the mate andpilot of his ship in irons, to hold them ashostages, and, as they were the only per-sons who knew anything of the art ofnavigation, the crew was effectually cowed.At Christmas they reached the land

which to this day bears the Portuguesename. Natal, of the time of its discovery.Passing slowly north along the coast, theyarrived towards the end of January at theZambezi River, and in this shelter made astay of several weeks ; but scurvy amongthe crew forced them again to sea, and inthe beginning of March they reached Mo-

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Portuguese Portraitszambique. Here, as at Mombasa a monthlater, the natives received them with everyappearance of friendship, but made a trea-cherous if rather courageous attempt toseize their ships. The King of Mehnde, ahttle further north, was friendly and loyal,and here the Portuguese obtained pilotsfor the voyage to India.

I he passage lasted less than a month,and on May i8 they sighted Asia, the endand object of their enterprise, and cameto anchor off Calicut on the 21st. Calicutwas a few miles distant, and Vasco daGama, although implored by his brothernot to risk his person by disembarking,started on the overland jom^ney. It re-quired some courage, for among the nativesightseers who crowded round the Portu-guese there were not a few armed andcovertly hostile Moors.

In the minds of the Portuguese, the Easthad long been connected with the empireof the Christian Prester John, the halfmythical ruler of Abyssinia, and they ex-pected to find the majority of the natives

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Vasco da GamaChristians. Accordingly they were easilyduped here (as indeed they had been inAfrica) and Vasco da Gama and his com-panions on the way to Calicut worshippedin a Hindu pagoda. The images on thewalls were unlike those of the saints towhich they had been accustomed in Por-tugal. Some of them had four arms, theteeth of others protruded a whole inchfrom their mouths, and their faces werehideous as the faces of devils. Like LittleRed Ridinghood, one of the Portuguese,Joao de Sa, was in the most serious doubtwhen he saw these figures, and, as heknelt down, in order to avoid any mistake,he said aloud "If this is a devil I worshipthe true God." And Vasco da Gamalooked across at him and smiled.

A che guardando il suo duca sorrise.This does not tally well with the characterof the disciplinarian, despotic Gama, as itis usually represented. But these qualitiesdeveloped later.The Portuguese were as ignorant about

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Portuguese Portraitsthe King of the country as about its gods.For the Samuri of Cahcut was no simpleKing of MeHnde, but a great potentateaccustomed to traders and to foreigncivihsations. It was not without diffi-culty that Gama obtained an interview,and when he succeeded, the King, all aglowwith jewellery, seated chewing betel, apage on either side, and his chief Brahmanbehind his chair, was fully a match for thehaughty Gama. From one of his braceletsgleamed a priceless stone of a thumb'sthickness, his necklace was of pearls almostof the size of small acorns, and from a goldchain hung a heart-shaped jewel sur-rounded by pearls and covered with rubies,and in the centre a great green stone, anemerald, of the size of a large bean, be-longing to the ancient treasure of the Kingsof Calicut. His golden trumpets werelonger by a third than those of the Kingof Portugal.

It appears that the Portuguese hadbrought no present worthy of so greata monarch. The same historian, Correa,

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Vasco da Gamawho thus vividly describes the King'sappearance, also gives a detailed accountof the present. It consisted, he says, of" a very delicate piece of scarlet, and apiece of crimson velvet, and a piece ofyellow satin and a chair richly upholsteredwith brocade, with silver-gilt nails, anda cushion of crimson satin with tasselsof gold thread, and another cushion ofred satin for the feet, and a very richlywrought gilt ewer and basin, and a largeand very beautiful gilt mirror and fiftyred caps with buttons and veils of crimsonsilk and gold thread upon them, and fiftygilt sheaths of Flemish knives, which hadbeen inlaid in Lisbon with ivory."The King should have been satisfied,but probably this present, if it ever existed,had dwindled in gifts to natives of Africaon the way. The question in the King'smind was that asked once of Telemachus :Had they come as peaceful traders, or werethey pirates ?

