A century of discovery; biographical sketches of the Portuguese and Spanish navigators from Prince Henry to Pizarro

Part I.— The Portuguese. Chapter Fagk

I. INTRODUCTORY .--.--- i

III. DIOGO CAM AND MARTIN BEHAIM - - - - 40

IV. BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ AND PEDRO DE COVILHA^I - - 49 V. VASCO DA GAMA - - - - - - "57

VI. PEDRO ALVAREZ CABRAL AND JUAN DE NOVA - - 87

VII. FRANCISCO DE ALMEIDA - - - - - 98

VIIL ALFONSO DE ALBUQUERQUE - - - - - I16

IX. THE LAST DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE - "131

X. THE PORTUGUESE RULE IN INDIA AND ITS DECLINE - I38

Part Ii.- The Spaniards

I. INTRODUCTORY - - - - - - - 1 50

II, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS - - - - "153

III. AMERIGO VESPUCCI . _ . . - - 219

IV. VASCO NUNEZ DE BALBOA . . - - - 234

V.-TERNAM DE MAGALHAENS . _ - - - 244

VI. HERNANDO CORTES ---_-- 263

VIL FRANCISCO PIZARRO - - - - - "313

Vin. THE LAST DISCOVERIES OF THE SPANIARDS - - - 346

IX. THE SPANISH RUli IN AMERICA . - - - 356 lUI J, ]

A.

F^ITURY OF DISCOVERY.

' BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

OF THE PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH NAVIGATORS FROM PRINCE HENRY TO PIZARRO.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF

THEODORE VOGEL.

SSlith lEtucllJC illustrations.

NEW YORK : D. APPLETON AND CO., BROADWAY,

A

CENTURY OF DISCOVERY.

PART I.— THE PORTUGUESE.

Chapter I. Introductory

In the rugged mountain tract which separates the arid tableland of central Spain from the humid coast of the Bay of Biscay we trace the origin of the modern states of the Pyrenean peninsula. Into this wild and scarcely accessible region, which occupies the whole north-west corner of the peninsula, and lies among the Cantabrian Mountains, a thousand Christian families fled before the wild storm of Arabs which in 711 destroyed at Xeres de la Frontera the kingdom of the West Goths, and forthwith inundated the whole peninsula. Thus was formed the Christian state of AsturiaS; which still enjoys peculiar rights among the Spanish provinces. From it the Crown Princes of Spain have been used to take their title, and its inhabitants boast with genuine Spanish arrogance that they, whose soil the foot of the Moslem has never trodden, are the noblest of all the Spaniards.

From mere defence the Asturians soon proceeded to direct attacks upon the invaders, and during the following centuries the neighbouring states, by dint of never-ceasing struggles, were gradually recovered by the Christians. It was usual in

I those days for a territory to be divided on the death of a prince, and out of repeated divisions and reunions two kingdoms at length arose at the beginning of the eleventh century. In the east was Arragon, with its capital, Saragossa, first wrested from the Arabs in 1130, comprising also Catalonia, and later on Navarre ; and in the west, Castile, to which belonged Gallicia, Asturias, and Leon.

King Alfonso VI. of Castile, in the year 1094, gave the land between the Douro and the Minho as a fief to Count Henry of Burgundy, a prince of the Capetian dynasty, who came over the Pyrenees at the head of a large train of followers in order to stand by his brethren in the faith in their struggle with the infidel. With the territory the King also bestowed the hand of his daughter upon the young prince, in the hope of thus binding him closely to the cause of the Spanish Christians. The territory received the name of Portugal from its most important harbour, Porto Cale, now called Oporto, and the young state devoted itself most zealously to the national task— the driving of the Arabs from the Spanish soil. The accomplishment of this task was specially looked for from the spiritual orders of knighthood, and, in imitation of the Castilian Orders of St. Jago of Compostella, Calatrava, and Alcantara, there arose in Portugal the Order of Aviz. Gloriously did the Portuguese kings henceforth share in the struggle against the Moors. But as time went on they sought more and more to direct the attention of their people to the neighbouring coast of Africa, and so to make the enthusiasm of the Portuguese for a religious war serviceable for the extension of their territory. Though with no great result, the expeditions against Ceuta and Tangier scarcely ceased from the beginning of the fourteenth century, and they had a favourable eff-ect upon the Castilian and Arragonese conquests, inasmuch as they occupied the Moslems of Morocco in their own land and hindered them from supporting their brethren in Spain.

