[64] (p. 49). Azanegues of Sahara ... Moorish tongue.—[Cf. Ritter, Géographie Comparée, III, p. 366, art. Azenagha. Ritter says they speak Berber. On this language see the curious article, Berber, by M. d'Avezac, in his Encylopédie des gens du Monde. On the Azanegues, Barros says (Decade I, Bk. I, ch. ii): "The countries which the Azanegues inhabit border on the negroes of Jaloff, where begins the region of Guinea." Sahará signifies desert. Geographers spell Zahará, Zaara, Ssahhará, Sarra, and Sahar. The inhabitants are called Saharacin—Saracens—"sons of the desert" (cf. Ritter, Géographie Comparée, III, p. 360), a term immensely extended by mediæval writers—thus Plano Carpini expects to find "black Saracens" in India. On the etymology, cf. Renaud's Invasions des Sarrasins en France, Pt. IV, pp. 227-242, etc. He confirms Azurara's statement that the Sahara language differed from the Mooris—i.e., it was Berber, not Arabic—and he refers us to the Arab author Ibn-Alkûtya, in evidence of this.]—S.
The "Other lands where he learned the Moorish tongue" were probably Marocco, or one of the other Barbary States along the Mediterranean littoral, where Arabic was in regular use. This language stopped, for the most part, at the Sahara Desert. Santarem's derivation of the word "Saracen" is much disputed.
[65] (p. 50). Lisbon Harbour ... —Here, perhaps, Azurara refers to the broad expanse of the Tagus, opposite the present Custom House and Marine Arsenal of Lisbon. "The broad estuary of the Tagus gives Lisbon an extensive and safe harbour." From the suburb of Belem up to the western end of Lisbon, the Tagus is little more than a mile in width, but opposite the central quays of the city the river widens considerably, the left, or southern, bank turning suddenly to the south near the town of Almada, and forming a wide bay, reach, or road about 5½ miles in breadth, and extending far to the north-east. "In this deep lake-like expansion all the fleets of Europe might be anchored."
[66] (p. 50). Cabo Branco.—[In lat. N. 20° 46' 55", according to Admiral Roussin's observations.]—S. According to the most recent French surveys, it is thus described:—"Il forme, au S., sur l'Atlantique, l'extrémité d'une presqu'île aride et sablonneuse de 40 kil. de longeur environ, large de 4 à 5 kil., qui couvre a l'O. la baie Lévrier, partie la plus enfoncée au N. de la baie d'Arguin. Cette presqu'île se termine par un plateau dont le cap forme l'escarpement; le sommet surplomb la mer de 25 m. environ. Des éboulements de sable, que le soleil colore d'une nuance éblouissante, lui ont valu son nom. 'Le Cap Blanc est d'une access facile. Il est entouré de bons mouillages qui, au point de vue maritime, rendent cette position préférable à celle d'Arguin' (Fulcrand)."
[67] (p. 53). Eugenius the Bishop.—[Barros adds certain reasons for this request; he says, "the Infant, whose intent in discovering these lands was chiefly to draw the barbarous nations under the yoke of Christ, and for his own glory and the praise of these Kingdoms, with increase of the royal patrimony, having ascertained the state of those people and their countries from the captives whom Antam Gonçalvez and Nuno Tristam had brought home—willed to send this news to Martin V (?), asking him, in return for the many years' labour and the great expense he and his countrymen had bestowed on this discovery, to grant in perpetuity to the Crown of these Kingdoms all the land that should be discovered over this our Ocean Sea from C. Bojador to the Indies (Barros, Decade I, i, 7).]—S. Barros here apparently confuses Martin V with Eugenius IV.
[Besides this bull, Pope Nicholas V granted another, dated January 8th, 1450, conceding to King D. Affonso V all the territories which Henry had discovered (Archives of Torre do Tombo, Maç. 32 de bullas No. 1). On January 8th, 1454, the same Pope ratified and conceded by another bull to Affonso V, Henry, and all the Kings of Portugal their successors, all their conquests in Africa, with the islands adjacent, from Cape Bojador, and from Cape Non as far as all Guinea, with the whole of the south coast of the same. Cf. Archivo R. Maç. 7 de bull. No. 29, and Maç. 33, No. 14; and Dumont, Corp. Diplomat. Univ., III, p. 1,200. On March 13th, 1455, Calixtus III determined by another bull that the discovery of the lands of W. Africa, so acquired by Portugal, as well as what should be acquired in future, could only be made by the Kings of Portugal; and he confirmed the bulls of Martin V and Nicholas V: cf. another bull of Sixtus IV, June 21st, 1481, and see Barros, Decade I, i, 7; Arch. R. Liv. dos Mestrados, fols. 159 and 165; Arch. R. Maç. 6 de bull., No. 7, and Maç. 12, No. 23.]—S.
[68] (p. 54). Without his license and especial mandate.—See Introduction to vol. ii, p. xiv.
[69] (p. 54). Curse ... of Cain.—For "Curse of Ham." Cf. Genesis ix, 25. "Cursed be Canaan: a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." For this mediæval theory, used sometimes in justification of an African slave-trade, we may compare the language of Barros, quoted in note 81.
[70] (p. 54). Going out of the Ark.—The writings of Abp. Roderic of Toledo, and of the other authors here referred to, are apparently regarded by Azurara as explanatory of the record in Genesis, ix and x. Abp. Roderic Ximenes de Rada (fl. 1212) wrote De Rebus Hispanicis in nine books; also an Historia Saracenica, and other works. Walter is doubtful. He may be Walter of Burley, the Aristotelian of the thirteenth-fourteenth century, who wrote a Libellus de vita et moribus philosophorum. Excluding this "Walter," our best choice perhaps lies between "Gualterus Tarvannensis" of the twelfth century; Walter of Châtillon, otherwise called Walter of Lille, author of an Alexandreis of the thirteenth century; or the chronicler Walter of Hemingburgh, or Hemingford, who is probably of the fourteenth century.
[71] (p. 55). Better to bring to ... salvation.—Cf. the Christian hopes of the pagan Tartars in the thirteenth century.