Vasco da Gama, faced by a reception socourteous yet so insulting, maintained a

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Portuguese Portraitsproud, serene attitude, as he had when onhis way to the palacehe is representedadvancing slowly, waiting for the crowdsto be cleared out of his wayand as hedid later when placed under arrest by theCatual, or Governor of the city. By hisresolution during the dangers and obstaclesof the voyage and by his calm behaviour inCalicut he justified the King's choice andhis subsequent fame.The Samuri himself was far more favour-

ably inclined to the new-comers than werethe Moors, who naturally resented theappearance of other traders. The Portu-guese were greatly helped throughout bya Mohammedan who had learnt Spanish atTunis, but, although Gama brought homespecimens of pepper, ginger, cloves, musk,benjamin, and other spices as well as pearlsand rubies, his visit to Calicut, whichended with the high-handed measure ofseizing and carrying off several natives,was unsuccessful, since it resulted in notreaty of friendship or commerce.At the end of August they started on

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Vasco da Gamathe homeward voyage, but remained forsome time off the coast of India, and in theIndian Ocean lay becalmed for many days,during which the crew again sufferedterribly from scurvy, a considerable num-ber dying. The remnant of the crewsstruggled on in their three ships towardsPortugal ; at Cabo Verde, Coelho separatedfrom the others and carried the news toKing Manoel (July 1499). Paulo da Gamawas worn out by anxiety and exertions,and Vasco sailed with him north-west tothe Azores, where, in the island of Terceira,Paulo died. It was not till the end of thesummer that Vasco da Gama reached theTagus.It is saidalthough Coelho' s earherarrival contradicts the storythat a Ter-ceira trader, Arthur Rodriguez, about tosail from his island to Algarve, saw twoships at anchor and asked whence theywere. " From India," came the answer.At these magic words he set sail, not, how-ever, to Algarve, but due East, and in fourdays cast anchor in the harbour of Cascaes.

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Vasco da GamaPrince Henry, to King Joao II, and toBartholomeu Diaz, who was drowned inthe following year off the Cape which hehad been the first to round.

King Manoel, overjoyed at having at-tained the goal of nearly a century's con-stant striving, now styled himself not onlyKing of Portugal and the Algarves andLord of Guinea but Lord of the Navigation,Conquest, and Commerce of Ethiopia,Arabia, Persia, and India ; he sent word ofthe discovery to the Pope and all theprinces of Christendom ; and at Belem, onthe right bank of the Tagus, whence the dis-coverers had set sail over two years before,he built the fine monastery of Sao Jeronimo,where nov/ are the tombs of the King him-self, of Dom Vasco, who brought him allthis glory, and of Camoes, who celebratedit in deathless verse.The building stands in strange contrast

to that of Batalha, where Prince Henrythe Navigator lies buried. The pure Gothicof Batalha, with its magnificent plainpillars and soaring arches, spells heroic

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Portuguese Portraitsaspiration ; the Manueline of Belem in itsexuberance and rich profusion of detailbears traces of satisfied accompHshment,as though Portugal might now throw sim-plicity and austere endeavour to the winds.Dom Vasco da Gama in February 1502set sail a second time for India, and returned

in September 1503 with the first tributeof gold from India. " As the King wasthen at Lisbon, Dom Vasco, when he wentto see him, took the tribute which he hadreceived from the King of Quiloa.^ Anobleman in plain doublet with uncoveredhead went before the Admiral on horse-back in great solemnity, carrying the goldin a large basin of silver, to the soundof drums and trumpets, and in companyof all the gentlemen of the Court. Andthe King ordered a monstrance to bewrought of it, as rich in workmanship asin weight, and offered it to Cur Lady ofBethlehem as firstfruits of those victoriesof the East."The death of Paulo da Gama seems to

1 Now Kilwa ; soon, perhaps, Quiloa again.76


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Vasco da Gamahave killed the gentler strain in Vasco' snature, and his many honours, titles, andestates rendered him more overbearing.It was on his second voyage to India, inOctober 1502, that he blew up a peacefultrading ship from Mecca with 380 (or byanother account, 240) men on board, be-sides many women and children, afterrelieving it of all gold and merchandise.As to his overweening pride, he is said tohave signed himself Count in a letter tothe King before the title had been actuallyconferred.

