Unknown Seas: The Portuguese Captains and the Passage to India Read online

  The plague, and now the death of the revered queen, were taken by some as an evil omen. There was concern among the captains that fear would spread to the crews, who were susceptible to superstition, and doom the enterprise before it had begun. Despite Philippa’s admonition there was talk of delay, but cooler heads quickly prevailed. There could be no procrastination, as the plague would surely spread to the crews and too much had been invested to abandon the campaign because of mere superstition. So the fleet sailed six days after the death of the queen.

  The weather stubbornly refused to cooperate and it took the Portuguese invasion force three weeks to sail the relatively short distance from Lisbon to Ceuta. Passage had been brisk until the fleet passed Cape St Vincent, the southwestern corner of Europe. But at nearby Lagos the fleet was becalmed for a week. It seemed that God did not look favourably on their crusade. The death of the queen, the plague in Lisbon and now this delay caused a stir among the soldiers and sailors. These events were omens that the attack should be cancelled. Then, when the winds did resume, the fleet was taken by a storm and scattered: another evil sign. But the king and his sons persisted, the ships were reunited and on 20 August the fleet appeared unexpectedly off the coast of Africa.

  The storm that had so scattered the Portuguese fleet worked to their advantage. The sultan had received conflicting reports and so took no measures to protect his city. As a result, despite its formidable defences, Ceuta lay unprepared for a determined assault and fell in a single day of savage violence. Once the walls were scaled the Portuguese descended on the hapless inhabitants, as was the practice throughout Europe and the nations of Islam, slaughtering anyone in sight, the princes leading the way. In their frenzy and feverish search for gold the soldiers set fire to stores of expensive silk, tapestries and valuable spices, including pepper and cinnamon. Order was finally restored before the spoils of the victory were completely lost.

  Against the hundreds slain by the conquerors, the Portuguese suffered but eight dead. A thanksgiving mass was celebrated within the blood-stained mosque, where King John knighted each of his sons and presented them with golden spurs. Pedro was named Duke of Coimbra and Henry Duke of Viseu, the first time these titles were used in Portugal.

  A garrison force of 3,000 men was left behind a few days later, when the fleet returned to Lisbon. Neither it nor the bulk of the army could be risked longer from Portugal. News of the great victory preceded it and the victors received a tumultuous reception as they sailed up the river and entered the harbour. The easy victory following so much apprehension was accepted as God’s benediction on the nation. The small kingdom had taken a valuable city from the Moors, something no other country of Europe had managed – not France, England or even Castile. Word spread quickly through the European courts, granting John I and his nation greater prestige than either had ever known.

  The slaughter of the populace and destruction of so many valuable stores brought little advantage to the Portuguese. The Muslims reacted by immediately isolating the city. Caravans that had previously traded with Ceuta and were responsible for its wealth were now diverted to other Muslim cities. The Christian Portuguese sat within their prize, isolated in a vast sea of Moorish hatred.

  But the conquest served an unintended purpose. In the taking and occupation of the city, the Portuguese were exposed to wealth they had never imagined possible. Within the walls of the city were stone mansions with exquisitely carved woodwork. They had seen for themselves an abundance of silks and spices. Writing some thirty years later, but drawing on interviews with veterans of the conquest, Azurara wrote of the awe these men experienced as they first viewed the amazing wealth of what was, after all, a relatively minor Moorish port city. The impact was profound and vividly evoked even a lifetime after the event.

  The princes had heard of the enormous wealth held by the Moors, they had listened to the stories of travellers, but now they saw the affluence with their own eyes, breathed the scent of exotic spices, tasted the luxury that survived the pillaging soldiers. Every tale and fable to which they had been exposed was suddenly credible, no matter how fantastic it had once seemed.

  It was all testament to the vast wealth that lay to the south in Africa, riches there for the taking. In Portugal nearly everyone struggled to provide a living. Even royalty lived a relatively spartan existence for the time, certainly nothing approaching the luxury enjoyed by lesser mortals in Ceuta. The fabulous rumoured riches of the Arabs, and of their spice and gold trade, had always seemed as remote as those described in the tales of Sinbad the Sailor. Ceuta casually displayed that wealth and the conclusion was that access to even greater riches could be accomplished, and not necessarily at great cost.

  At Ceuta the Portuguese learned firsthand of Timbuktu and the Mali empire of legend to the south, where the gold trade with this affluent region was the principal source of the city’s wealth. Absorbing the realization that there would be no trade by caravan for them, as this was controlled by Arabs, they grasped that they must outflank the Moors to gain direct access to the gold, and in doing so would receive a more favourable rate of exchange.

  Henry’s interest in all things African was especially excited by the conquest of Ceuta, with its riches and exotica. He gathered every scrap of information he could concerning the caravans of the interior, their routes and distribution points, and made a careful study of the merchants and traders of the Niger region. He learned all he could of Timbuktu, of Gambia and the Mali empire. He quickly grasped that if Portugal was to benefit from the riches that lay to the south, it would have to reach the source by following the coast of Africa in ships. He scrutinized the existing charts, especially those drawn by the Jewish cartographers of Mallorca, and compared them one to another in their manifest contradictions. With the exception of a few periods of political unrest, extending the Portuguese reach into Africa and eventually to Asia was to occupy the remainder of Henry’s life.

