BOOKS.
PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR.*
The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator, and its Results. Com- prising the Discovery, within one century, of half the World. With New Facts in the Discovery of the Atlantic Islands : a Refutation of French claims to priority in dis- covery; Portuguese knowledge (subsequently lost) of the Nile Lakes; and the history of the naming of America. From authentic contemporary documents. By Richard R. Major. London : Asher.
AMONG the learned men to whose guardianship the treasures of great public or national libraries abroad are entrusted, there are few who do not from time to time give some evidence of literary tastes, bibliographical knowledge, or studious research. But, until lately, little has emanated from the Printed Book Department of the British Museum indicative of a taste for literary workmanship of a patient and laborious kind, or of a desire and an ability to reset in accordance with the requirements of modern taste the literary gems of that vast and curious collection. It is only fair to say that this result must in some measure be attributed to the system which prevents the officials of our national library from a free use of the treasures which they watch over, their attention during the day being strictly confined to the dull details of the catalogue, and not even the highest officials being allowed to take - a book out of the building. Perhaps all the more on this account we are inclined to welcome with interest every token of literary vitality among the librarians of the British Museum, and it is an especial cause for satisfaction to find that the independent inclina- tions of a public servant run in the same line as his official duties. Mr. Major has for a quarter of a century been in charge of the maps and charts in the British Museum, as Assistant-Librarian, and he has lately been promoted to the responsible post of Keeper. Possessed of various and accurate geographical knowledge, it is notably as an historian of geographical discovery that he has won an honourable and well deserved reputation, and the learned and ingenious work under our notice gives ample proof of the-con- scientious use which he has made of his present position, in avail- ing himself of the literary treasures at his command, and of the ad- vantages for personal intercourse with distinguished men which his duties have facilitated. We have given the lengthy title of his work in full, because to have designated it merely as the life of Prince Henry would have been to give a very limited, or rather an erroneous notion of its scope and purpose. It is a work to be classed as historical rather than biographical, and is in fact a series of valu- able and accurate monographs upon distinct events and heroes of geographical discovery, linked together by the chain which con- nects the men and their achievements with the life and exertions of Prince Henry of Portugal.
The sun of Portuguese prosperity rose out of a cloud of troubles. Humanly speaking, it was by the strength of his own right hand and arm that King Joao I. secured the crown of Portugal, and established the illustrious line of Sovereigns who for 200 years presided over the brilliant destinies of the little kingdom. The circumstances of the King's career and the curious contradictions of the code of honour approved by the practice of mediaeval chivalry must be borne in mind, in judging of the scheme designed to give his sons an opportunity of worthily vindicating their claims to the honour of knighthood. By his wife Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, he had among other children Duarte—who succeeded him on the throne of Por- tugal—Pedro, and Henrique, the Prince Henry of our present notice. When these three princes had arrived at an age to receive the honour of knighthood, the King proposed to hold a succession of tournaments during an entire year, in order that they might achieve distinction at the point of the sword, and give token of manly and knightly prowess. " His minister of finance," how- ever, as we are told, " represented to him the useless expenditure inseparable from such a plan, and suggested that an invasion of the Moorish city of Ceuta would offer a far more honourable and fitting opportunity for conferring the rank of knighthood upon the princes, while it would be carrying the sword of the avenger into the country of their former conquerors, and opening a door to the advance of Christianity." The suggestion was approved by the princes, and adopted by the King. Nor did the measures devised to ensure the success of the plan betoken a less capricious sense of honour than the proposal itself. Envoys were sent to Sicily under pretence of asking the hand of the Queen in marriage for Dom Pedro, but with the real intention of landing at Ceuta on their way, to spy out the nakedness of the city. The commence- ment of the actual expedition was attended by ill omens which nearly discouraged the princes from the undertaking, but fortune favoured a brave though somewhat reckless assault, and the city
