V

NUNC COGNOSCO EX PARTE

THOMAS J. BATA LIBRARY

TRENT UNIVERSITY
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 ■

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 In the Collected Studies Series:

C. F. BECKINGHAM
Between Islam and Christendom
Travellers, Facts and Legends in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

ARCHIBALD R. LEWIS
The Sea and Medieval Civilizations

JEAN RICHARD
Croisés, missionnaires et voyageurs

JEAN DAUVILLIER
Histoire et institutions des Eglises orientales au Moyen Age

R. B. SERJEANT
Studies on Arabian History and Civilisation

ELIYAHU ASHTOR
Studies on the Levantine Trade in the Middle Ages

ELIYAHU ASHTOR
The Jews and the Mediterranean Economy, 10th-l 5th Centuries

CH. VILLAIN GANDOSSI

La Méditerranée aux Xlle-XVJe siècles
Relations maritimes, diploma tiques et commerciales

JACQUES HEERS
Société et économie à Genes (XIVe-XVe siècles)

JEAN GAUTIER DALCHÉ

Économie et société dans les pays de la Couronne de Castille

PETER LINEHAN
Spanish Church and Society, 1150-1300

C. J. BISHKO
Spanish and Portuguese Monastic History, 600-1300

C. J. BISHKO
Studies in Medieval Spanish Frontier History

JOSEPH F. O’CALLAGHAN
The Spanish Military Order of Calatrava and its Affiliates
From Lisbon to Goa,
1500-1750
-
 C. R. Boxer

From Lisbon to Goa,

1500-1750

Studies in Portuguese
Maritime Enterprise

VARIORUM REPRINTS
London 1984
British Library CIP data Boxer, C R
From Lisbon to Goa, 1500-1750: studies in
Portuguese maritime expansion— (Collected studies
series; CS 194)
1. Shipping — Portugal — History
I. Title II. Series
387.5'9469 VA573

ISBN 0-86078-142-9

Copyright ©1984 by Variorum Reprints

Published in Great Britain by Variorum Reprints

20 Pembridge Mews London W11 3EQ

Printed in Great Britain by Galliard (Printers) Ltd

Great Yarmouth Norfolk

VARIORUM REPRINT CS194

 CONTENTS

Preface i—ii

I The Carreira da índia

(Ships, men, cargoes, voyages) 33-82
O Centro de Estudos históricos ultramarinos
e as comemorações Henriquinas.
Lisbon, 1961

II The Principal Ports of Call

in the “Carreira da índia”
(16th-18th Centuries) 29—65
Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin XXXIII.
Les grandes escales, 2ème partie:
Les temps modernes.
Brussels, 1972

III Moçambique Island and

the “Carreira da índia” 95 — 132
Studia, revista semestral, VIII (July).
Lisbon, 1961

IV Portuguese Roteiros, 1500-1700 171 — 186

The Mariner’s Mirror XX.
London, 1934

V An Introduction to the História

Trágico-Marítima 48—99
Miscelânea de Estudos em honra
do Professor Hemâni Cidade
= Revista da Faculdade de Letras,
Universidade de Lisboa, 3 o serie, I.
Lisbon, 1957
VI An Introduction to the História
Trágico-Marítima (1957): Some
Corrections and Clarifications 99-112

Quaderni Portoghesi 5.
Pisa, 1979

VII On a Portuguese Carrack’s Bill

of Lading in 1625 176-200
Petrus Nonius, orgão do Grupo português
de História das Ciênsias II.
Lisbon, 1939

VIII Admiral João Pereira Corte-Real and

the Construction of Portuguese
East-Indiamen in the Early 17th Century 388-406
The Mariner’s Mirror XXVI.
London, 1940

IX The Naval and Colonial Papers

of Dom António de Ataide 24-50
Harvard Library Bulletin V.
Cambridge, Mass., 1951

X The Sailing-orders for the Portuguese

East-Indiamen of 1640 and 1646 37-48
Terrae Incognitae XII.
Detroit, Michigan, 1980

Index 1-5

This volume contains a total of 314 pages.

 PREFACE

The Restoration poet, Edmund Waller, in an ode to Queen

Catherine of Braganza, celebrating her virtues and those of China
Tea, declaimed with a courtly flourish:
The best of queens and best of herbs we owe
To that bold nation which the way did show
To the fair region where the sun doth rise
Whose rich productions we so justly prize.
These “rich productions” were brought from East to West by
means of the Carreira da India. This was the term used by the
Portuguese for the annual round voyage which their Indiamen
made between Lisbon and Goa in the days of sail, beginning with
Vasco da Gama’s epic voyage in 1497-99. An Italian Jesuit who
made the outward passage in 1574, described it as being “without
any doubt the greatest and most arduous of any that are known
in the world.” The round voyage between Lisbon and Goa took
about a year and a half in the most favourable circumstances.
The actual sailing time in each direction was usually some six or
seven months, with the addition of a stay of about four months at
Goa (or Cochin) to load the Indian pepper and textiles, Sinhalese
cinnamon, Indonesian cloves and Chinese silks and porcelain,
which formed the bulk of the return cargoes during the sixteenth
century.
The articles reproduced in this volume are all concerned with
the functioning (and malfunctioning) of the Carreira da índia
during a century and a half. Most historical writing on this subject
reflects the tales of maritime disasters epitomised by the title
and contents of the Portuguese literary classic, the História
Trágico-Marítima (3 vols., Lisbon, 1735-36). This work is like¬
wise frequently cited in the present volume. As Professor G. V.
Scammell has observed: “If the dolefully entitled Tragic History
of the Sea provides abundant evidence of Portuguese maritime
ineptitude, it also records instances of seamanship of the highest
 11

order, and of the remarkable ingenuity of the survivors in

improvising tools, shelter and transport (The H of Id Encom¬
passed: The first European maritime empires, c. 800-1650, London
and New York, 1981, p.295).
One of the principal handicaps under which the Carreira suffered
was the contemptuous dislike with which the mariner s profession
was regarded by both Portuguese and Spaniards, even though their
respective colonial empires were dependent on maritime enterprise
for their formation, development and security. In Spain and
Portugal the soldier was always regarded as the social superior of
the sailor, despite much Crown legislation which tried to eradicate
this deep-seated prejudice. A typical instance of this attitude may
be quoted from the year 1646. In November, king John IV oi
Portugal suggested the promotion to Luís Velho, a fidalgo with a
distinguished record of service in India and Brazil, to the post oi
governor of the Cape Verde Islands. The members of the Overseas
Council opposed this suggestion, principally on the grounds that
“although Luís Velho has certainly rendered good services, these
have been at sea.” The king backed down and withdrew his
suggestion. Luís Velho had to wait another decade before he was
awarded the governorship of the island of São Miguel in the Azores.
Permission to reprint the articles is gratefully acknowledged by
the author and the publisher to the following: the Centro de
Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, Lisboa (I, III); the Société Jean
Bodin, Brussels (II); the Society of Nautical Research (IV, VIII);
the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa (V); Quaderni
Portoghesi (VI); Petrus Nonius (VII); the Houghton Library,
Harvard University (IX); and Wayne State University Press,
Detroit (X).
The spelling of names in the volume is far from consistent, since
Portuguese official orthography has undergone frequent changes in
the last fifty years, and this is reflected in the articles concerned.
The opportunity has been taken in this reprint to correct numerous
misprints in the original texts.
C.R. BOXER
Ringshall, Herts.,
May 1983
 I

THE CARREIRA DA INDIA

(Ships, Men, Cargoes, Voyages)

The Carreira da India, or annual voyage between Lisbon and

Goa in days of sail, was for long considered to be «without any
doubt the greatest and most arduous of any that are known in the
world», as an Italian Jesuit wrote after experiencing its hardships
in 1574 (a). Over a century later another Italian, the globe-girdling
Gemelli Careri, used almost exactly the same words to describe the
annual voyage of the Manila galleon across the Pacific to Mexico,
which he had just experienced to his intense discomfort in
1697-98 (2). In point of fact, there was relatively little to choose
between the dangers and difficulties attending these two voyages,
and in both cases the monsoons, or seasonal winds of the tropics,
formed the determining factors. The round voyage, including the
turn-round at Goa or at Manila, took about a year and a half for
the Portuguese ships and a year for the Spanish, under the most
favourable conditions. In two ways, however, the palm for endu¬
rance can be awarded to the Portuguese. The carrera de Filipinas

(!) «Este viage de Portugal para la India... es sin nenguna contradición

la mayor y más ardua de quantas ay en lo descubierto» (Padre Alesandro Valig-
nano S. J., Historia del principio y progresso de la Compania de Jesús en las
Jndias Orientates, ed. Josef Wicki S. J., Roma, 1944, p. 9).
(2) «The voyage from the Philippine Islands to America, may be called
the longest and most dreadful of any in the world» (Giovanni Francisco Gamelli
Careri; in S. Churchill (trad, and ed.) A Voyage round the world by Dr. John
Francis Gemell Careri, London, 1744, p. 457).
I

lasted from 1565 to 1815, whereas the carreira da India inaugurated

with Vasco da Gama’s epochmaking voyage, did not end until the
coming of steam, although the glory had departed long before.
Furthermore, whereas the voyage round the Cape of Good Hope
usually took about six months in either direction, and the voyage
from Manila to Acapulco took between six and eight, that from
Mexico to the Philippines was often made in under three, with the
aid of a following wind and over a Mar de Damas or «Ladies’
Sea» (8).
The ships associated with the Carreira da India were first and
foremost Náos, but the word Náo had a wide variety of meanings.
Essentially, it simply meant «Great Ship», and as such it was
applied to the carracks of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth
centuries, and later to the large frigate-type vessels which served
in the carreira da India — and, for that matter, in the carreira do
Brasil — for most of the eighteenth century. Ostensibly there was
a distinction between (say) a Náo and a Galeão in the 16th-17th
centuries, and between a Náo and a Fragata in the 17th-18th
centuries, but in practice the distinction was often blurred. There
are many instances of a ship being termed indifferently a Náo and
a Galeão (or a Náo and a Fragata) by the very seamen who
sailed in her (4). Moreover, a ship which started life as a
carrack (Náo) might end it as a galleon, and vice versa. An
example of the former was the 54-gun São Sebastião which bore
the brunt of the naval actions against the combined Anglo-Dutch
fleet in the Persian Gulf (February 1625), and which was described
in a contemporary English account as follows: «She had been built
upon a carrack at Cochin only for to make a battery and to be
a barracado to the rest of her fleet. She was saker if not whole

(3) Cf. W. L. Schurz, The Manila Galleon (New York, 1939), pp. 80-81,
263-4.
("*) Two examples out of many: the 1,200-ton Santa Teresa, built at Porto
in 1637 and destroyed at the battle of the Downs two years later, was termed
a carrack (or náo) by some contemporaries, and a galleon by others. The 54-gun
Santo António de Tana, built at Tanah near Bassein (Baçaim) in 1681, was
called indifferently either a náo or a fragata until she met her end during the
siege of Mombasa in October 1698, as related below.