Despite the crying need for a strongman to restore discipline in India afterAlbuquerque's death, King Manoel didnot send Dom Vasco out as Governor, andit was only in the reign of King Joao III,and when Gama was over sixty, that he leftLisbon, in April 1524, as Viceroy of India,with his sons Estevao and Paulo and aforce of 3,000 men. He reached Goa inSeptember and presently proceeded toCochin. He was resolved to bring somemeasure of order and justice out of the

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Portuguese Portraitsconfusion and corruption of India ; andwhereas most other Governors on theirarrival were too busily occupied in enrich-ing themselves to pay careful attention toother matters, Gama bent his whole willto effect reforms.The reforms were salutary, but they fillednative and Portuguese alike with consterna-tion and were decreed in a harsh, uncon-ciliatory spirit. Gama came into conflictwith the outgoing Governor, Dom Duartede Meneses, and only reduced him toobedience by giving orders to bombardhim in his ship.The first three months of Gama's vice-royalty proved that the task of reformingthe rule of the Portuguese in India waswork for a younger man, and on ChristmasDay 1524, to the rehef of the self-seekers,to the grief of those who cared for thefuture of their country, Dom Vasco daGama died, exactly twenty-seven yearsafter the sight of Natal had given him thefirst real promise of success in his earliergreat adventure.

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VDUARTE PACHECO PEREIRA

(1465 ?1533 ?)

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DUARTE PACHECO PEREIRA(1465?1533?)

O gram Pacheco, Achilles lusitano.Luis de Camoes, Os Lusiadas.Diversas et incredibiles victorias obtinens.Damiao de Goes, Hispania.

One of the captains who sailed from Lis-bon with the cousins Albuquerque in 1503was Duarte Pacheco Pereira. Like thegreat Affonso de Albuquerque with whomhe sailed, he was still unknown to fame.He may have been between thirty-five andforty years of age, but his subsequent gloryhas thrown no light for us on his earlieryears ; and beyond the fact that he wasborn at Lisbon, that he was a knight ofthe King's household, and that underJoao II he was employed in the discovery

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Duarte Pacheco Pereirahis men by a stirring speech he locked hisown boats together and forced his waythrough, and then immediately went aboutso as to be able to stop the enemy's pursuitwith his artillery. A fierce combat ensued,but Pacheco had completed his victorybefore the Albuqucrques could come to hisassistance.The King of Cochin was so greatly im-

pressed by this exploit that he henceforthheld Pacheco in the highest esteem. Helittle knew at the time how intimatelytheir fortunes were to be linked. BeforeAffonso and Francisco de Albuquerque leftfor home it was knov/n that the King (theSamuri) of Calicut was about to attackCochin with his entire forces by land andsea. None of the Portuguese captainsevinced any alacrity to be left behind in itsdefence, and when Pacheco accepted v/itha good will, but " rather to serve God andthe King than for any hope of profit,"those who knew how great was the mightof Calicut said : ' ' God have mercy onDuarte Pacheco and those who remain

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with him," scarcely expecting to set eyeson him again. As it proved it was Fran-cisco de Albuquerque who perished, on hisway home, while Pacheco died many yearslater, in peace and on dry land.Whatever Pacheco' s thoughts may havebeen at the prospect before him, he knew

that to instil confidence into his men washalf the battle ; he said httle, but showedby his demeanour that he was perfectlysatisfied, and asked for not a single manbeyond those whom the Albuquerques hadfound possible to leave him. Thus he re-mained alone in India, still an unknowncountry to the Portuguese, with his ownship and three even smaller vessels, and,in all, ninety men.