  As Europe was chronically short of precious metal, gold was the initial objective of what would become the Discoveries. India evolved as a destination only later, when the Portuguese failed to find the vast sources of gold they sought and as they developed the means for making the voyage and realized it was within their grasp.

  The opportunity to win victories for Christ, and to secure worldly wealth in the process, was a heady mix of God and greed, the perfect elixir to stimulate the Portuguese to even greater endeavours. The motive was not unique to the Portuguese, but it gripped them like no other nation in Europe.

  4

  Henry and the sea of darkness

  It is recorded that of the three princes who won their spurs that bloody day in Ceuta none demonstrated greater courage than Henry, later to be given the title ‘The Navigator’. Word of his prowess as a soldier spread rapidly, and Pope Martin V implored him to lead the Christian armies against the infidel Turks. The King of England, the Emperor of Germany, even the King of Castile, each in turn beseeched Henry to fight for them.35 The young prince declined every request in order to devote himself to a greater cause, which he considered to be divinely inspired.

  Even within the span of Henry’s long lifetime exploration and discovery became the only practical means for Portugal to expand and prosper. After his eventual passing the situation became even more pronounced with the union of Aragon and Castile. The defeat of the Portuguese army at Toro in 1476 meant there was no possibility that Portugal could ever dominate Spain militarily, while the Treaty of Alcáçovas with Spain three years later gave Portugal an open road to Africa and from there to India. All events combined to point the Portuguese into the Atlantic and south to Africa.

  It is unfortunate that the Portuguese historians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries turned Henry into a mystical figure, extravagantly praising his artistic ability, his sharp intellect, his courage on the battlefield and his managerial skills. He is portrayed as a tormented ascetic, a nationalist in the service of God, a visionary and martyr who maintained his purity
throughout his life and died a virgin.5

  The truth, as far as can be determined, is so much better than this stereotype. Henry kept faith with his mother and never contended with his older brothers for the crown or tried to exercise unwanted influence over national policy. It is possible that he chose not to marry in order not to have a legitimate heir who could have vied, or have been seen as vying, to be king. He generally lived far removed from the luxuries of the royal court in Lisbon and thus remained free of royal intrigue and suspicion.

  This combination of factors, as well as his own nature, permitted Henry a position of impartiality that was instrumental at key moments in preventing the sort of internecine disputes that typically plagued royal families. This allowed two generations of unprecedented expansion and discovery for the nation. Late in his life Henry still exercised such influence that he was able virtually single-handedly to preserve the peace when it appeared the country would be torn apart by civil war for the crown. Had there been no explorations at his command, Henry would still figure prominently in Portuguese history.

  The first Portuguese voyages of discovery along the African coast were launched four years after the seizure of Ceuta. It is assumed that Henry consulted with his two older brothers and that the three agreed to explore southward with the purpose of establishing a trade link with the Mali empire, to discover new lands as opportunity presented itself and to gather intelligence for their crusade against the Moors.

  At about this time Henry was named Grand Master of the Order of Christ. From its foundation the order had been given the responsibility of expelling the infidels and that remained its primary objective. This was a great honour to Henry, but even more important for the future of the small kingdom, it meant he received the lucrative income from the order, resources he could use to finance the discoveries. Whether the appointment was simply fortuitous or was intended as a means to give him the revenue and influence he would require for the undertaking is only one of many unresolved mysteries.

  United as they were, it is accepted that each of the princes agreed to the role Henry desired to play. In fact in 1428, when Prince Pedro, Henry’s older brother, visited Italy, he gathered maps and collected valuable information in Florence, and in Venice was presented with Marco Polo’s book. All of these he turned over to Henry.

  Considering the conquests within Portugal itself and then the taking of Ceuta, the Portuguese had seized more land from the Moors than France, England or the Italians cities had ever managed. It only made sense to reach the source of riches by sea. If it could be done, Henry was determined to accomplish it.

  Such an undertaking over so many years required a man of his determination, character and religious zeal, and by the time of Henry’s death the end was within sight. So important was he to Portugal’s eventual triumph that, even though he died thirty-seven years before the first voyage of Vasco da Gama, it is unlikely the passage to India would ever have been achieved by the Portuguese had he not been born.

  The southwestern region of Portugal had been named by the Moors El Gharb and it was the last portion of Portugal from which, in 1249, they were expelled. Across the sea from the Algarve, as it was named by the Portuguese, was the closest possible point of contact with the infidels, so along with his appointment as Grand Master of the Order of Christ, Henry was also given possession of these lands.

  Although much less hospitable than the rest of the nation and thinly populated even for the time, the region was ideal for Henry’s purpose. An ancient harbour already existed at Lagos, but it lay east of the Atlantic coastline. Instead, Henry cast his eye on the more westerly of two promontories, Cape St Vincent, an unusual rock formation that jutted into the Atlantic and had been the Promontorium Sacrum for the Romans. There Henry ordered the building of a stone complex which he named Sagres. Beneath the rugged coastline was a small bay, where he ordered a town to be constructed. Not far away he built Raposeira, his private residence.