34
 I

culverin proof in her lower wroks. This ship did more spoil unto our
fleet than any three of their ships taken together» (* * * * 5).
A contrasting example is afforded by the galleons laid down
at Goa by the Conde de Linhares in 1631, which a report of that
year stated could be altered to carracks if this was desired by the
Crown (°). The term Nao was likewise a very elastic one in
Spanish naval parlance. The Manila Galleon was usually termed
the Nao de China, her cargo consisting mainly of Chinese silks (').
Although the Portuguese built a few carracks and galleons of
about 1,000 tons before the year 1570, most of their Indiamen (Náos
da Carreira da India) were then under 600 tons, and in that year
ic was decreed that their tonnage should range between 300 and
450 tons burthen. Little notice was taken of this royal decree,
at any rate in the India yards, despite its repetition in modified
forms on later occasions, when the upper limit was raised to
600 tons. Monsters of up to 2,000 tons were built at Goa, Lisbon,
and Porto; and a patriotic writer of 1620 boasts that the cargo of
a single Portuguese East-Indiaman was greater than that of four
of the largest náos in the Spanish West-India trade (8). Here again
we may note the parallel with the Manila galleons, where the
Castilian Crown’s repeated injunctions to limit the size of these
argosies (raised to 560 tons in 1720), failed to prevent them rang¬
ing in practice between 600 and 2,000 tons, those nearer the latter

(5) W. Foster, The English Factories in India 1624-1629 (Oxford 1909).

p. 49. Diogo Luís, «mestre da Ribeira desta cidade de Goa», certified on the 22
}uly 1636: «O GalliSo Capitania por nome São Sebastião he de seis centos tone¬
ladas o qual foj feito na Ribeira de Basajm contratado com o capitão Gaspar
Pereira avera dezanove anos». She was one of the three vassels burnt by the Dutch
at Mormugão in September 1639. C. R. Boxer, «António Telles em Goa», Boletim
do Instituto Vasco da Gama (Bastorá-Goa, 1938), Nr. 37, pp. 56-57 of the
separata.
(6 7) ...«E se Sua Magestade não ouver mister estes galeões bem podião
servir segundo dizem os officiães que os hão de fazer, de naos de carreira». These
were the galleons São Boaventura and Bom Jesus (Codex Lynch, fl. 128-29).
(7) W. L. Schurz, The Manila Galleon, pp. 63, 193-5. For the confusion
between nao and navio in Spanish, see H. & P. Chaunu, Séville et I’Atlantique.
1504-1650 ( 7 vols., Paris, 1955-58), Vol. I, pp. 276-79.
(8) Fr. Nicolau de Oliveira, Livro das grandezas de Lisboa (Lisboa, 1620),
fIs. 13, 74.

35
I

figure predominating (9). The legislation regarding the armament

of the Portuguese East-India carracks was equally ineffective
before 1640. The standing-orders (regimento) promulgated in 1604
envisaged that each carrack should mount at least 28 guns, of which
20 were described as peças grossas or «great guns». In practice,
the carracks of the pre-Restoration period seldom carried more than
22 or 25 guns, and too high a proportion of these were only eight-
-pounders (10).
The controversy between the advocates of four-deck carracks
for use in the carreira da India and those who preferred the handier
galleons, was continued in another form after both types had been
replaced by fragatas about the turn of the seventeenth century.
This word fragata, like the word náo, also meant different things
at different times and places. Originally applied to small vessels
of 100 or 200 tons, or even less, which used oars and sails in much
the same way as did galleys, it was appropriated by the seventeenth-
-century Dunkirk warships of the Spanish Crown which did such
immense harm to the Dutch before 1648. In later years the Portu¬
guese applied the term to large and well mounted warships of 50,
60 or even 70 guns, which in other navies would have ranked as
ships of the line. As mentioned above, eighteenth-century Por¬
tuguese East-Indiamen were often indifferently termed náos and
fragatas, irrespective of their size, but sometimes a distinction was
made. The viceroy Caetano de Mello e Castro reported to the
Crown in January 1703, that as a result of his outward voyage in
the great Indiaman São Pedro Gonçalves, he was convinced that
frigates mounting from thirty to forty guns would be better and
cheaper for use in the carreira (n). His advice does not seem

(n) W. L. Schurz, The Manila Galleon, pp. 193-200.

(10) Regimento dos Escrivaens das Naos da Carreira da India (Lisboa.
1611 and 1640), the wording being identical in both editions, as indeed it is in
the 1756 edition, which is the latest known to me. Cf. also the details on the
armament of Portuguese East-Indiamen and other vessels in the naval and colo¬
nial papers of Dom António de Ataide, 1630-33, formely in the Palha Collection
and now in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, U. S. A.
(n) ...«e ainda que venha Nao grande a respeito da carga que tem
quando volta, seria conveniente que os mais navios sejão fragatas de 30 ate 40
peças que as deste porte nos tem mayor préstimo porquanto fazem menos des-
peza» (Viceroy to Crown, 16 January 1703, in AHU, «Documentos da India»,
Caixa 38).

36
 I

to have been taken, as we find another viceroy complaining nearly

half a century later that all the Indiamen then at Goa were too
large for economical use in Asian waters (12). The three frigates
which participated in the expedition for the reconquest of Mombasa
in 1727-28, were also undermanned for their size, owing to the
perennial difficulty of finding sufficient European seamen in Por¬
tuguese India (13).
The superiority of Indian teak over European pine and oak
for shipbuilding purposes was early recognised by the authorities
at Lisbon and Goa; but there was not such unanimity as to whether
it was cheaper to build ships for the carreira in Portugal or in India.
A royal order of 1585, repeated textually nine years later, empha¬
sized the importance of building carracks for the carreira in India
rather than in Europe, «both because experience has shown that
those which are built there last much longer than those built in
this kingdom, as also because they are cheaper and stronger, and
because timber for these carracks is increasingly hard to get
here» (14). Similar arguments were adduced by Duarte Gomes de
Solis in his printed memorials of 1622 and 1628 (16), but although

(12) «Dezejando dar inteiro cumprimento ás Ordens de Sua Magestade,

fiz quanta deligencia estava da minha parte para mandar para esse Reino quan¬
tas mais Náos podesse, principalmente das de maior grandeza, que aqui são
inúteis a respeito dos portos da Asia, e da grande guarnição de que necessitão».
(Viceroy to the Secretary of State, February, 1745, in Arquivo das Colónias
5 vols., Lisboa, 1917-30), Vol. IV, p. 267.
(la) «Nau digo fragata capitania Nossa Senhora da Penha de França (70),
fragata almiranta Madre de Deus (56), feita na índia, também chamada a nau
nova, fragata fiscal Nossa Senhora de Apparecida (40), palia Nossa Senhora
da Assunção (18), pataxo Nossa Senhora de Monserratte (16), chalupa Santa
Cruz (3). Leva esta armada a guarnição que permitte as forças do Estado,
muito desigual à que pedem a grandeza das embarcações» (António de Brito
Freyre, «Livro dos assentos das viagens principiadas em 1727», BN Lisboa,
Fundo Geral 485, fl. 1).
(14) «Foime dito que será meu serviço faremse nessas partes allgüas náos
para seruyrem nesta viagem da Imdia, asi pela expiriencia que se tem das que
se lá fazem duraram muyto mais tempo que as que se fazem neste Reyno, como
tãobem por serem menos custosas e mais fortes, e irem faltando as madeiras pera
as ditas náos». Crown to viceroy, 22 February 1585, in Arquivo Português
Oriental (8 vols., Nova Goa, 1857-76), Vol. III (1861), pp. 46, 448-49.
(15) Duarte Gomes de Solis, Discursos sobre los comércios de las dos
Índias (1622), fls. 219-228, and Alegacion en favor de la Compafíia de la índia

37
I

India-built ships were certainly stronger they were not always

cheaper than those constructed in Europe, for reasons explained
below. The chief shipbuilding centres of Portuguese India were
Goa, Bassein, Cochin (before its capture by the Dutch in 1663),
and, to a lesser extent, Damão. The great royal dockyard and
arsenal at Goa was probably the most highly organized industrial
enterprise in India in the golden days of the Great Moghul, and
employed about as many men as the famous Ribeira das Náos at
Lisbon.
In 1596 and again in 1615, the Crown ordered the construction
of two carracks yearly, at Cochin if possible, since the local teak
was allegedly superior to that of the North. If this proved to be
impracticable, then one carrack was to be constructed annually
at Cochin, and the other either at Damão or at Bassein. The specie
sent out yearly from Portugal to defray the cost of these two carracks
was on no account to be diverted to any other use, however press¬
ing, until such time as the carreira «would be full of ships», when
one vessel a year would suffice (l6). Needless to say, this optimistic
expectation was never fulfilled, and the costs of shipbuilding and
repair in Portuguese India rose sharply in the ensuing decades. One
reason for this was that the governors of fortresses, whose perqui¬
sites usually included the felling and sale of the local timber,
habitually charged the Crown outrageous prices for the same. The
captains of Bassein and Damão, wrote the viceroy of India in 1664,
priced their timber at forty xerafines the candil, although it had only
cost them five (n). European cordage was also more satisfactory
than most of the Asian varieties, and for these and other reasons
the majority of Portuguese Indiamen continued to be built at
Lisbon, where the Ribeira das Náos employed 1,500 men in 1620.

Oriental y comércios ultramarinos, que de nneuo se institngo en el Reyno de

Portugal (1628), fls. 6, 166, 247, 252-54.
(16) ... «e poreis em pratica continuarse a fabrica destas náos em cada
anno, ao menos estes primeiros, porque depois o muito que ellas durão dará
lugar a se não fabricarem cada anno, como a carreira estiver chea de vasos».
Crown to Viceroy, 23 February 1615, in APO, VI, pp. 1074-76. Cf. also carta
régia of 2 January 1596 in APO, III, p. 579, and letter of the Municipality of Goa
to the Crown (1603), in APO, Vol. I, Pt. II, p. 123.
(17) Viceroy to Crown, 29 January 1664 (author's collection).