It was little wonder that even the faith-ful and resolute King of Cochin began todespair when it was known that the host,or horde, from Calicut consisted of 6o,ccomen. He himself could provide abouthalf that number, but of these three-quarters were actively or passively hostile.The Moors, moreover, who supplied Cochin

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Duarte Pacheco Pereirawith provisions were minded to abandonthe city, and would have done so had notPacheco intervened.He at first determined to hang the ring-

leader in this treachery, but the Kingdeclared that, should he do so, the restwould rise in mutiny, and he accordinglyassembled the " honest merchants," andaddressed them in a speech of such vigourthat for the moment he had no furthertrouble from the Moors. Purple with rageand speaking so loud that he seemed tobe actually hghting, he offered them hisfriendship, but should they thwart him hepromised to be a crueller enemy to themthan any King of Calicut. Their respectfor Pacheco was further increased by hisastonishing energy, for, after working allday a,t preparations against the cominginvasion, he spent the nights in forays intothe Repclim country.

Pacheco' s task was to defend the city ofCochin, and the Portuguese fort recentlybuilt by the Albuquerques. The territoryof Cochin was separated from that of

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Portuguese PortraitsRepelim by salt-water channels, and thepreparations of the Portuguese were directedto the defence of the principal ford, whichwas only passable at low tide, with deeperwater at each end. \\'ith this objectstakes were made ready to be driven in allalong the ford in a serried stockade. Bythe time the King of Calicut reached Repe-lim, Pacheco had put a salutary fear intothe hearts of the citizens of Cochin, sothat when the news of his arrival cametheir first impulse to a,bandon the city wasimmediately checked.The better to inspire them with his ownfearlessness, he made his usual night ex-pedition into Repelim and set fire to oneof the villages. He experienced some diffi-culty in returning, and five of his men werewounded, but when the King of Cochinexpostulated against this foolhardiness hemerely laughed and said that all he wishedfor was that the King of Calicut shouldadvance to attack him.The first attack at the ford occurred on

the last day of March 1504 (Palm Sunday),86


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Duarte Pacheco Pereiraand the period that followed may wellclaim to be one of the most brilliantHundred Days in history. The enemy onthis Palm Sunday, relying on their over-whelming numbers, crowded down to theford at low tide, but the sharp stockadeconfronted them and the artillery from theboats stationed in the deep water on bothsides of the stockade cut them down.Their own "cannon" were not very for-midable, for we are told that they did notpropel their projectiles with greater vio-lence than that with which one mightthrow a stone, and at the end of the daythe Portuguese had but a few injured andnone killed. Their danger was neverthe-less great, for although the enemy hadsuffered considerably in this first assaultthey were so numerous that they couldcontinually renew the attack, and sleeplessvigilance, with intervals of terrific exer-tion, was necessary to defeat them.But Pacheco had succeeded in impartingsomething of his own spirit to his men.Undeterred by the flight of the Nairs who

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Portuguese Portraitsshould have supported him, he took advan-tage with his usual energy of the breathing-space secured by this first victory, orderedhis men to make a show of revelry at in-tervals during the following night in orderto impress the enemy, and next day withforty men set out and burnt a village.The enemy's attacks were repeated onGood Friday and Easter Sunday and EasterTuesday, and in the intervals of victoryPacheco kept on burning villages, to thedelight of those in Cochin.The endurance of the defenders wastested to the utmost when the King ofCalicut attacked on the same day in twoplaces, at the ford and in a deep waterchannel. He seems to have made a mis-take in not waiting to attack with his fleetuntil low tide enabled the infantry simul-taneously to assault the ford, or, at least,the plan did not work out well, and Pachecowas able to deal first with the numerousfleet of boats, said to have been two hun-dred and fifty in number.The four little Portuguese ships seemed

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Duarte Pacheco Pereiraalmost lost in the multitude of the enemy.The darts and arrows, sa3'S one of theearl}^ Portuguese historians, were in suchquantity that they cast a shadow over theships, and so loud were the shouts andcries that it seemed to be the end of theworld. /,gain and again the enemy's boats,chained together, came on to the attack,but they never succeeded in boarding thePortuguese caravelas, although many ofthe Portuguese were wounded.Meanwhile twelve thousand infantry hadadvanced against the ford. Message aftermessage came to Pacheco for help, but thetide was still running out and he contentedhimself with answering that he was still

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