■But more important than all was the fact that Portugal gradually awoke to a consciousness of the value of its position on the main ocean. The ancient highway of commerce from the Mediterranean to the North Sea had never been completely forgotten since those times when bold Punic seamen first discovered it. But in the night which settled over these shores during the irruption of the northern nations the intercourse ceased, and its timid recommencement at the time of the Carlovingians was suppressed by the piracies of the Normans and Danes. At last these wild forces raged themselves out, and a more orderly state of things together with a certain culture took the place of confusion. During the Crusades many a ship, full of warlike Netherlanders, who had devoted their arms to the service of the Holy Sepulchre, took the old road to the Mediterranean. The Portuguese too many times found valuable allies against the Arabs in these brave and enthusiastic northern crusaders. But this route was not made use of as a highway for commerce until a new centre of industry and of trade sprang up in the Flemish towns of Antwerp, Bruges, and, above all, Ghent. Between them and the great Italian republics that traded in the productions of the east the commerce v/as soon so important that the thrifty Genoese and Venetians .exchanged the troublesome and expensive land route over the Alps and down the Rhine for the comfortable and far cheaper way by sea through the Straits of Gibraltar. As early as the year 13 18 the Venetians sent five ships to the fair at Antwerp, and from year to year the number of the ships increased. This commerce was of the greatest use to Portugal. All voyages were then made by creeping round the coast, and this continued to be the case until the middle of the fifteenth century, when the astrolabe was introduced, which enabled ships on the open sea to make something like a correct calculation with regard to latitude and longitude. In the voyage between Flanders and Italy, as long as it was the custom to keep close to the shore, the harbour of Lisbon^ which lay about half way, formed a welcome resting-place into which ships seldom failed to run. In fact, this harbour was so much frequented that in the time of King Ferdinand, who ruled from 1367 to 1383, four hundred and fifty merchant-ships might often be counted in it. In shipbuilding too the Portuguese soon acquired such skill that they outdid their teachers, and the Portuguese quick-sailing vessels, called caravels, acquired a fame which they well deserved. A caravel was a particularly round ship with a square stern. It had two masts and carried four three-cornered sails, and was armed like a galley ; and the persevering efforts of the Portuguese kings to construct a caravel that should carry cannon, without sacrifice of speed, were at length successful.

The rapid growth of this little state soon secured it a great name, and gave rise to many fables about the riches of the Portuguese. It is certain that at the accession of King- Ferdinand the treasury of Lisbon contained, besides other coins and things of value, 800,000 gold pieces and 400,000 marks of silver — an enormous sum for those days.

King Ferdinand, whose weak and disorderly government swallowed up the treasure, was the last of his house. His early death in 1383 called up many claimants for the crown, above all the King of Castile, who coveted the possession of a land so rich, lying on the borders of his own. But the half-brother of the late King, John the Bastard, gained a glorious victory over the foreigner at Aljubarrota, four miles from Lisbon, where he afterwards founded the splendid Abbey of Batalha, the fine ruins of which are still standing. It was a burdensome inheritance on which the young Prince entered, and it cost him long years and much pains before the prosperity of the land, ruined by the misrule of Ferdinand, was restored. However, the prudence and energy of the young

Prince succeeded at last in healing the wounds of the land. But his predecessor had left behind another inheritance in which the glorious future of Portugal was bound up, and upon which John and his whole family entered with hope and zeal — Africa and the Ocean.