38
 I

But the Indo-Portuguese yards turned out some stout ships down
into the middle of the eighteenth century; and Damão was build¬
ing sizeable vessels for Bombay owners in the «country-trade» at
the dawn of the nineteenth century.
Carracks and galleons built at Bassein, Damão and Cochin
were usually sent round to Goa for completion when their third
deck was finished. The master-shipwrights at Goa during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were Portuguese, and
some of them, such as Diogo Luis, who built the carrack São
João Baptista (1621) and the great galleon Bom Jesus (1638).
were as good as any in the world (1R). During the eighteenth
century, French and English master-shipwrights were sometimes
employed at Lisbon and Goa, where the standard of purely Portu¬
guese work evidently left something to be desired (19). The Indian
carpenters and caulkers proved themselves excellent workmen, as
Afonso de Albuquerque had noted as early as 1510 (20).
Perhaps the most famous of the India-built carracks was the
Cinco Chagas, constructed at Goa in 1559-60, under personal
supervision of the viceroy Dom Constantino de Braganza, «esco-

(lfJ) «E posto que faleçeo na viagem Baltezar Gonçalves fez pouca falta
porque está qua servindo de mestre da Ribeira Diogo Luiz feitura de Valentim
Temudo que se tem por hum dos grandes officiais de fazer hüa Nao que hâ,
e que lhe não faz nenhüa ventagem seu mestre Valentim Temudo, como bem
mostrou no feito da desgraçada Nao São João que se Deos permitira fosse a
esse Reyno e lâ a virão ouverão de confirmar isto que dizemos, alem de que
he muy bom homem, e muy verdadeiro, e de boa conçiençia» (Letter from Goa,
d. 20 January, 1631, in Codex Lynch, fls. 106-07).
(19) Viceroy to Secretary of State, February 1745, in Arquivo das Coló¬
nias, Vol. IV, pp. 267-71; Parecer of the Marquis of Fronteira, 14 November 1713,
in V. Rau, Os manuscritos do arquivo da Casa de Cadaval respeitantes ao Brasil
(2 vols., Lisboa, 1955-58), Vol. II, pp. 120-21, 221, 226; Description de la ville
de Lisbonne (Paris, 1730), p. 29.
(20) ... «porque os calafates e carpynteiros [Brancos] com molheres de cá
e trabalho em terra quente, como pasa hum ano nom sam mais homens, e com
Goa pode voss alteza excusar os deses Regnos, porque os ha mais e milhores
que os que cá andam.» Albuquerque to the Crown, 17 October 1510, in Cartas
de Affonso de Albuquerque seguidas de documentos que os elucidam (6 vols.,
Lisboa, 1884-95) Vol, I, p. 21.

39
I

giendo las maderas paio a paio» (21). Nicknamed the Constantine,

she served in the carreira for twenty-five years, making nine or ten
round voyages apart from others, and was the flagship of five vice¬
roys before ending her days as a hulk at Lisbon. When she was
finally broken up, King Philip II (I of Portugal) had her keel sent
to the Escurial as a trophy. Her long life was in marked contrast
to the duration of the average ships in the carreira, which seldom
made more than three or four round voyages, or lasted for as long
as a decade. For that matter, the English East-India Company in
the late eighteenth century did not normally allow any of its ships
to make more than four round voyages, although one of its earliest
vessels, the Dragon, was on almost continuous service between
England and the East during the years 1601-1619 (22).
Another celebrated India-built ship, though she did not survive
long enough to make a voyage to Portugal, was the great galleon
Bom )esus, whose keel was laid in 1630 at Goa, where her launching
was witnessed six years later by Peter Mundy. «At our being here
was launched a new galleon of M foot by the keel, as they say,
being first blessed, christenend, and named Bom Jesus by the
Archbishop... She was launched in a device wherein she was built,
called a cradle, which is a world of timber made up and fastened on
either side to keep her upright, and so with cables, capstans and a
multitude of people, they forced her into the water, the way being
first very well timbered and tallowed .There was another on the
stocks. They are very long a-do'.ng and issue at excessive rates» (2S).

(2J) Duarte Gomes de Solis, Alegucion (1628), fls. 218-19. Cf. also Ibidem,
Discursos (1622), fl. 242; Diogo do Couto, Década VII (Lisboa, 1616), Livro 9.
tap. xvii.
(22) Originally built as the Malice Scourge for the Earl of Cumberland
in 1595, she was renamed the Red Dragon and purchased by the English East-
-India Company for Lancaster's first voyage in 1601. She subsequently served as
the flagship of Middleton, Best, Keeling, and other «Generais» until her capture
by the Dutch in the hostilities of 1619. The limit of four round voyages on
E. I. C. ships was extended successively to six and eight during the Revolutionary
and Napoleonic wars and eventually abolished altogether. Cf. C. N. Parkinson,
Trade in the Eastern Seas, I793--18I3 (Cambridge, 1937), pp. 124, 134.
(23) Travels of Peter Mundy (ed. Hakluyt Society, 5 vols. 1907-36), III.
p. 59. The other ship on the stocks was the São Boaventura (64). I have mo¬
dernized the spelling of these and other extracts.

40
 I

The German traveller, Mandelslo, who visited the Bom Jesus in

1639, wrote that she was «one of the noblest vessels I ever saw».
In and about the captain's great cabin, «were an ante-chamber, a
closet, and two galleries». Having been regally entertained aboard
by António Telles, the Capitão-General da Armada do Alto-bordo,
the visitor then left the galleon by «a door which was in the stern
of the ship, at which it was more commodious getting out, than it is in
other ships by ladders of ropes». Mandelslo noted that the Bom
Jesus then had a complement of 600 men, «mariners and soldiers»,
and mounted sixty-four brass guns (24). The Patriarch of Ethiopia,
Dom Affonso Mendes S. }., writing to the Canon of Evora in
December 1637, credited her with being «the finest ship afloat on
the sea today, with her build and strength, for she has sixty four
guns, all from eighteen to thirty pounds calibre» (25).
As an example of the ships turned out by the Indo-Portuguese
yards half a century later, I may instance the Santo António de
Taná, a 50-gun frigate built at Tanah Creek near Bassein in 1681.
Apart from making one round voyage in the carreira, she served in
the Indian Ocean until her loss during the siege of Mombasa in
October 1697. When she entered the harbour on the 15 September
that year, she was so closely engaged by the Arab batteries that
not only did every shot strike her hull, but even the wadding from
the besiegers’ guns inflicted casualties among the men on the
frigate’s deck (26). Her teak hull resisted this and subsequent equally
close-ranged bombardments, her loss being due to the severing of
her anchor-cables so that she drifted ashore out of control. Although
she subsequently refloated with the tide, she later sank in the

(24) J. Davies (tr. and ed.), Voyages <5 Travels of Albert de Mandelslo
(London, 1662), p. 102.
(25) «o galeão Bom Jesus, novo, que deve ser a melhor peça que tem hoje
o mar sobre si, pella traça e fortale2a, que tem 64 peças de 18 até 30 libras
todas,» D. Affonso Mendes S. J., to Manuel Severim de Faria, Goa 5 December
1637, in B. N. L., Fundo Geral, Cod. 7640. For the destruction of the Bom Jesus
and the São Boaventura by the Dutch at Monnugão (30 September 1639),
see Mariner’s Mirror, Vol. XVI (1930), pp. 5-17. and. A. Botelho de
Sousa, Subsídios para a história militar-marítima da India 1585-1669 (4 vols.,
Lisboa, 1930-56), Vol. IV, pp. 149-52.
(26) Anon, «História de Mombaça», anonymous codex of 1699, B. N. L„
Fundo Geral, 584, fls. 61-64.

41
fairway. An equally long-lived Indiaman was the 66-gun Nossa
Senhora do Livramento, which made repeated round voyages
between 1725 and 1740, and had been built at Bahia in 1724 (27).
A few ships of considerable size had been built in Brazil during
the second half of the sixteenth century, but it was not until over
a century later that some of the viceroys of India advocated the
employment of Brazil-built ships as being the most suitable for
the carreira da India. Vasco Fernandes César de Menezes wrote
to the Crown from Goa in January 1713: «Os navios que tem dura-
çam na India sam os que se fazem no Brazil, porque não entra o
cariá com elles, como se vê na fragata Nossa Senhora da Estrella,
e na que presentemente vay para o Reino, pois havendo quinze annos
que estão na índia, ainda poderão durar e servir outros tantos
annos, e não me pareçe que pode haver difficuldade em se esco-
Iherê das Náos do Porto as que vierem para a índia, porque a mayor
parte delias são feitas em o Brazil». Two of his successors, writing
in 1719 and in 1721 respectively, likewise recorded their preference
for the use of Brazil-built ships as East-Indiamen (28).
To what extent these viceregal recommendations were carried
out, it is difficult to say. Great efforts were made to develop
shipbuilding in Brazil during the seventeenth and eighteenth cen¬
turies, but, as was the case with Portuguese India, although the tim¬
ber was excellent, the cost of cordage and other ancillary materials
was apt to be inordinately high. Moreover, there was no vast reserve
of cheap and skilled manual labour in Brazil, such as India, China,
and (to some extent) the Philippines possessed. A Jesuit Padre
writing in 1618 on the possibility of building galleons in Brazil,
reported that it would cost at least twice as much to construct one

(27) Francisco Luis Ameno, «Noticia Chronologica das Armadas da India»

(Biblioteca Pública Évora, Cod. CXV-1-21, fls. 107-10); Quirino da Fonseca,
Ementa Histórica das Naus Portuguesas (Lisboa, 1926), pp. 579-80; Anais do
Arquivo Público da Bahia. Vol. XXXII (Bahia, 1952), pp. 191, 198.
(28) Viceregal dispatches printed in Arquivo Português Oriental. Nova
Edição (11 vols., Goa-Bastorá, 1936-40), Vol. Ill, Parte II (1940), pp, 78-79,
374, and Vol. Ill, Parte III (1940), pp. 46-47. The other Brazil-built frigate
indicated in the viceroy’s dispatch of January 1713 was evidently the Nossa
Senhora da Piedade das Chagas, which reached Lisbon on the 29 December of
the same year, and made her last voyage in 1724.