  According to Azurara, Henry wished that this seat of exploration should, among other things, be ‘an especial mart for merchants . . . to the end that all ships that passed from the East to the West, should be able to take their bearings, and to get provisions and pilots’.36 Here Henry faced west across the Atlantic and south to Africa. Far removed from the intrigues of the Portuguese court, no more ideal location could have been possible for his undertaking.

  Henry had been educated at a time when the Moorish libraries of Toledo were being or had been translated from the Arabic into Latin. Among the works were rediscovered classics of the Greeks, including the Almagest, the Arab version of Ptolemy’s Syntaxis Mathematica, which made possible new strides in geographical theory.37 Ptolemy’s other great work, the Geography, which contained the most complete classical knowledge on the subject, was brought to Europe from Constantinople and translated into Latin in 1410. A revised version, with the addition of Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland, was soon circulating through the European courts.38 Much of the information was substantially correct, although Henry was not in a position to distinguish truth from fantasy.

  From these and other works Henry read that even in ancient times mariners had reportedly sailed beyond the Canary Islands and that the Egyptians claimed to have circumnavigated Africa in the time of the Pharaohs. The untrustworthy historian Herodotus had written that the Phoenicians rounded Africa in 600 BC with a voyage reported to have taken two years and one that would have covered some 16,000 miles, unquestionably by far the greatest distance that had been sailed up to that time. The best evidence that no such voyage occurred is that it would have given the ancients a clear picture of the true shape of Africa, which they did not have.

  For Henry it was not usually possible to determine what of the history was real, what legend, though there was some reliable information. It was known, for example, that in 1291 the brothers Ugolini and Vadino of the renowned Genoese Vivaldi family had attempted to round Africa in two galleys, sailing down the west coast of the continent with the intention of reaching India. They were reported to have passed Cape Juby, just opposite the Canary Islands, and were then lost to history.

  The Portuguese had begun their explorations as early as the reign of King Dinis in the fourteenth century. One of his ships had been the first to discover the Azores but their location was promptly lost, though they were later rediscovered and settled. Attention soon switched to the Canary Islands. The Romans had learned of the Canaries off the coast of Africa from a king of Mauretania. In 999 Arabs landed and traded with natives there. Still, by the Middle Ages the Canaries were all but forgotten. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries sailors from Genoa, Mallorca and France all visited the islands at one time or another. Portuguese explorers rediscovered them at this time, as did the Spanish, but it was Spain that first settled there and was eventually able to assert its sovereignty.

  In losing the Canary Islands, Portugal let a golden opportunity slip from its grasp. The winds from here were seasonably favourable to crossing the Atlantic, a pattern Columbus noted and later exploited after such efforts by the Portuguese further north failed. But more important at the time, the islands were ideally situated for the push south and possessed a fine harbour and resources of fresh water, wood for cooking and produce. Henry grasped that another Canary Islands was required.

  During these centuries the discovery, then loss, of islands was so commonplace as to be unremarkable. Typical of what the underdeveloped navigation and mapping techniques produced was Madeira. The archipelago is situated some 700 miles south and west of the southwestern tip of Portugal. Genoese seamen discovered the islands, as their location is indicated on a map dated 1351, but often it was not possible to return to such lands because the navigation skills were simply not adequate. The existence of the map bearing the islands of Madeira was not widely known, so they were probably a mystery to Henry’s captains.

  Maps of every sort, many of them ancient but not necessarily reliable, depicted other islands, both real and
imagined. There were the very real St Brendan Isles, but also the Hi-Brasil, or O’Brasil of Irish legend. West of the St Brendans was the island of Antillia, which can be found on a 1367 map. As late as the early sixteenth century mythical islands were still routinely appearing on reputedly reliable maps. These included Mam off Ushant and Brasil, now off Galway. The fabled Septem Ciuitates were placed in the North American continent.39

  The effect was no less telling, whether or not the islands actually existed. As Samuel Eliot Morison puts it in Portuguese Voyages to America in the Fifteenth Century:

  Mythical as they were, these islands had a considerable influence on history; for their presence on the maps in the hands of Portuguese, stimulated . . . ocean exploration in search of something new. . . . There was every reason for the enquiring maritime mind of that era to suppose that more could be found. It is a matter of historical record that such searches were made.

  The most widely used map of the time was the product of the Cresques of Mallorca, a family of cartographers who worked at the royal patronage of the King of Aragon. Aragon had been one of the earliest kingdoms in Europe to appreciate the need for better navigation techniques and quality maps. In 1340 it enacted a law requiring all ships sailing from there to possess a map. The Cresques produced a mappa mundi, commonly known as the ‘Catalan map’, which the King of Aragon presented to the King of France. Over the next hundred years it and subsequent versions were widely disseminated and came into Henry’s possession. More than a thousand have survived.