[52] (p. 33). Needle or sailing chart.—See Introductory § on History of Maps and Nautical Intruments in Europe up to the time of Prince Henry, vol. ii, pp. cxvii-cl, and especially pp. cxlvii-cl.
[53] (p. 34). Barinel ... Barcha ... anything worth recording.—[A Varinel or Barinel was an oared vessel then in use, whose name survives in the modern Varina; so Francisco Manoel, Epanaphoras, p. 317, etc.].—S. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. cxii-cxiii.
On the Footmarks of men and camels Santarem remarks.—[To this place our sailors gave the name of Mullet Bay (Angra dos Ruivos), from the great quantity of these fish that they found there. The bay appears with this name in the Map of Africa in the splendid Portuguese Atlas (unpublished), dating from the middle of the sixteenth century, in the Royal (National) Library at Paris (R. B. No. 1, 764)].—S. See Introduction to vol. ii, p. x. Ruivos is variously rendered "Mullet," "Gurnet," "Roach." The original meaning is simply "red[fish]."
[54] (p. 35). Went up country 8 leagues, etc. ... anchorages.—[Our men named this place Angra dos Cavallos (cf. Barros Decades I, i, 5; Martines de la Puente, Compendio de las Historias de las Indias, ii, 1). This place-name is marked in nearly all the sixteenth and seventeenth century maps of Africa].—S.
[55] (p. 36). Two things I consider ... saith he who wrote this history.—Though these phrases, "our author," "he who wrote this history," are certainly applied by Azurara to himself in some instances, there is also sometimes a suggestion of the previous writer on the Portuguese Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, viz., Affonso Cerveira, a seaman in Prince Henry's service (see Introduction to vol. ii, p. cx). Here, we fancy, a passage of Cerveira's work is referred to. The loss of the latter is deplorable. It evidently contained all the facts and documents given by Azurara, and some omitted by him (see ch. lxxxiv of this Chronicle, end). Azurara added the reflections and the rhetoric, but followed Cerveira's order of narrative closely (see especially ch. lxvi).
[56] (pp. 37-8). Sea-wolves ... Port of the Galley ... nets ... with all other cordage.—[These Sea-wolves are the Phocæ Vitulinæ of Linnæus. Cf. the Roteiro of Vasco da Gama's First Voyage, under December 27th, 1497, p. 3 of Port. text "Achamos muitas baleas, e humas que se chamam quoquas e Lobos marinhos.">[—S.
[The Port of the Galley is so named in the Portuguese Atlas above referred to (Paris: Bibl. Nat., i, 764, of the sixteenth century), and in the Venetian maps of Gastaldi (1564); cf. Barros, Decades I, v, 11, who says, "Ponto a que ora chamâo a pedra da Galé">[.—S.
On the "nets ... with all other cordage," cf. Barros, Decades I, ch. v, fol. 11: "No qual logar achou humas redes de pescar, que parecia ser feito o fiado dellas, do entrecasco d'algum pao, como ora vemos o fiado da palma que se faz em Guiné."
[57] (pp. 38, 39). Rio d'Ouro ... discords in the Kingdom.—[On old unpublished Portuguese maps we find marked between Cape Bojador and the Angra dos Ruivos, the following points: Penha Grande, Terra Alta, and Sete-Montes, besides the Angra dos Ruivos, being all of them probably points where the Portuguese had landed].—S. See Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xiii, lxi-lxxi.
[The events which interrupted the Infant's expeditions and discoveries from 1437 to 1440 may be briefly indicated. The Infant returned to the Algarve after the expedition to Tangier (1437), and was there in September of the following year, when King Edward fell ill at Thomar. On the King's death, the Prince was at once summoned by the Queen, and charged by her to concert with the Infant D. Pedro, and with the grandees of the realm, some means of grappling with the difficulties of the Kingdom. The Infant convoked these persons, who decided that the Cortes ought to be assembled to pass the resolutions they judged expedient.