42
 I

there as it would in Europe ("J). Twelve years later a detailed survey

of the coastal resources of Brazil was apparently connected with
a scheme for building sixty-eight galleons of a thousand tons each
in Brazilian harbours, but nothing came of this ambitious project (30).
Arguments as to whether it was better and/ or cheaper to build A/aos
in Portugal, or in India, or in Brazil, continued until well into the
eighteenth century; but yards were successsively established at
Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and the Ilha Grande, which turned out some
excellent ships from time to time, besides others whose faulty pro¬
portions were severely criticized (31).
Apart from carracks, galleons and frigates, which were all
included in the portmanteau word Náos, another type of vessel
which was employed in the carreira da India, particularly during the
last quarter of the seventeenth century, was that known as charrua.
The India Fleet of 1683 consisted of two of these unimpressive
looking vessels, whose arrival at Goa in September of that year
provoked some trenchant criticism on the apparent decay of Por¬
tugal’s maritime power (32). This remonstrance was evidently not
without efrect, as the Fleet of 1685 consisted of five sail, only one
of which was a charrua, all the others being Náos of imposing

(29) ... «o galião que lá custa, v. g. vinte mil cruzados custará cá sobre
quarenta mil, e dá vantagem.» Fernão Cardim S. J. to António Collaço S. J.,
Bahia, 1 October 1618, apud S. Leite S. J., História da Companhia de Jesus no
Brasil (10 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1938-50), Vol. IV, p. 163.
(30) C. R. Boxer, «The Naval and Colonial Papers of Dom António de
Ataíde» (Harvard Library Bulletin, Vol. V, Winter 1951), p. 40; «Memória de
como se pueden fabricar en el Brasil 68 galeones de 1,000 toneladas cada hum.»
d. Madrid, 15 April 1630 (Biblioteca da Ajuda, Lisboa, Cod. 51-V-28, fls.
154-55 v).
(31) C. R. Boxer, Salvador de Sá, 1602-1686 (London, 1952), pp. 307-10,
328-32, V. Rau, Os manuscritos da Casa de Cadaval respeitantes ao Brasil,
Vol. I, pp. 424-29, and Vol. II, pp. 56-57, 116, 120-121.
(32) «E entendem todos que se não fossem necessárias embarcações para
trazerem o tabaco que nem essas charruas qua vierão. O certo he que Sua
Alteza que Deus guarde não considera o descrédito que padesse a nação por-
tugueza quando qua chegasse semelhantes barcarriolas, porque estes Mouros e
gentios do Oriente que são hoje mayores polticos que os Europeos, tudo ponderão,
e dizem que o Reyno que na mayor necessidade manda semelhantes socorros,
que Reyno pode ser?» («Novas da índia de 1683 e 1684,» anonymous M. S,
in B. N. L., Fundo Geral 465, fl. 73).

43
I

dimensions. The improvement was short-lived, however, and for the

remainder of the century an average of only one or two lndiamen
left Lisbon annually. It is true that a total of five sail left the Tagus
in 1699, but this was a belated (and as it proved abortive) effort
in connection with the siege of Mombasa by the Arabs of Oman.
The eightenth century brought no great change in this respect, two
or three lndiamen yearly being the general rule, and not infrequently
only one was sent out.
The crew of a four-deck carrack might very occasionally total
over 200 men, but the number of foremast-hands in the average
Portuguese Indiaman was usually about 120 or 130, equally divided
between sailors and grumetes (grummets). These latter were
apprentice seamen, not necessarily boys, though most of them were
probably in their ’teens. They did all the hardest work aboard the
ship, and slept on the deck at the waist, between the mainmast
and the foremast, Fairly early in the seventeenth century, this num¬
ber was raised to HO, and the flagship of the 1633 India Fleet
carried 232 seamen, but this was quite exceptional. Dom António
He Ataide, writing in this same year, suggested an official establish¬
ment of 168 all told, including 18 officers, 60 sailors,60 grummets,
4 pages and 26 gunners (33). The officers did not include the ship’s
captain, who, like the Capitão-Mor da Viagem (Captain-Major of
the Voyage), and together with their respective servants, ranked
as soldiers. Not until about a century later did it become the general
rule that lndiamen should be commanded by professional seamen
with the rank of capitão-de-mar-e-guerra, and even then exceptions
were fairly common. Some of the amateur commanders eventually
became expert seamen and navigators, but nautical skill was not
regarded as an essential qualification for the captain of an Indiaman
for most of the three centuries that the carreira endured.
It was common enough elsewhere for landsmen to command
ships in the sixteenth and for part of the seventeenth centuries; but
the longer duration of this practice in Portugal was probably due,
in part at least, to the contempt and dislike with which the mariner's
profession was so long regarded. The same was true, to a great

pis) «Papers of Dom António de Ataide, 1631-33,» Houghton Library,

Harvard, U. S. A.

44
 I

extent, of neighbouring Spain; a fact which is all the more curious

as the two Iberian kingdoms pioneered the overseas expansion of
Europe, and they owed their greatness and prestige mainly to their
maritime discoveries and conquests. Nevertheless, they both rated
the soldier far above the sailor in the social hierarchy. This fact
is reflected not only in such matters as court precedence, and in
royal rewards and favours, but in both the official correspondence
and the classical literature of Spain and Portugal. Would-be refor¬
mers, such as Duarte Gomes de Solis and Thomé Pinheiro de Veiga,
argued strongly against this attitude but without much success. The
general opinion was reflected more accurately by Manuel de Faria
e Sousa who observed apropos of the judicial murder of a pilot of
the carreira da India in 1622: «raro el que deixar de ser tal y de
merecer aquella muerte» (34).
The captaincy of a Portuguese Indiaman, and the command
(capitama-mór) of the annual India Fleet, were both in the gift of
the Crown. They were bestowed as rewards for services rendered
by court grandees (or minions), as well as by soldiers and sailors.
Linder certain conditions, they could be bequeathed by a recipient
who did not live to enjoy the grant, or they could be bought and
sold. In this way, they were sometimes inherited by women in their
capacity of widows or daughters. In 1656, for example, Bartholomeu
da Cunha de Vasconcelos purchased the captaincy of an India
voyage from the widowed Countess of Sarzedas, at the instance
of the Crown. As a result of this system, it frequently happened
that there were more claimants for captaincies than there were ships
sailing in a given year. On such occasions, the Crown usually tried
to select from among the applicants someone with maritime expe¬
rience,, but the command often devolved on a fidalgo who (in the

(34) Asia Portuguesa (3 vols., Lisboa, 1666-75), Vol. Ill, p. 358. Cf.
Duarte Gomes de Solis, Discursos (1622), fls. 223-24, and Aiegacion (1628),
fls. 7-10, 196-97, 233-34, 258-62; Thomé Pinheiro da Veiga, Fastigimia (ed. Porto.
1911), pp. 54-55. It would be easy to multiply the instances given in the fore¬
going works of Portuguese (and Spanish) contempt for the seaman's profession,
and the disastrous results to which this attitude led in the colonial wars with the
Dutch and English.

45
I

words of Padre António Vieira S. J.), «had never seen any water
other than that of the Tagus» (35).
The fact that the captain was usually a landsman explains why
the pilots had sole charge of the Indiamen’s navigation for most of
the three centuries of the carreira. This was also the case with the
trans-Pacific voyages of the Manila galleons, where a succesion of
seasoned pilots formed the mainstay of the line from 1565 to 1815.
The Iberian pilots relied principally on a combination of latitude¬
sailing, dead reckoning, and, above all, on their knowledge
of how to interpret Nature’s signs. Weather permiting, the
pilot measured the altitude of the sun every day, and noted in
his journal such natural phenomena as might enable him to check
his approximate position in the light of those recorded in the stan¬
dard roteiros and in previous diários de bordo. The following entries
from a journal kept during the voyage to India of the São Francisco
de Borja in 1691, are typical of the care taken to note the various
kinds of birds which were sighted (36).
«12 junho. Os signaes são corvas pretas de bico branco, Par-
delas e Feijoens, que são uns passaros de tamanho de pombas mar¬
chetados de branco e preto, e são os mais lindos passaros de quantos
vimos na viagem, e nos acompanharão e forão seguindo a esteira da
Nao athé a Ilha de São Lourenço, e esteve tãobem o tempo nublado

e chuvozo.
13 Junho. Os signaes são garajinas, feijoens, corvas pretas de
bico branco, e o tempo não muito claro.
14 Junho. Os signaes são corvas de bico branco, feijoens e

entenaes...
21 Julho. Os signaes são rabos de junco, que são huns passa¬
ros muito alvos, e o rabo he bem como hum junco na grossura, e
elles como pombas postoque maiores algüa coisa, hum alcatraz com
puçoço e rabo branco, e o bico azul, garanjinas...»

(35) ... «que nunca viu mais agua que a do Tejo.» I remember the phrase
but have mislaid the reference.
(*«) «Viagem que fes o Ill”0 Senhor D. Fr. Agostinho da Anunciação
Arcebispo de Goa Primaz da India Oriental na Náo São Francisco de Borja o
anno de 1691, Capitão-de-mar-e-guerra della Antonio Francisco» (British Mu¬
seum, Add. MSS. 20953, fls. 242-53), fls. 248-50. Cf. also Quirino da Fonseca.
Diários da Navegação da Carreira da India, 1595~1603 (Lisboa, 1958), passim
for many similar observations.

46
 I

Some years later, an Italian voyager aboard the outward-bound

Indiaman São Pedro Gonçalves noted of a certain species of seagull
called mangas de veludo by the Portuguese; «These are found off
the region of the Cape of Good Hope and nowhere else. The pilots
pay great attention to signs like these, for they are never misled by
them (37). Here again is an obvious comparison with the practice of
the Spanish pilots of the Manila galleons, who relied heavily on
the corresponding senas for indications that they were approaching
the coast of California (3a).
The official sailing-directions for the India voyage are to be
found in the various roteiros compiled by experienced pilots of the
carreira from the time of João de Lisboa (1515), to that of Manuel
Pimentel (1699). Since these are all listed in the excellent A Mari¬
nharia dos Descobrimentos. Bibliografia Náutica Portuguesa até
1700 of A. Fontoura da Costa, who has in addition reprinted some
of the most interesting, there is no need to give a detailed description
of them here. Suffice it to say that once the carreira da India had
become well established, the principal pilots who contributed modi¬
fications of importance were successively Diogo Affonso (floreat
c. 1530), Vicente Rodrigues of Lagos (drowned, 1592), and Gaspar
Ferreira Reimão (died 1626). The printed versions of Vicente
Rodrigues (1608) and Ferreira Reimão (1612) were freely
plundered and plagiarised by the successive Cosmografo-Móres from
Manuel de Figueiredo to Manuel Pimentel, who contented thems¬
elves with reproducing the works of their predecessors virtually
unaltered. The worst offender was António de Mariz Cameiro,
Cosmografo-Mór from 1631 to 1669, despite his obvious unfitness
for this position, as can be seen from the devastating exposure of
his pretended mathematical knowledge by Don Garcia de Silva
y Figueroa, who voyaged with him to India in 1614 on board the
carrack Nossa Senhora da Luz (39). Gaspar Ferreira Reimão was

(37) Carlos de Azevedo, Um artista italiano em Goa. Plácido Francesco

Ramponi (Lisboa, 1956), p. 22, with illustrations of the birds in question.
(3S) W. L. Schurz, The Manila Galleon, pp. 238-41.
(39) Comentários de Don Garcia de Silva tj Figueroa de la embajada que
de parte del Rey de Espana Don Felipe Ill hizo al Rey Xa Abas de Persia,
1614-1624 (2 vol., Madrid, 1903-05), Vol. I, pp. 94-98. «No tenia nuestro
Antonio Maris conoçimiento alguno de letras, si bien hablava a tiento y confu