Chapter II. Prince Henry The Navigator

King John I., the Bastard, had by his marriage with Philippa of Lancaster five noble sons, all of whom deserved well of their country. Henry, the third of these brothers, born on the 4th of March, 1394, became grand master of the Order of Christ, which King Dionysius had founded after the suppression of the Templars and endowed with their great wealth — wealth which, according to the rules of the new foundation, was to be employed for the extension of Christendom. It may have been this stipulation which first turned the attention of the young Prince to the wide field which Africa presented to his desire to spread the faith that he professed. When, on investigating the matter, he found how exceedingly contradictory and full of fable was all the geographical knowledge then possessed of that quarter of the world, it awoke in him an ardent desire to lift the veil and win for his country the great prize which this enterprise offered. The year 141 5 was decisive in this matter. In this year King John, accompanied by hiij three eldest sons, proceeded with a fleet to the fortified town of Ceuta, which lies on the north coast of Africa, opposite tO' Gibraltar. After a gallant defence, Ceuta was taken by storm and plundered : and of the three Princes who won their spurs that day,Henry especially exhibited extraordinary bravery. Ceuta remained in the hands of the Portuguese, and became the key to Africa. From that day forward Henry decided to make the investigation of that as yet unknown portion of the world the task of his life, and for this the newly-conquered town offered a good starting-point. In order to be as near as possible to his field of labour, he afterwards removed his residence to the Castle of Terganabal in Algarve, which he had built for himself on the Bay of Sagres. Here he spent nearly half a century in retirement, far from the splendour of the court, poring over nautical charts and books of travel, and with the most intense earnestness following every step that was made in the investigation of Africa by the Portuguese expeditions, which were all either undertaken at his expense, or at any rate greatly assisted by him. Admirable, indeed, is the quiet patience which he opposed to the mocking scepticism of his contemporaries and the want of success which fell to his lot for many years, until at the end of his life he saw his efforts crowned with the highest success, and a path of glory opened to his native land.

The current opinion of learned men about Africa was that only the north coast of that continent was habitable, and that farther south the land that lay under the tropics was burnt up by the vertical rays of the sun, and was unsuitable for all animal and vegetable life. This theory, which the great Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy, following a suggestion of Aristotle, had put forth, was held by all Arabian and European savants of the Middle Ages as incontrovertible, and found confirmation, as it appeared, in the band of desert land which begins a few miles south of the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and which was regarded as a passage to the completely desolate region of the tropics. South of that fearful desert it was thought there might be a tract covered with vegetation and providing man and beast with the means of subsistence. This was the opinion of the Roman poet Ovid, who, in his account of the Creation, says, " The middle one of the five zones is uninhabitable on account of its heat, the two extreme ones are covered with deep snow, but to the two zones which God has placed between these He has given an endurable climate by means of a mixture of heat and cold.

In the southern temperate zones was supposed to be the dwelling-place of our antipodes, the existence of which, however, orthodox savants, following the opinion of St. Augustine, denied.

But how penetrate to these happy regions } Only in East Africa did it appear possible, where the sacred Nile, breaking through the desert, rendered the passage practicable, which, farther west, was barred by the impenetrable waste. Following the Nile upwards, according to the opinion of the time, a glorious land was reached which formed the junction between the two temperate zones, and therefore was specially favoured by Nature, and appeared destined to rule the world. No wonder that the passion for strange stories and the love of the marvellous, which characterised the Middle Ages, should have made the most of such inviting materials. Wonderful things were related of this land, the inhabitants of which belonged to the Christian religion, and under the rule of a priestly King, Prester John, enjoyed an eternal peace and almost supernatural happiness. This marvellous tradition, which pointed to the highlands of Abyssinia, whose inhabitants had already become Christians in the fourth century, long possessed the minds even of educated men, and for centuries there were not wanting people who recognised in every newly-discovered land of the East the fabulous kingdom of Prester John, even if it only bore in some slight degree a resemblance to that land of marvels.

Even Prince Henry had fallen into the popular delusion that the region of the tropics was uninhabitable, until the investigations which he made personally in Ceuta, and by agents in Tunis, awoke doubt in his mind. He learnt that in Morocco, as well as in Tunis, a regular commerce was carried on with lands which lay on the other side of the great desert.