was abandoned by the Moors at the close of a hard-fought day, in which the adventurous courage of the princes, and particularly of Prince Henry, fairly won them the honours they claimed. Among the romantic episodes of the fight was the appearance of a huge negro, who fought naked, and used no weapons but stones. He succumbed to the valour of a stout nobleman of Prince Henry's staff, who, after being severely wounded by him, thrust his spear into the side of the giant. It is of interest to notice that the expedition had been joined by twenty-seven English ships, which had touched at Lisbon on their way to the Holy Land, and the commanders of which had been induced to join the King against the Moors. The capture of Ceuta was an important event in the life of Prince Henry, as it no doubt exercised a decisive influence upon the exertions of his future life ; but it was not, as might have been expected, the inauguration of a career of active military or naval achievements. The chronicler Azurara states that the renown of the Prince became so high in Europe that he was invited by the Pope, the Emperor of Germany, and the Kings of Castile and of England to undertake the command of their respective armies. Mr. Major conjectures that these offers were made after the taking of Ceuta, but the personal valour exhibited in a single day seems an insufficient ground for such distinguished advancement ; and the subsequent active services of the Prince, which may be very briefly summed up, seem to have given no indication of a talent for military command. Three years after the taking of Ceuta, the Moors, who had with difficulty been kept in check, surrounded the city on the inland side, while it was attacked from the sea by the fleet of the King of Granada. Prince Henry was sent to aid the Governor of the place, Pedro de Meneses, Count of Viana ; but that gallant captain, who had boasted that with his own thick stick he could defend the city against every Morisco of them all, made a fortunate sally before the arrival of the Prince, and on the appearance of the Portuguese ships the fleet of Granada took to flight. As the Moors did not return to give the Prince an opportunity for distinction, he con- ceived the insane idea of showing his quality by taking Gibraltar by storm. He was, however, beaten off by a tempest, and on his return to Ceuta recalled to Lisbon by order of the King. This was in the year 1418, and it does not appear that Prince Henry again went on active service till the year 1437, when he and his younger brother Fernando decided on attempting an attack upon Tangier. King Duarte, who had now succeeded his father, at first refused his consent to the expedition, but at last yielded to the influence of his brothers. As the scheme called forth the decided disapprobation of the public, the Pope was applied to ; but before the evasive and unsatisfactory reply of the Consistory could arrive, preparations had already been made which rendered the answer useless. The results of the enterprise were in the highest degree deplorable, and they place Prince Henry's capa- cities as a commander in a very unfavourable light. Before leaving Lisbon he had been repeatedly enjoined by the King always to keep open a way of communication between his camp and the sea. This wise precaution was neglected, and after a series of disastrous and unsuccessful assaults upon the city of Tangier, the Portuguese were glad to accept any terms. The conditions imposed were hard. They were to embark in their clothes as they stood, delivering up their arms, their horses, and their baggage. Ceuta, with all the prisoners in it, was to be surrendered, and a pledge given by the King of Portugal to main- tain peace with all Barbary for a hundred years. Dom Fernando, with twelve other nobles, was given over as a hostage, until the surrender of Ceuta and the prisoners. In spite of these terms, it was only with great difficulty and loss of life that the Portuguese effected an embarkation at all. Moreover, the Cortes refused to ratify these stipulations by abandoning Ceuta, and Prince Henry, although the life of his brother was at stake, opposed the sur- render of that place. After six years of hardship and suffering, Dom Fernando died in captivity, an event which crowned the disasters of this selfish and ill-advised enterprise. Prince Henry's active military services only include one other occasion. In 1458, shortly before his death, he took part in an expedition against Alcaear Seguer, which though successful, was not of a nature to justify his claims to distinction as a military leader.
From this rapid, but certainly not unfair sketch of Prince Henry's personal services by sea and land, it will be evident that his claims to the admiration of posterity must rest upon other grounds. During the Ceuta expedition he had gained important information from the Moors respecting the interior of Africa and the coast of Guinea ; he had learned about the passage of large caravans from Tunis to Timbuctoo and to the Gambia, and what he heard prompted a desire to seek those countries by way of the sea. Shortly after the expedition to Ceuta, as Mr. Major thinks, Prince Henry took up his residence on the promontory of Sagres, and " in this secluded spot, with the vast Atlantic before him, devoted himself to the study of astronomy and mathematics, and to the despatch of vessels on adventurous exploration." There seems to be a good deal of doubt about the exact date of the com- mencement of the Prince's studious life at Sagres, but at all events after his return from Ceuta he made a practice of sending every year an expedition as far as possible along the coast of Africa, in order to confirm or correct by actual exploration the vague geographical accounts brought by Arab merchants through the interior. The perseverance of the Prince in his predetermined purpose—and in this the value of his life to posterity centres—was rewarded in 1418-20 by the rediscovery of the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira. The account of the first discovery of these islands by Portuguese vessels under Genoese captains, the romantic episode of their fortuitous subsequent discovery by an Englishman of the name of Machin, who loved " not wisely, but too well," and the story of their exploration and colonization by the skilful navigators in the service of Prince Henry, form an import- ant chapter of Mr. Major's work, and give proof of the patience, impartiality, and conscientious industry which distinguish it throughout. Important as such landmarks are in the history of geographical discovery, all that has hitherto been known of them has been vague and fragmentary, and we have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Major has valuably enlarged both the sum and the security of our knowledge by the facts which he has brought into causative connection.