47
I

the piloto-mor on this voyage, and since he also had a poor^ opmio
of Mariz Carneiro, this may help to account for the latter del^erately
omitting Reimao’s name and implying that the published Roteiros
of 1642 and 1666 were mainly his own work when they were, m
fact almost exclusively based on that of Reimão.
The manning problem of the carreira da India was nearly always
a difficult one. Deep-sea sailors are not made in a day and the
wastage from death and disease in the India voyage was high, i he
origin and cure of tropical fevers were not understood, nor was
adequate treatment available for the dysenteric and intestinal
diseases which ravaged the crowded Indiamen. As early as 1506
completely raw crews were being recruited for service in the car¬
reira, as illustrated by the well-known anecdote of João Homem
and his rustic crew who could not distinguish between port and
starboard when they left the Tagus («). This may have been an
extreme case, but throughout the three centuries of the carreira
complaints abounded that tailors, cobblers, lackeys, ploughmen, and
moços bizonhos were entered as able seamen despite the regulations
which were framed to prevent this abuse. The position was further
complilcated by the union of the Iberian Crowns from 1580 to 1640;
for during this period many Portuguese sailors preferred the Spanish
sea-service to their own, and the Castilian kings were inclined to
encourage this trend (41).

samente de los círculos y compostura de la sphera, como cosa aprendida sin arte
ni fundamento... porque por su poca desenboltura se detenia mucho tiempo en
dezir una palabra, con tanta confusion y dureza como la de su aguja, y ansi
difiçilmente podia nadie entendello»... etc. This exposure of Mariz Carneiros
incompetence should be added to the biographical sketch by Frazão de Vascon¬
celos, «António de Mariz Carneiro Cosmógrafo-Mór de Portugal» reprinted from
the Boletim Geral do Ultramar, November 1956, pp. 41-53.
(40) Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, História do Descobrimento e Conquista
da índia (ed. Coimbra, 1924), Vol. I, p. 209.
(41) «Portugal... estã falto de marineros, que por en Portugal ver en
nuestras navegaciones mas riesgos, que provechos, se passaron à otras navega-
ciones de mayor commodidad» (Duarte Gomes de Solis, Alegacion, fl. 7). Cf. also
the complaint of Admiral João Pereira Corte-Real to the Crown of Castile in a
letter from Cadiz, dated 15 June 1632: «Vossa Magestade tira o milhor da forca
dele para esta Coroa de Castela, até na gente que a meu Respeito se embarcou...»
(original in the the writer’s collection, apud Frazão de Vasconcelos, in Boletim
Geral do Ultramar, 1958, p. 77).

48
 I

Even after the Restoration of 1640 the situation remained a

serious one, and the Portuguese sailors showed an excusable prefe¬
rence for service in the shorter and easier carre/ra do Brasil, which
did not take them away from their homes for so long. This tendency
was naturally accentuated after the discovery of gold in Minas
Gerais at the end of the seventeenth century; and homewardbound
Indiamen could often only complete their crews by entering consi¬
derable numbers of coloured deck-hands. The unlucky viceroy,
Count of Sandomil, reported in December 1738 that: «Toda a gente
da marinha que actualmente se acha em Goa entre officiaes, mari-
nhe.ros, artilheiros, pagens e grumetes apenas chega, abatidos os
doentes, a 120 homens, os quaes, ou pouco menos serão precizos
para a equipagem da nao da viagem do Reino, principalmente em
monção na qual, por não terem vindo cafres de Mossambique, e
haver falta delles na terra, faltará o serviço, que no trabalho do
convés costuma fazer esta gente» (42).
An outward-bound Náo da carreira da India with a crew of 120
men and boys usually carried at least 400 or 500 soldiers sent out
for service in the East. For most of the sixteenth century the majority
of these men were able-bodied volunteers, although there was
always a proportion of convicted and banished criminals among
them. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however,
the fumos da India did not offer the attraction of earlier times before
the Portuguese monopoly had been challenged by Dutch and English
competitors; while on the other hand Brazil beckond enticingly to
those who were desirous of bettering themselves by emigration (4a).
The consequence was that during these two centuries, the great
majority of the men who were sent to India were not veteran soldiers,
but raw recruits taken from the streets and the plough, or convicted

(42) «Proposta do viso rei Conde de Sandomil para o Conselho do Estado.

16 decembro 1738», apud P. Pissurlencar, Assentos do Conselho do Estado da
India 1618-1750 (5 vols., Bastorá-Goa, 1953-57), Vol. V, p. 470.
(43) «Portugal não tem outra região mais fértil, mais próxima nem mais
frequentada, nem também os seus vassallos melhor e mais seguro refugio do que
o Brazil; o portuguez, a quem acontece decahir a fortuna, é para lá que se dirige»,
as Gaspar Ferreira wrote to Dom João IV from Amsterdam, 20 July 1645 (Re¬
vista do Instituto Archeologico e Geographico Pernambucano Num. 32, Abril
1887, p. 78). This was still more true after the expulsion of the Dutch from Per¬
nambuco (1654) and the discovery of gold in Minas Gerais (1695).

49
I

criminals collected from the jails and lock-ups. Their poor physique
and extreme youth caused continual complaints from the viceroys
and archbishops of Goa. who protested that this canalha vil was
prone to desert to the Muslim and Hindu enemies of the State of
India as soon as they had the chance of so doing (44).
These soldiers, whether volunteers or jail-birds, were usually
packed together on one deck, a procedure which inevitably facilitated
the spread of fecal-borne and other diseases, as more than one
viceroy complained (45). The fidalgos who went out to India were
generally rated as soldiers for the voyage, though the wealthier
and more important among them would have some limited accom¬
modation elsewhere than on the troop-deck. Apart from the soldiery,
there would often be a number of missionaries and, perhaps, a few
women aboard; but there would seldom be more than a dozen or so
of the latter in a ship which might have six or eight hundred men.
Very few married women went out with (or to rejoin) their
husbands, and most of the relatively few white women who made
the tedious and difficult India voyage were the Órfãs del Rei, or
«Orphans of the Crown». These were orphan girls of marriageable

(■w) «Os Portugueses que vem a India muitos delles passão logo a terras
de Mouros, nellas huns se fanão e outros são ludibrio da nação... porque como
estes homens sejão gente vil, não reparão em ajudar aos infiéis em tudo, assim
em arbítrios como em entradas, e ainda em serviços baixos contra o Estado, o
que a experiência me mostrou na fortificação de Bory, aonde os vy com meus
olhos acarretar pedras como Cafres, e ter de redias os cavallos dos Mouros»
(Archbishop-Primate of Goa to the Crown, 15 January 1703, in A. H. U. Lisboa.
«Documentos da India, 1703-1705», Caixa 38). This is one instance of many
which could be quoted from the official correspondence between the authorities
at Lisbon and Goa. The problem was one of long standing, as can be seen from
M. Severim de Faria, Noticias de Portugal (Lisboa, 1655), pp. 12-13. In 1746
the ecclesiastical authorities of Portuguese India were still complaining «com
as lagrimas nos olhos da quantidade dos soldados e frades Portuguezes apóstatas
que passavão por aquella parte exposto a mil misérias» (Viceroy of India to the
Secretary of State, 21 January 1746, in Arquivo das Colonias, Vol. V, p. 100).
(45) Caetano de Mello e Castro, for example, after his voyage in the
São Pedro Gonçalves, wrote from Goa on the 16 January 1703, «que no aperto
e limitado destrito de hüa so cuberta parece impossiuel se recolhão 400 e 500
homens que vierão em minha Nao, sendo forçoso detriminar lugar para enfer¬
meiros, e outras mais obrigações forçozas por cuja causa padecerão todos o
que eu testemunhey» (A. H. LI. Lisboa, «Documentos da índia», Caixa 38).

50
 I

age who were provided with dowries in the form of government

posts for whoever would marry them. The system was not a great
success, and despite the claims that a learned investigator has
recently made concerning the number of white women who came
out in this way, the fact remains that they formed only an insignif¬
icant fraction of the men who left Portugal, and few of those who
did marry produced any children (46).
Each Indiaman was supposed to carry a qualified physician
and a surgeon, together with amply-stocked medicine-chests provided
by the Crown. In practice, however, there was often only an
ignorant barber-surgeon aboard, as in the fleet of 1633, which
carried 3,000 men in four ships. Towards the end of the seventeenth
century repeated complaints were received at Lisbon about the lack
of doctors in Indiamen, and the disinclination of the nursing-
-orderlies to nurse the sick properly, for fear of catching their
infection ('*7). As a result of his experiences in the São Pedro Gon¬
çalves in 1698, the viceroy Almotacem-Mór suggested that friars

(48) A. C. Germano da Silva Correia, História da colonização portuguesa

na India (6 vols., Lisboa 1948-58), shows that more white women came out
to Goa than is generally realised, but he misreads many of his own sources and
hence makes unfounded statements. For example, in narrating the capture of
the carrack Santa Catarina by the Dutch in February 1603, he assumes that she
was a náo da carreira da India which had just left Lisbon with over 100 Portu¬
guese women on board. In fact, she was bound from Macao to Malacca, and
the women were all Eurasians and coloured girls, the majority being slaves. The
viceroy João Nunes da Cunha, complained in 1669 that «todo este Estado tem
menos Portuguezes que Alhos Vedros» (letter of 26 June 1669, in O Gabinete
Littecario das Fontainhas, Vol. II, Nova Goa, 1847, p. 146). Padre Fernão
de Queirós S. J., writing at Goa in 1687, observed that «ainda hoje he raríssimo
o parto de mulher Portugueza, em que não morra, a May, e a criatura» (Con-
quista temporal e espiritual de Ceytão, Livro 6, cap. viii, p. 875 of the Colombo
1916 edition). It would be easy to add many similar quotations.
(47) «E hüa das cauzas de haver tanta mortandade foi alem de partirê
as Naos muito tarde e por isso ser a viagem de quase sete mezes, o não virem
Medicos nestas Naos, e parece especie de crueldade mandar El Rey nosso senhor
mil Portuguezes para este Estado, e sendo o seu principal intento o chegarem
e viverem ca muitos annos não mandar médicos» («Novas da índia, Janeiro
1691», in P. Pissurlencar, Assentos do Conselho de Estado, Vol. V, p, 578);
«porquanto os enfermeiros com o temor da malinidade das doenças desempararão
os enfermos como tenho representado» (Visorei Almotacel-Mór to Crown.
Goa, 18 December 1698, in A. H. U. Lisboa, «Documentos da índia», Caixa 37).