He learnt that caravans traversed that uninhabited region in thirty-seven days, and that they brought to the shores of the Mediterranean gold, ivory, and slaves. Lastly, he learnt that south of that belt of sand there were races that differed from the northern Africans, in that they had black skins and woolly hair ; that there were large towns in these territories, such as Timbuctoo, Ghagho, and Kantor, and powerful kingdoms, among which those of Melli and Gana are most frequently mentioned. The latter, which the Portuguese miscalled Guinea, was, according to the report of the traders, the most western of all the central African kingdoms, and extended to the ocean.

These reports had, indeed, before this reached the Italian republics, and had called forth isolated attempts on the part of the Genoese and Venetians to reach by sea the land of the blacks ; but the small success of these expeditions had soon discouraged them. It is the distinguishing merit of Prince Henry that he resumed these attempts with fresh vigour, and made use of the singularly favourable position of Portugal for this purpose. That the received opinion about the great distance between the two temperate zones was founded on gross exaggeration, he decided from certain information which he obtained about the length of a caravan journey from Morocco to the Soudan. He considered that the journey might be made from Portugal in the same time by sea, if the west coast of Africa were followed towards the south. This, therefore, was the next task which Prince Henry set himself, and he took it up with a fiery zeal.

But here hindrances met him which appeared almost insurmountable. Uncomfortable reports were current about the nature of the coast and sea, reports which had first been set afloat by the Phenician and Carthaginian merchants. These crafty traders had sought to monopolise the source of their most important commodities, tin, amber, ivory, gum, &c., lo A Century of Discovery.

by spreading the most exaggerated and very often most absurd tales about the dangers which awaited the foolhardy navigator outside the Pillars of Hercules, if he sailed either northward towards the tin-producing islands, or southward to the hot lands where the black men dwelt. For a long time all the Carthaginian stories about the northern seas had been recognised as fables, for, with the fall of the Roman empire, the centre of the civilised world had moved northwards; but the faith in the horrible stories which had been related about the coast of Africa was in no wise shaken. On the contrary, they were received even by the learned as of undoubted authority. On the coast of what is now called Morocco, the boldest seamen did not venture farther south than Cape Non, for the proverb said, " He who sails around Cape Non (Not) either will return or not." At that point was supposed to begin the sea of horrors, full of dangerous rocks and shallows. The heat of the sun was said to evaporate the water, so that the sea became more and more salt the farther south you advanced, until at last it became such a dense mass that no ship could cut through it. A constant calm prevented any escape, and the evaporated water lay like a thick mist over the sea.

The restless popular fancy had also erected here magnetic mountains which attracted every particle of iron, and thus caused any ships which came into their neighbourhood to fall to pieces. Of course there was no lack of horrible monsters in the sea and giants on the land, who both lay wait for the poor castaway seaman. And such fables were not mere popular superstitions, but were treated of seriously in scientific works.

It was therefore an important result when, in the first expedition which Prince Henry fitted out in order to reach Guinea, a part of these superstitious fears were found to be groundless. In the year 141 5 — the year of the taking of Ceuta — he sent out two more caravels, under the command of resolute Portuguese captains, with the express order to double Cape Non, and to penetrate as far as possible towards the south. The promontory which had been so much dreaded was discovered to be perfectly safe, and the voyage along the barren and uninhabited shore was prosperously made until, about sixty miles beyond Cape Non, an obstacle was encountered which put an end to the farther progress of thevessels. This consisted of a rocky peninsula, which stretched far into the sea, and from which a reef extended for six miles. The ocean here dashed with such boisterous violence against the shore that the courage of the sailors sank, and they declared it utterly impossible to sail round the cape, which was called Cape Bojador, from "bojar," to jut out.

Prince Henry would not for a moment entertain the idea of abandoning his design, and the next year sent out many ships, with orders to sail round this point; but not one could fulfil the task. So low was nautical science still in Portugal that none of the captains would venture to steer the few miles out into the open sea which were necessary in order to overcome the obstacle. They each clung in a craven manner to the coast. A mere accident gave for a time another direction to Prince Henry's energy.