For many years after this remunerative trouvaille the Prince con- tinued to send out exploring parties to the West Coast of Africa, but his sailors were prevented, partly by real dangers and partly by fanciful alarms, from rounding the formidable point of Cape Boyador, a barrier which threatened to limit for ever the horizon of discovery. It was the constant business of the Prince to encourage his explorers by rewards, and to keep them from being disheartened by imaginary dangers.
"If [he says to his squire, Gil Eannes, in urging him to pass Cape Boyador] if there were the slightest authority for these stories that they tell, I would not blame you; but you come to me with the statements of four seamen who have been accustomed to the voyage to Flanders or some other well known route, and beyond that have no knowledge of the needle or the sailing chart. Go out, then, and give no heed to their opinions, for, by the grace of God, you cannot fail to derive from your voyage both honour and profit."
Cheered and fortified, the good squire, Gil Eannes, determined to pass the formidable Cape Boyador, and succeeded. Of this event Mr. Major says :—
" The result may at first sight appear but insignificant. Such was, however, far from being the case, for it must be borne in mind that now, for the first time within the Christian era, Cape Boyador, which had hitherto presented an impassable barrier to Europeans into the Sea of Darkness, had at length been rounded. True, claims have been set up for the honour of a prior achievement of that exploit on behalf of Genoese, and Catalans, and Frenchmen ; but it will be shown, that so far as his- torical evidence has been adduced in support of these claims, not one of them is tenable."
It is impossible for us to follow, in the brief limits to which we must confine ourselves, the elaborate and exhaustive discussion, in which Mr. Major conclusively refutes the claims of various pre- tenders to priority of discovery ou the West Coast of Africa. The reader who is prepared to devote care and thought to the discussion can hardly fail to be delighted with the ingenuity and precision of the arguments employed, and astonished at the patience displayed in the rectification of dates and details.
Between the rounding of Cape Boyador by Gil Eannes and the death of Prince Henry a quarter of a century elapsed. The explorations carried on during that period, and extending as far as the Bay of Arguin, the Gambia, and the Rio Grande, were slow, but certain, because continuous and persevering, steps towards the realization of Prince Henry's ruling desire, the discovery of a passage round the southern extremity of Africa. Nor was that great historical event the only result of the Prince's courageous pursuit of a great idea. Fuere fortes ante Agamemnona, and before Prince Henry there had been brave, skilful, and successful naval adventurers, but his claim to the grateful admiration of posterity rests securely on the fact of his having been the " originator of continuous modern discovery." And if the results which he lived to witness were almost disheartening, the example of his perseverance led to consequences beyond the most remote horizon of his vision.
"Within the small compass of a single century from the date of the rounding of Cape Boyador, more than one-half of the world was opened up to man's knowledge, and brought within his reach by an unbroken chain of discovery, which originated in the genius and efforts of one whose name is all but unknown. The coasts of Africa visited ; the Cape of
Good Hope rounded ; the New World disclosed ; the sea way to India, the Moluccas, and China, laid open ; the globe circumnavigated, and Australia discovered ; such were the stupendous results of a great thought and indomitable perseverance, in spite of twelve years of costly failure and disheartening ridicule. Had that failure and that ridicule produced on Prince Henry the effect which they ordinarily produce on other men, it is impossible to say what delays would have occurred before these mighty events would have been realized ; for it must be borne in mind that the ardour, not only of his sailors, but of surrounding nations, owed its impulse to this pertinacity of purpose in him."
We must here close our imperfect account of the life of Prince Henry the Navigator, and its immediate results. The larger results which are summed up in the above sentences form, as we have already stated, a series of interesting and erudite monographs in Mr. Major's work. To discuss them hastily at the end of an article would be an injustice to the author and unsatisfactory to our readers. We must reserve a consideration of them for another opportunity.
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