51
I

of the nursing order of São João de Deus should be asked to act

as ship’s doctors. He propsed that two of them should sail in each
Indiaman, and that they should have four male nurses to take care
of the sick under their supervision. This suggestion was adopted, at
any rate for some years, and they seem to have given great satis¬
faction, as they were already doing in their small but well run
hospital at Moçambique (48). The Crown was certainly generous
with the provision of well-stocked medicine chests to each
Indiaman; but only too often the contents were embezzled by
unauthorised persons for their own use, or else they were sold for
profit instead of being freely distributed to the sick (49).
The Nãos da carreira da India took out to Goa chiefly soldiers
and specie, together with a little coral and some assorted European
goods of no great value. They were not deeply laden, and the wine
and water casks for the complement of 600 or 800 men served as
ballast. Their return loading, on the other hand, comprised bulky
cargoes of spices, saltpetre, indigo, hardwoods, furniture, silks and
cotton piece-goods. The holds were filled to capacity with the spices
and saltpetre, while crates and packages of the other commodities
were piled so high on the decks that a man could only make his way
from the poop to the prow by clambering over mounds of mer¬
chandize. Boxes, bales, and baskets of assorted goods were also
lashed outboard to projecting planks and platforms, or were slung
suspended over the ship’s side. Such chronic overloading and
irregular stowage was, of course, strictly forbidden by the Crown
regimentos; but these sensible regulations were often flagrantly
ignored, particularly during the period 1580-1650 (s0). A very7

(4S) Correspondence between Viceroy and Crown 1698-1705, in A. H. U.

Lisboa, Caixa 37 and Caixa 38; Documentos Históricos. Vol. LXXXIV (Rio de
Janeiro, 1949), pp. 148-49. Cf. note (65) below.
(4D) For specimen boticas see Appendix I below, and the other sources
quoted. For the embezzlement of the boticas, cf. the regimentos for the Captain-
-Major of outward-bound Indiamen in 1672-73 (BM. Add. MSS. 20879, fls.
255-89), and the account of the voyage of the São Francisco de Borja in 1691
(BM. Add. MS. 20953, fl. 244). Cf. also Arte de Furtar (ed. Amsterdam, 1744).
pp. 263-64.
(50) João Pereira Corte-Real, Discursos sobre la navigacion de las Naos
de la India de Portugal (1622); Duarte Gomes de Solis, Discursos (1622), and
Alegacion (1628), passim; Regimento para as Escrivaens das Naos da Carreira
da India (1611, 1640, and 1756).

52
 I

similar state of affairs prevailed in the trans-Pacific voyages of

the Manila galleons. The outward-bound ships from Acapulco
were mainly laden with soldiers and silver specie; whereas on the
return-voyage from the Philippines they were often dangerously
overladen with cargoes of silk, textiles, and other Chinese goods (51).
Most of the deck and cabin-space above the hold was the
perquisite of some officer or member of the crew, who could sell it
together with the accompanying privilege of stowing personal
property there, to the highest bidder. The officers and crew were
also allowed caixas de liberdade, or «liberty-chests» of a standard
measurement, in which they were permitted to bring home certain
spices and other goods, wholly or partly duty-free. These caixas
de liberdade were originally (1515) made to a standard measure¬
ment of six palmos de vara (about four feet) in length by three in
height by two and a half in breadth. In 1575 this was modified to
five palmos de vara in length by two and a half in each of the other
dimensions, and this size lasted for the duration of the carreira,
so far as I am aware (32).
In addition to these caixas and fardos (bundles) de liberdade,
which were graduated on a sliding-scale from Captain-Major (15
caixas) to cabin-boy (1 fardo), there were various other privileges
and perquisites to v/hich the officers and mariners of the carreira da
India were entitled .These privileges were likewise connected with
the importation of certain goods wholly or partly freight and duty-
-free, but they varied somewhat at different times and we have not
space to discuss them here (5S), They all, however, originated from
the fact that the Crown was either unable or unwilling to pay ade¬
quate wages, and consequently strove to recompense its servants by

(51) W. L. Schurz, The Manila Galleon, pp. 176-77, 184-85.

(52) «Regimento das caixas de liberdade» of 1515 in the Ataide papers
at Harvard (Vol. Ill, fls. Ill ff.); Alvará of 20 February 1575 with the revised
dimensions, in Damião Peres, Regimento das Casas das Indias e Mina (Coimbra,
1947), pp. 147-48.
(53) Details will be found in Luís de Figueiredo Falcão, Livro em que se

contém toda a Fazenda e Real Patrimônio (Lisboa, 1859), pp. Ill; the Ataide
papers at Harvard, whence the extracts in C. R. Boxer, The Tragic History ol
the Sea, 1589-1622 (London, 1959), p. 278; Damião Peres, Regimento das Cazas
das Indias e Mina (1947), pp. 131-63; Francisco Mendes da Luz, Regimento
de Caza da India, Manuscrito do século XVII (Lisboa, 1951), pp. 126-54.

53
I

allowing them to import limited quantities of cinnamon and other

things. The supporters of the system also argued that by giving the
sailors a direct interest in a portion of the ship’s lading, they would
fight better if the ship was attacked, since they would be defending
their own property as well as that of the Crown.
With the progress of time, the growth of vested interests in
the liberdades, and the laxity with which the regulations restricting
their use was enforced, the system became riddled with grave abuses.
For one thing, it put a premium on overloading, and for another it
tempted too many people to pay more attention to the stowage and
safe-keeping of their own goods than to those of the Crown. On
these and other grounds, the system was severely criticised by
influential people, such as João Pereira Corte-Real in his Discursos
(1622),and Manuel Severim de Faria in his Notícias (1655). By
the early years of the Restoration period, the seamen’s liberdades
had become so elastic that it seemed as if the Crown was maintaining
the carreira more for the service of its vassals than of itself 04)
Though well aware of the widespread opposition which any
thoroughgoing reform would arouse, the Crown made a determined
effort to abolish the system of liberdades in 1647-48, and to replace
it by an adequate wage-scale. This attempt was coupled with another
to replace fidalgos as captains of Indiamen by professional seamen
whose nautical knowledge was not necessarily accompanied by
noble blood. In March 1647 the Conselho Ultramarino, or Overseas
Council, warned Dom João IV that this scheme was impracticable
for many reasons, and advised that it should not be implemented.
The King, however, insisted on trying it out; but the innovation met
with such intense opposition from those most concerned, that, after
two years’ trial, the Crown was forced to restore the old system
with minor modifications in 1649. Even this did not satisfy those
who gained their livelihood in the carreira, and as a result of their
further representations, the Crown capitulated completely and rest¬
ored the former privileges in full by a decree of March 1652 (55).

(54) ...«de tal modo que quasi vinham a ser as naus d’El-rei mais para
carga sua e de particulares que para utilização da Fazenda Real». Simão Fer¬
reira Paes, Recopilação das famosas Armadas Portuguesas, 1496-1650 (Rio de
Janeiro, 1937), pp. 143-48.
(55) Text of the respective alvarás of 22 March 1649 and 11 March 1652
in Darnião Peres, Regimento das Cazas das Indias e Mina, pp. 149-59.

54
 I

As the Overseas Councillors had forseen, the fidalgos flatly refused

to serve under or to take orders from professional seamen who were
not of their social standing; and the Crown itself did not dispose of
sufficient ready money to pay the large sums involved at the crucial
stage of the change-over (56).
An experienced pilot of the carreira da India, when asked what
was the best season for the departure of Indiamen from Lisbon, is
alleged to have replied: «The last day of February is time enough,
but the first day of March is late» (57). In practice, the ships often
left in the second half of March or in the first half of April, and
belated departures in May were not unknown. In the latter even¬
tuality, the ships involved usually made arribadas, or abortive
voyages, being compelled either to return to Lisbon or (more rarely)
to winter in Brazil. Just as departures from Lisbon tended to take
place later than was advisable, so did those from Goa. Instead of
leaving at Christmas-tide, or at the New Year, returning Indiamen
often left the River Mandovi in February or March, or occasionally
even in April, when the chance of weathering the stormy May and
June season in the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope was corres¬
pondingly reduced. In both cases the delayed departures were
usually due to the difficulty of securing an adequate supply of ready
money to pay for the cargos and the crews (58).
For the first century and a half of the carreira every effort was
made by the Crown to prevent Indiamen from calling at Brazilian
ports on either the outward or the homeward voyage (5B). In the

(56) Cf. The Overseas Council’s parecer of 2 March 1647 printed in

Appendix II below.
(57) «E1 ultimo de Febrero es temprano; y el primeiro de Março es tarde»
(M. de Faria y Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, Vol. Ill (1675), p. 367). Duarte Gomes
de Solis has a different version on fl. 198 of his Alegacion of 1628: ...«los pilo¬
tos antigos dezian sobre la partida, que el postre dia de Março partian en su
mocion, y en primero de Abril fuera de mocion».
(58) For such difficulties at Lisbon, cf. J. Gentil da Silva, Stratégie des
affaires à Lisbonne entre 1595 et 1607 (Paris, 1956).
(59) Cf. A. Marchant, «Colonial Brazil as a way station for the Portuguese
India Fleets» «Geographical Review, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, July 1941, pp. 454-65),
successfully refutes the common idea that the India Fleets used Brazil as a way
station in the sixteenth century; but he does not realize the extent to which
Bahia became a regular port of call for returning Indiamen after 1660. Cf.
consulta of the Overseas Council, d. Lisbon, 17 March 1670, in AHU Lisboa,
«Consultas Mixtas», Cod. 16, fl, 357.

55
I

former case a call was often made at Moçambique for fresh water
and provisions, although through voyages between Lisboa and Goa
without calling at any place en route were quite common. Similarly,
on the homeward run, a stop was sometimes made at Santa Helena
before the Dutch and English began to frequent that island and
made it unsafe for the Portuguese to do so. Otherwise, one of the
Açores was the only officially recognized port of call, ships being
supposed to touch at Angola or at Brazil only in cases of the direst
necessity; and through voyages between Goa and Lisbon were
likewise quite usual. During the second half of the seventeenth
century it became increasingly common for homeward-bound
Indiamen to touch at a Brazilian port, usually at Bahia, despite the
efforts of the Crown to discourage this practice. After the discovery
and exploitation of the rich gold-fields of Minas Gerais in the late
sixteen-nineties, this call became a settled habit; and it was finally
if reluctantly recognized as permissible by the Crown. Bahia then
became a regular way station on the homeward voyage, ostensibly
for rest and refreshment, but in reality surreptitiously to exchange
Oriental goods for Brazilian gold (60).
The timing of the departure, whether from Lisbon or from Goa,
was also affected to some extent by the decision to take either the
outward or else the inward passage round Madagascar. As mentio¬
ned above, outward-bound ships usually took the inward passage
and called at the island-fortress of Moçambique despite the
notorious unhealthiness of this port. The standard Roteiros of 1608
and subsequent years enjoined outward-bound Indiamen to take the
outer passage if they rounded the Cape of Good Hope after mid-
-July, but to take the Moçambique Channel route if they rounded
the Cape earlier. Similarly, the concensus of expert opinion in 1615
was that «ships leaving Goa up to the end of December should take
the inside passage, since the voyage is safer. From the 1 January
onwards this voyage is riskier, and they should take the outer
passage. All ships leaving from Cochin should take the outer pas¬
sage» (01).