A caravel, which he had sent out in the year 1419 to sail round Cape Bojador, was caught by a storm before it reached its goal, and driven far out into the open sea towards the west. When the storm abated, the sailors found themselves on the coast of an uninhabited island, which they christened Porto Santo. It was one of the Madeira Islands which they had hit upon, an island that had some years previously been discovered by some Italian sailors, but which had been almost forgotten again.

The next year the larger sister island was discovered, and taken possession of Its Portuguese discoverers called it St. Lawrence, as they discovered it on St. Lawrence's day ; but after a time it received the name which it now bears of Madeira, which means the woody island. The whole island was covered with thick forests, which, if we may believe the statements of the Portuguese, consisted principally of cedars.

As soon as the Prince was informed of these discoveries — the importance of which he could well appreciate — he made preparations to people the newly-acquired lands, and to render their productions useful. With the consent of the King, he placed the islands under three governors, and called upon his countrymen to emigrate to those fruitful lands whose virgin soil promised a rich reward to the cultivator.

At the foundation of the little town of Funchal, on the south coast of Madeira — which is still the capital of the group — a part of the primeval forest was set on fire. The fire spread, and burnt, according to some, for seven, according to others, for nine years, and consumed all the timber of the island. Now the island is poor in timber. The richness of soil, so lavishly manured by the ashes of the conflagration, was inconceivable. The corn bore at first sixtyfold ; the sugar-cane, transplanted thither from Sicily, brought forth a rich harvest ; and the vine, which, by the Prince's care, was brought from Cyprus, produced that wine to which the island owes so much of its fame.

The zealous care which the Prince devoted to the newly-discovered Archipelago was richly repaid to him, for as he had fitted out and despatched the expedition, he received the fifth part of all the revenues of the islands, and with the sums which in this way flowed into the treasury of the Order of Christ he could defray the expenses of new undertakings. Afterwards the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and Diserta were made over to the Prince by his brother, King Edward, as his own possession, with all their revenues, and with the penal and civil jurisdiction. All the spiritualities were presented to the Order of Christ.

Prhice Henry the Navigator. 13

Under Henry's government the population rapidly increased, and it now numbers about 100,000 inhabitants, principally of Portuguese descent. The once flourishing wine trade has been almost ruined by the grape disease, which first made its appearance some years ago, and spread rapidly. In its palmiest days the island produced 15,000 pipes of wine, on which the Portuguese state laid heavy duties. Now the plains are covered with sugar-canes, which form the most important article of export ; and very recently attempts have been made to reintroduce the cultivation of the vine. The splendid climate of Madeira has caused it to be chosen as a winter residence for people suffering from pulmonary diseases.

The promising development of the young colony caused the Prince to turn his attention to the neighbouring group of the Canary Islands, and excited in him the wish to gain them also for Portugal. These islands, which had never been quite forgotten, lie not far from the African coast, opposite Cape Non. It was here the old Greeks and Romans placed the happy islands of the Hesperides ; it was here that a venerable tradition of the Middle Ages pointed out the island of the holy Brandon ; and it was in this direction, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, that the first Venetian and Genoese fleets that ventured into the open sea directed their course. Portuguese ships had in 1335 brought to Lisbon men and goods stolen from these islands, and the name — which is said to mean " the rediscovered islands " — clearly points out that an earlier knowledge of them had existed.

In the bull issued from Avignon on the 15th of November, 1344, the Pope, in virtue of his assumed supremacy over all lands, granted the island to the Spanish Prince Louis de la Cerda, who, however, was prevented by death from entering on his lordship. In the second half of the fourteenth century the islands were now and again visited, partly for the purposes of gain, that is, to carry off slaves and to procure dragon's blood and orchil (a dye) from the inhabitants, and partly with the object of converting them to Christianity.

