[108] (p. 117). Cape Branco.—On the personnel of this expedition we have accounts elsewhere; for Dinis Eannes de Graã and the rest, see chs. xxxvii-xlviii, and especially pp. 121, 122, 126, 130, 131, 138; for Mafaldo, especially p. 119 ("a man well acquainted with this business ... had been many times in the Moorish traffic"); also pp. 120-121, etc. Cape Branco, since its discovery by Nuno Tristam, had become the favourite rendezvous of the Portuguese expeditions on this coast. See ch. lii, p. 153 (made agreement to await one another as usual at Cape Branco).

On the banners of the Order of Christ, see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xviii-xix; and in this Chronicle, pp. 62 (ch. xviii), 53 (ch. xv), 117 (ch. xxxvii), etc.

[Cf. a parchment atlas (unpublished), executed in Messina as late as 1567 by João Martinez, in which two Portuguese ships are painted in various points of the Eastern Ocean with the Cross of the Order of Christ on their sails, apparently to indicate the Portuguese dominion in those waters. This atlas passed into the Library of Heber, and afterwards into that of M. Ternaux.]—S.

[109] (p. 120). The patience with which men bear the troubles of their fellows is another piece of irony, similar to that on p. 102; see note 96.

[110] (p. 122). Fifty-three Moorish prisoners.—In this, as in subsequent actions, Mafaldo, rather than Gonçalo Pacheco, showed himself to be the leader of the expedition.

[111] (p. 123). Cunning ... but small in this part of the world.—The fair inference is that, on this occasion, Mafaldo, from his previous experience, correctly estimated the danger (or absence of danger), and knew when to trust the natives. Similar trustfulness was not always equally successful, sometimes from absence of that past experience possessed by Mafaldo. See chs. xxvii, pp. 90, 91; xlviii, pp. 144-5; lxxxvi, pp. 252, etc.; xxxv, pp. 112-3. The Azanegue Moors of the Sahara on the whole showed less ability to defend themselves than the Negroes of the Sudan coast; cf. chs. xlv, pp. 137-8; lx, pp. 179-182; lxxxvi, pp. 252-6; xli, p. 130; xxxi, p. 99; contrast with pp. 126, 122, 114, 105-6, 78, 73, 36.

[112] (p. 126) ... true effects.—Azurara certainly does not commit the error of "those historians who avoid prolixity by summarizing things that would be greatest if related in their true effects," i. e., in detail. This central portion of his narrative (chs. xxxvi-lix, lxviii-lxxiv) is especially tedious, and we cannot too much regret the comparative sacrifice of the scientific interest to the anecdotal, biographical, or slave-raiding details, with which he fills so much of this Chronicle. Cf. the slender and imperfect narratives of the really important voyages of Dinis Diaz (ch. xxxi), Alvaro Fernandez (ch. lxxv), and Nuno Tristam (chs. xxx, lxxxvi), with the lengthy descriptions of the expeditions personally conducted by Gonçalo de Sintra, Gonçalo Pacheco, Lançarote, Mafaldo, and other men whose voyages resulted in scarcely any advance of exploration. In all this Azurara's narrative contrasts unfortunately with Cadamosto's, which is not only a record of exploration, but of acute original observation, a quality by no means so noticeable in the Chronicle of Guinea, except at rare intervals. Cf., however, chs. xxv, lxxvi-lxxvii, lxxix-lxxxiii, and see Introduction to vol. ii, pp. xxiv-xxvi, etc.

INDEX.