(60) V. Rau, Os MSS do arquivo da Casa Cadaval respeitantes ao Bra¬

sil, Vol. I, pp. 220-21, 303-04; Ibidem, Vol. II, pp. 173-74.
(81) Papel of the India pilots, d. 25 February 1615, in Documentos remet-
tidos da India, Tomo III (1885), p. 327.

56
 I

By and large, through the three centuries of the carreira,

Moçambique was the principal way station for outward-bound
Portuguese Indiamen, despite the fact that it was all too often a
graveyard for their passengers and crews. Ships which lost the
monsoon for Goa and were compelled to winter in this unhealthy
port suffered particularly severely. The classic instance, quoted in
Gaspar Ferreira Reimao’s Roteiro of 1612 and in those of Mariz
Carneiro and the Pimentels which were based thereon, was that
of the armada of the Conde de Feira in 1608, which buried there
600 men from four ships. The island itself was well supplied
though drinking-water was chiefly obtained from the neighbouring
mainland, but its resources were insufficient to cope with the
presence of crowded Indiamen for weeks on end. A clerical visitor
wrote of the island as he saw it in 1691: «Mossambique não he tão
feo como o pintão, mas os Portugueses com a sua lascívia e gula
enchem as sepulturas. A mayor falta que tem hé do agua, que a não
hà, senão de cisternas. Os mantimentos são bastantes, ricas laran¬
jas e limoens, bons leitoens, boas vacas, figos do Reino, e athé
romãs vi alli. O trigo e arroz vem de Senna, hüa e outra couza são
excellentes, mas o pão aos que vão do Reino não sabe bem, porque
o ammassão com sura que he hüa potagem que destilhão as palmeiras
e as que dão sura não dão cocos» (°2).
This relatively favourable view of Moçambique as a way
station contrasts with the advice of earlier pilots and navigators
who strongly recommended avoiding the island at all costs, since
«tudo he mizeria e pobreza» (63). The difference is presumably
explicable by the fact that although the island could cope with one
or two visiting Indiamen, a stay of any length by a greater number
was a very different matter. This was shown at the end of the
century by the operations for the relief of Mombasa during the great
siege by the Arabs of Oman in 1696-98. The frigates and Indiamen
of the relief-force which wintered at Moçambique in those years lost
far more men from disease and malnutrition there than they did in

(62) «Viagem que fes a Nao São Francisco de Borja o anno de 1691»
(BM. Add. MS. 20953, fl. 251).
(68) 1612 Roteiro of Gaspar Ferreira Reimão, p. 18-19 of the 1939 edition;
MS «Roteiros» of Dom António de Ataide, d. 1631, fl. 9 verso (author’s col¬
lection).

57
I

the actual operations at Mombasa (64). This perennial high death-

-rate on the island was not due so much to the «concupiscence and
gluttony» denounced by the visiting cleric in 1691, as to the malarial
and bilious fevers which are still endemic there. This was the reason
why even the local hospital was stigmatised by the governor in
1758 as being «como o foi sempre hum sumidouro de vidas, o Hos¬
pital do Convento de São João de Deus» (°5).
Outward-bound Indiamen were thus usually faced with the
alternative of either touching at the fever-stricken island of Moçam¬
bique or else of making the voyage direct between Lisbon and Goa.
In either case the mortality was apt to be very heavy, for, as we
have seen above, the pressed men from the Limoeiro and other prisons
were often infected before they came aboard, and contagion spread
like wildfire in the crowded and insanitary troop-decks. A death-
rate of over fifty percent of the personnel on board was nothing
unusual. Diogo do Couto tells us that in the fleet in which he sailed
to India in 1571, nearly 2,000 men died out of a total of 4,000 who
were embarked. In the years 1629-34, out of 5,228 soldiers who
embarked at Lisbon for India only 2,495 reached Goa alive. In
March 1699, Henrique Jacques de Magalhães left Lisbon with
a fleet of five sail carrying a regiment of 900 men for the relief of
Mombasa. This force never reached its destination, and when the
ships arrived at Goa in September, over 300 men were already
dead, another 100 died a few days later in the hospital, and another
200 were seriously ill. The casualties on the homeward voyage of
those Indiamen which reached Lisboa were not, as a rule, anything
like so heavy, since the Náos de torna viagem were usually overloa¬
ded and under-manned. Nevertheless, there were plenty of exceptions
to this general rule, such as the round voyage of the São Pedro Gon¬
çalves in 1698-99. This Indiaman lost a total of 45 men on the
outward voyage, but over 100 on the return voyage by the time
she had reached Bahia (U6).

(°4) «Historia de Mombaca», anon. MS. of c 1699 in BN Lisboa, Fundo

Geral Cod. 584, passim. Cf. also consulta of the Overseas Council, 11 March
1694 (AHU Lisboa, «Consultas Mixtas», Cod. 18, fls. 346).
(os) Pedro de Saldanha de Albuquerque to the Secretary of State, Mo¬
çambique, 30 December 1758, in Arquivo das Colónias, Vol. IV, p. 79.
(en) Certidão of Pedro Barreto de Rezende, d. Goa, 20 November 1634,
reproduced in Appendix III below; Severim de Faria, Noticias (1655), pp. 13-14,

58
 I

The living conditions on board Portuguese Indiamen, whether

outward or homeward bound, are familiar to us from the pens of
«muita e desuairada gente» among the passengers who recorded
their experiences for the benefit of posterity. These include Jesuit
missionaries, Franciscan friars, veteran soldiers, professional
chroniclers, and itinerant foreigners. These last include the French
sailor, Pyrard de Laval, whose account is in some ways the most
interesting of all. The classic collection is, of course, the História
Trágico-Marítima, of Bernardo Gomes de Brito, which, after a
century and a half of neglect, has latterly come into its own. This
Tragic History of the Sea concentrates chiefly on the most disastrous
period of the carreira, the century between 1550 and 1650, when the
shipwreck-rate rose to an alarmingly high level. After the middle
of the seventeenth century, the situation improved considerably,
although tragic disasters still occured occasionally. One of the worst,
as bad as anything narrated in the História Trágico-Marítima, was
the loss of the outward-bound Indiaman Nossa Senhora da Guia on
the 10 August 1719. She was wrecked on one of the Angoxa (Ango-
che) islands, not far from Moçambique, «through disagreement
among her officers». Out of 450 persons on board, only two pilots,
four sailors, six gunners and a few soldiers survived by wading
ashore at low-tide, although everyone else could have done so had
they not abandoned the ship precipitantly and prematurely (07).
In the nature of things, it was the disastrous and deadly voya¬
ges which figured most prominently in contemporary accounts and

242; Viceroy to Crown, 20 December 1699, in «Livros das Monções» (Arquivo

Historico do Estado da India, Goa), Vol. 63, fl. 406; Carlos de Azevedo, Um
artista Italiano em Goa, pp. 23, 35).
(67) «A não Nossa Senhora da Guia perdeose em 10 de Agosto nas Ilhas
de Angoxa, trinta léguas abaixo de Moçambique, pela má união dos officiaes,
e de 450 pessoas, que nella hião, se salvarão sómente o segundo e terceiro Piloto,
quatro marinheiros, seis artilheiros, e alguns soldados, que forão os que ficarão
na não depois de encalhar, os quaes na vazante acharão vão, e passarão a terra
firme, afogandose todos os que querião entrar na lancha (aonde a alguns dos que
nadando querião ferrar nella, erão cortadas as mãos pelos que hião dentro).
O Bispo de Meliapor que hia nella, abraçandose com o capitão, os submergio
a ambos huma onda: e dos que sahirão a terra, alguns falecerão depois de rou¬
bados pelos Cafres, outros forão ter a Gitangombe, onde vestidos por ordem
do Rey, e conduzidos a Moçambique em hum batel quasi todos falecerão» (Fran¬
cisco Luis Ameno, «Noticia Chronologica», fl. 106)

59
I

reminiscences of the carreira da India; and I will therefore conclude

this essay by mentioning some voyages which were notably the
reverse. Four ships which left Lisbon on the 19 March 1564 reached
Goa on the 3 September with only twenty-four or twenty-five dead
between them, and after a stay of over twenty days at Moçambique.
Dom Francisco da Gama, Count of Vidigueira, left Goa in the
carrack São Francisco on Christmas Day 1600, and dropped anchor
in the Tagus on the 26 May following, «without having stopped
anywhere or lowered the main-yard during the whole voyage». Dom
António de Ataide made the round voyage with three carracks in
1611-12, without their ever parting company by day or night. After
a run of disastrous voyages in the years 1619-1623, a fleet of eight
sail which left Lisbon on the 25 March 1624, reached Goa on the
2 September with remarkably few deaths, and with all those on
board in an exceptionally healthy condition. Captain João da Costa
made two of the fastest recorded passages to Goa .taking only three
months and twenty nine days in 1640, and four months and twenty-
-seven days in 1645. In 1655, a fleet of four sail left the Tagus on
the 23 March and arrived at Goa on the 20 August, after a smooth
and speedy voyage in which fewer than thirty people perished out
of a total of nearly 2,000 who had embarked at Lisbon. In 1688,
the Nossa Senhora da Conceição reached Goa after a voyage of
just over five and a half months, during which only one man died
out of over 500 on board, and he was already seriously ill when
he embarked. As a final example, I may cite the Nossa Senhora da
Vitória in 1745. She reached Goa with «only six or seven dead, and
all the rest of those on board healthy and fit», after an exceptionally
good passage, which included a stay of thirty days at Moçambique
and another of a few days at Madagascar (os).
Although the overwhelming majority of the large numbers of
men who emigrated or were deported to India in the three centuries
of the carreira never saw Portugal again, this continual drain on

(°8) Simão Fereira Paes, Recopilação das famosas armadas portuguesas

(1938); P. Manuel Xavier S. J., Compendio Universal de todas as naos, galleões,
ureas e caraveltas que partirão de Lisboa para a India Oriental e tornarão da
India para Portugal (Nova Goa, 1917); Dom António de Ataide, «Roteiros
para vários pontos» (MS. of 1631 in the writer’s collection); Francisco Luis
Ameno, «Noticia Chronologica das Armadas da India 1497-1762» (BP Evora,

60
 I

the population of the home country found curiously little echo in

Portuguese folk-literature. I do not count the graphic narratives of
the História Trágico-Marítima in this category, as contrary to what
is often asserted, the great majority of these eyewitness accounts
were written by well educated gentlemen and not by simple mari¬
ners. Perhaps this indifference was due, at least in part, to the fact
that the majority of those who left Lisbon for Goa in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries were jail-birds (presos, criminosos, degre¬
dados) of one kind or another. In other words, they left their coun¬
try for their country s good, even if the misdeeds for which they
were banished were not always very serious. Be this as it may,
among the popular quatrains that are such a feature of Portuguese
folk-literature, I can only recall one that is connected with the car¬
reira da, India — and that reflects the complaint and the consolation
of a banished man.