Of all the islands on the coast of Africa, the Canaries were the only ones that were peopled. From the scanty descriptions and vocabularies which the discoverers have handed down to us, we may conclude that there was some relationship between the Guanches — so the inhabitants were called — and the people of the Atlas Mountains. How the migration from Africa took place is a riddle, for it is certain that when the Europeans arrived ships were unknown to the inhabitants, and from want of boats the intercourse between island and island was so small that the language of one island was not always understood by the people of another. The Guanches are said to have had tall athletic frames, were bright coloured, and had long fair hair ; and this description has been confirmed by the numerous mummies found in the sepulchres of the islands.

Their clothing was very scanty, and their dwellings were either rude stone huts or the caves which had been formed in great numbers by the upheaving of the basalt. Herbs, roots, meal, and the milk and flesh of their flocks served for their food. The use of fermented liquors was unknown to them. Their tools also were clumsy; and since they had no iron, they were forced to be content with wood and stone, both for implements of industry and for arms. Cattle and goats appear to have been numerous in all the islands ; but the cultivation of corn was only carried on in those most favoured by Nature — Teneriffe and Canary. On these the number of the inhabitants was relatively great (Teneriffe is represented as having 6000 fighting men, and Canary still " more), and the people too showed a great superiority over those of the other islands in civil and social development.

Canary was divided into two kingdoms, and each of the Kings had to assist him a council of 190 men, chosen from the noblest families. The people of Teneriffe were divided into many tribes, each with its chief at its head. The division into the nobility, the common people, and a despised class, to whom fell the unclean occupation of slaughtering cattle and goats, appears to have been common to all. Side by side with the civil nobility, there was a priestly class, which possessed considerable political influence. The position of the high-priest of Canary is compared by the Spanish chronicler to that of a Christian bishop, and he possessed the power of •examining into the claims of warriors who aspired to be made nobles. Besides priests, priestesses are mentioned.

With regard to the religion of this remarkable people, there are but few indications, which, however, tend to the conclusion that the faith in a Creator of all things, who rewards the good and punishes the wicked, was universal ; but that in particular islands special divinities were also honoured. The dead — at least, the illustrious dead — 'Were embalmed^ and, wrapped in skins, were placed in holes and caves. Great praise is bestowed on the manners and customs of these Guanches, and many incidents of their short history place them in a bright light, to which the faithless cruelty of the Europeans forms a very ugly contrast. They came confidingly to meet the strangers, and the treaties concluded with them they never broke. To shed blood needlessly appeared to them a most shameful crime. Captives taken by them in war they never killed, but included them in the lowest class. They were passionately devoted to song and dance; but their favourite occupation was the exercise of arms, which they practised in great tournaments. Even the European conquerors feared their obstinate gallantry, although to the muskets and lances of the Spaniards they could only oppose wooden clubs, slings, and spears with points made of horn. Thus the Guanches appear like the remains of a favoured race, once acquainted with a higher civilisation, but, from long isolation, gradually degraded to the condition of savages, though still retaining certain social regulations and elevated tastes, like noble ruins in the midst of a deserted plain.

It was the hope of conquering these islands, and bringing their inhabitants over to the faith, which caused the Norman nobleman Jean de Bethencourt, of the castle Grainville la Teinturiere, in the Pays de Caux, to embark from La Rochelle, on the 1st of May, 1402, in a very good vessel, well provisioned and manned. Such is the story of the Franciscan Boutier and the secular Le Verrier, who accompanied the adventure-loving nobleman as attendants, and have written a full account of the whole undertaking. The knight Gadifer de la Salle, an adventurer, joined him. On the way, in Corunna and Seville, where they lay to, they had to overcome difficulties raised by the rebellious spirit of the Gascon and Norman seamen. After a short voyage from Seville, they reached the Canary Islands, and the two knights took possession of those which lay most to the north-west. On the most northerly — -Lanceroto, which took its name from a Genoese, Lancelot Maloysel, its first discoverer, they built a fortress, to which they gave the significant name of Rubicon. But the small number of their forces made the subjugation of the inhabitants impossible ; and so Bethencourt returned, in order to procure assistance from Europe. Gadifer remained behind to take his place, but was soon reduced to the utmost extremity by a conspiracy, which was formed by his subordinate, Berthin de Berneval.