In the spring of 1581, both the brothers sailed from Lisbon in one of the ships of an armament commanded by General Don Lope de Figueroa. This armament was sent to the aid of Don Pedro Valdez, who had been commissioned to reduce the Azores Islands to the authority of the Spanish crown. A misunderstanding arose between Figueroa and Valdez, on the subject of an attempted landing at Tercera, and not being able to come to an agreement they carried on their operations separately, and after a short time both returned to Portugal.
The Spanish Government found reason to suspect that the pretensions of Don Antonio, Prior of Ocrato,[24] were secretly favoured by France and England, and that the ships of those powers, and especially those of France kept up the spirit of rebellion in the Azores. Phillip II., determined to repress these proceedings, and to take measures for the protection of the Spanish Galeones employed in transporting the treasures of the colonies to the mother country. He accordingly ordered several armaments which had been for some time in preparation in the maritime provinces of Spain, to assemble in the Tagus. It was understood that a French squadron had already put to sea with hostile designs on the Portuguese dependencies; and Phillip on receipt of this intelligence gave the command of the Spanish naval force to the celebrated Admiral Don Álvaro de Bazán, Marques de Santa Cruz. The fleet, having on board several regiments of infantry, sailed from the Tagus on the 10th of July, 1582, and the Spaniards soon fell in with the French squadron. The result was an engagement in which the French ships were dispersed or destroyed. Cervantes states that he was himself engaged in this action, together with his brother Rodrigo, but he enters into no particulars respecting it. Both the brothers likewise served in the expedition which sailed from Lisbon in the following year, 1583, under the command of the Marques de Santa Cruz. The Spaniards effected a landing at Tercera, on the 23rd of June, and the result was the surrender of that island. The submission of the rest of the Azores speedily followed, and the partizans of Don Antonio were finally put down. The campaign being thus gloriously ended, Don Álvaro de Bazán returned to Spain, and on the 15th of September, he entered Cádiz greeted by signal demonstrations of popular triumph.
On the Atlantic, as well as in the Levant, Cervantes had been an eye-witness of the gallant achievements of the great naval hero of Spain. As a soldier he had served under his authority, as a philosopher, he had contemplated his virtues; and he rendered to his glory a poetic tribute of admiration and gratitude. He wrote a sonnet on Don Álvaro de Bazán, which was published by the Licentiate Cristobal Mosquera de Figueroa, in the Comentarios de la jornada de las Islas Azores. In Don Quixote, he also pays an emphatic and well merited compliment to the courage of the celebrated admiral, in that passage where the captive describing the storming of Navarino, says:—“In this campaign, the galley called the Prize, whose commander was a son of the famous corsair Barbarossa, was taken by the captain galley, of Naples, called the She-Wolf, commanded by that thunderbolt of war, that father of the soldiers,—that fortunate and invincible Captain Don Álvaro de Bazán, Marques de Santa Cruz.”
During the time he remained with his regiment in Portugal, Cervantes mingled freely in society, and made himself familiarly acquainted with the language as well as with the manners and customs of the people of the country. His society was sought, and wherever he went he was kindly and hospitably received. That his sojourn in Portugal impressed him with pleasing and grateful recollections, is evident, from the observations here and there scattered through several of his works, especially Persiles. Contrary to the prevailing taste of his countrymen, (for the Spaniards usually entertain no great partiality for the Portuguese language,) Cervantes was charmed with it; pronouncing it to be “a sweet and pleasing tongue,” (lengua dulce y agradable). The people he characterizes as agreeable, courteous, and generous. Speaking of the women, he says, their beauty inspires admiration and love, (la hermosura de las mujeres admira y enamora). Lisbon, he calls a great and famous city, and he declares that Portugal may altogether be regarded as the land of promise (tierra de promisión). With such strong predilections in favour of the country and everything belonging to it, it can scarcely be matter of surprise that Cervantes should have become enamoured of a Portuguese lady, and that the attachment should have been reciprocal. His biographers are silent respecting the connections of this lady, nor do they even mention her name; but all concur in stating that the fruit of this attachment was a daughter, who was known by the name of Doña Isabel de Saavedra. This daughter was the companion of Cervantes through all the vicissitudes of his subsequent life, and after his marriage she constantly resided under the same roof with him and his wife.
On his return to Spain after the successful issue of the Azores expedition, Cervantes’ pecuniary condition would seem to have been very similar to that of Horace after the battle of Philippi.[25] He found himself utterly destitute, and had no means of subsistence save such as he could procure by writing verses. Heretofore his life had been pretty equally divided between war and literature, “now taking up the sword and now the pen,”[26]—like many other eminent Spaniards of that age, who were distinguished equally as soldiers and writers. Even in the dungeons of Algiers, and amidst the most stirring events of war, Cervantes never wholly relinquished his love of literary composition; and many of his sonnets, and other little fugitive poems, bear evidence that, in seasons of trial and suffering, he courted the solace of the Muse. It has been conjectured, and with much appearance of probability, that many of the sonnets, canzonets, and ballads introduced in the Galatea, were composed amidst the active duties of the author’s military career, and during the weary hours of his captivity.
The Galatea was the first work which Cervantes submitted to the press, and it was published in 1584. It is a pastoral romance, partly in prose, and partly in verse, in the style of the Diana of Montemayor; but exhibiting still greater resemblance to Gil Polo’s continuation of Montemayor’s poem. Very little ingenuity is shewn in the invention of the fable; it is merely an insipid story of pastoral life, in the affected and unnatural style so much in fashion in the sixteenth century.
In this frame-work the author has grouped together a rich collection of metrical compositions, in all the various styles of versification practised by the old Spanish and Italian poets. “The story,” observes Bouterwek, “is merely the thread which holds the beautiful garland together; for the poems are the portions of the work most particularly deserving of attention. They are as numerous as they are various, and should the title of Cervantes to rank among the most eminent poets, or his originality in versified composition be called in question, an attentive perusal of the romance of Galatea, must banish every doubt upon these points.”[27]
Lope de Vega, and other contemporary writers, have affirmed that the shepherdess, who is the heroine of the romance, was not a mere imaginary character; but that under the name of Galatea Cervantes pourtrayed the lady to whom he was subsequently married. According to the same authorities, Cervantes represented himself in the character of Ercilio, “pastor en riberas del Tajo,”[28] who is enamoured of Galatea, “pastora nacida en las orillas de aquel río.”[29] It is also believed that the pastoral names of Thyrsis, Damon, &c., are merely fictitious denominations for several of the most celebrated poets of his own time.[30]
On the 12th of December, 1584, Cervantes was united in marriage to Doña Catalina de Salazar, a lady connected with a distinguished Spanish family. She was the daughter of Don Fernando de Salazar y Vozmediano, and of Doña Catalina de Palacios. Doña Catalina brought her husband some little fortune, upon which the newly married couple lived as long as it lasted. After his marriage, Cervantes definitively left the army, and for a time fixed his abode at Esquivias, in which town his wife’s family resided.