Já me levão para a India

Preso que nem um ladrão.
Por beijinhos e abraços...
Na índia também se dãol

Cod. CXV 1/21); «Rellação Hydrographies da viagem que fez à India a náo
Nossa Senhora da Conceição o anno de 1688». (BM. Add. MS. 20934, fls. 10-30) :
A. Ismael Gracias, Catalogo dos livros do assentamento da gente de guerra
que veio do Reino para a índia, 1731-1811 (Nova Goa, 1893). This last source
is particularly interesting as showing the high proportion of convicts and depor¬
tees among the soldiery.

61
1

APPENDIX I

MEDICINE-CHEST FOR A PORTUGUESE INDIAMAN,

C. 1631 0)

Botica para a gente de mar em hüa Nao da India

Se ha dous contratadores de mantimentos, hum da gente do

mar e outro da gente da guerra, he obrigado o contratador da gente
do mar a dar a Botica seguinte que se inclui no contrato dos mant.-
mentos. E neste caso entregasse a Botica ao Despenseiro da gente
do mar, como se ha de entregar a da gente da guerra ao Despen¬
seiro dos mantimentos dela. E quando ha hü só contratador de
ambos os mantimentos ou se fazem por conta da fazenda de El Rey,
e ha hum só despenseiro, dasse hüa só botica acrescentando à da
gente de guerra as cantidades que vão para a gente de mar; como
por exemplo quando ha duas boticas dasse da xarope violado para
a gente de guerra 8 arrateis e 4 para a gente de mar. E quando ha
hüa só botica e hum só despenseiro dasse de xarope violado 12
arrateis e assy das mais cousas. E ainda que na Nao da índia aja
menos ou mais gente sempre se da a mesma Botica.

Botica para a gente de mar de hüa Nao da índia,

a qual quando ha contratador dos mantimentos
vaj incluido no contrato

Xarope Violado, 4 arrateis

Xarope apectoso, 4 arrateis
Xarope rosado de 9 infres, 3 arrateis
Mina de Marmelos, 4 arrateis
Mel coado, 2 arrateis
Xarope de Almeiros, 2 arrateis
Xarope de rosas secas, 2 arrateis
Xarope de Avença, 2 arrateis

P) Papers of Dom António de Ataíde, c. 1631-33. in the Houghton Library.

Harvard. Vol. I. For other specimen boticas see Luis Pina, «Na rota do Imperio.
A medicina embarcada nos séculos XVI e XVII» (Arquivo Histórico de Por¬
tugal, Vol. IV (1939), pp. 283-323.

62
 I

Xarope de limas, 1 arratel

Xarope de Romas, 1 arratel
Xarope de Tamarinhos, meo arratel
Agoa de Almeiros, 6 canadas
Agoa de Tanchagem, 3 canadas
Agoa de lingoa de vaca, 6 canadas
Agoa rosada, 2 canadas
Agoa luminosa, 3 canadas
Agoa de leão franco, 2 canadas
Agoa de boca danada, 6 canadas
Vinagre Rosado, 6 canadas
Unguento amarelo, 3 arrateis
Unguento branco, 3 arrateis
Unguento basalicão, 3 arrateis
Unguento de tutia, 3 arrateis
Unguento apostolorum, 3 arrateis
Unguento de sarna, 6 arrateis
Mel coado, 3 arrateis
Xarope de Almeiros 4 arrateis
Xarope de rosas secas, 4 arrateis
Xarope de Avença, 4 arrateis
Xarope de limões, 3 arrateis
Xarope de Romas, 2 arrateis
Xarope de Tamarinhos, 2 arrateis
Agoa de Almeyros, 12 canadas
Agoa de lingoa de vaca, 12 canadas
Agoa de Tanchagem, 6 canadas
Agoa Rosada, 3 canadas
Agoa de luminosa, 6 canadas
Agoa de leão franco, 4 canadas
Agoa de boca danada, 12 canadas
Vinagre Rosado, 12 canadas
Unguento amarelo, 6 arrateis
Unguento branco, 6 arrateis
Unguento Basalicão, 6 arrateis
Unguento de Tutia, 6 arrateis
Unguento Apostolorum, 6 arrateis
Unguento de Minio, 4 arrateis
Unguento de sarna, 12 arrateis

63
I

Unguento egeciaco, 6 arrateis

Unguento defensivo, 5 arrateis
Unguento de cal, 12 arrateis
Trementina, 6 arrateis
Unguento populeão, 3 arrateis
Unguento Rosado, 3 arrateis
Unguento de Alter, 2 arrateis
Pos Restetivos, 16 arrateis
Pos de Mortinhos, 3 arrateis
Pos Joanes de Vigo, 1 arratel
Pos contra casun, 3 arrateis
Pos de amargaritão, 3 onças
Oleo Rosado,4 canadas
Pos de Almacega, 4 onças
Oleo de Mortinhos, 4 canadas
Oleo de Aparíçio digo de Macela, 4 canadas
Oleo de aparicio, 4 arrateis
Oleo de amêndoas doces, 2 arrateis
Oleo de escorpios, 6 onças
Oleo de Minhocas, 1 canada
Oleo de Almacega, 1 canada
Oleo de Marmelos, 1 canada
Diaquilão, 6 arrateis
Emplasto de Capuchos, 6 arrateis
Diapalma, 4 arrateis
Emplasto de Vigo, 4 arrateis
Emplasto diafinicão, 1 arratel
Pedra Vmij, 4 arrateis
Canafistola, 6 arrateis
Farinha de favas, 2 Alqueires
Farinha de seuada, 2 Alqueires
Triaga, 3 arrateis
Geropiga, 4 arrateis
Diacatalicão, 6 arrateis
Pílulas comús, 2 arrateis
Pilulas sumarias, 2 arrateis
Pilulas seochias, 2 arrateis
Pilulas agregatinas, 1 arratel
Confeição de Jasintos, 1 arratel

64
Rosas secas, 16 bolas
Alfornas, 1 arratel
Marmelada, 32 arrateis
Açúcar Rosado, 32 arrateis
Unguento Egipciaco, 3 arrateis
Unguento defensivo, 3 arrateis
Unguento de cal, 6 arrateis
Trementina, 3 arrateis
Unguento populião, 2 arrateis
Unguento Rosado, 2 arrateis
Unguento de Alto, Y2 arratel
Pos restrectivos, 7 arrateis
Pos de Vigo, meo arratel
Pos de mortinhos, 2 arrateis
Pos de contracasum, 2 arrateis
Pos de amargaritão, 1 onça
Pos de Almasega, 2 onças
Oleo Rosado, 2 canadas
Oleo de Masela, 2 canadas
Oleo de Mortinhos, 2 arrateis
Oleo de Amêndoas, 1 arratel
Oleo de scorpios, 3 onças
Oleo de Minhoca, mea canada
Oleo de Masela, mea canada
Oleo de Marmelos, mea canada
De Aquilão, 3 arrateis
Emplasto dos Capuchos, 3 arrateis
Emplasto da Palma, 2 arrateis
Emplasto de Vigo, 2 arrateis
Emplastro de afinicão, meo arratel
Pedra Vmij, 2 arrateis
Canafistola, 3 arrateis
Farinha de favas, hum alqueire
Farinha de seuada, hum alqueire
Triaga, hum arratel
Oleo de pando, 2 arrateis
Geropiga, 2 arrateis
Diacatalicão, 3 arrateis
Pilulas comíis, 1 arratel
I

Pílulas sumarias, 1 arratel

Pílulas cochias, 1 arratel
Pílulas agregatiuas, x/ arratel
ConPscão de Jasintos, arratel
Rosas secas, oito bolos
Alforuas, meo arratel
Marmelada, 16 arrateis
Açúcar Rosado, 16 arrateis
Eruas comuns, 300 molhos
Pos de Sandalo, hua onça
Oleo onfransino, hüa canada
Ruy Barbo, hüa onça
Folhas de sene, hüa onça
Eleitoario de Psilio, 1 arratel
Benedita lexatiua, 1 arratel
Diaprun solutiuo, 1 arratel
Xaringa de latão, hüa
Foles, duas

66
 I

APPENDIX II

THE OVERSEAS COUNCIL AND THE PROJECTED

REFORM OF THE CARREIRA DA INDIA R)

1647 Março 2

Sobre a noua introdução da nauegação da India, e inconuenien-

tes que della se seguem.
Em 25 do mes passado baixarão a este Conselho dois decretos
de Vossa Magestade sobre se pagar a dinheiro aos homens do mar
das naos da carreira da índia, e serem os Mestres capitães delias,
e em comprimento dos dittos decretos, e na forma delles, se fizerão
logo as ordens para a índia que estão nas reaes maos de Vossa Ma¬
gestade para as assinar se for seruido.
Ontem primeiro de Março veyo aeste Conselho Dom Luis
dAlmeida que Vossa Magestade he seruido va este anno por Capi¬
tam mor das naos na viagem do Conde da Torre, e diçe nelle, que
representaua a Vossa Magestade como não queria ser o primeiro
Capitam mor que fosse a India com esta noua introdução, e não se
lhe dando inteiramente tudo o que sempre foi consedido aos Capi¬
tães mores, assy de liberdades, como do mais que se lhe costumaua
dar, e a seus criados, de mais de não querer dar ao Conde da Torre
cinco mil cruzados por esta capitania mor em que estaua consertado
com elle, se esta noua introdução se hauia de executar; e em rezão
disto, e ser obrigação deste Conselho não faltar em appontar a
Vossa Magestade os inconuenientes que se lhe offerecem de se
poder conseguir o effeito que se pretende desta noua introdução, com
pretexto de melhor aserto no seruiço de Vossa Magestade como de
auanso em sua real fazenda.
Pareceo a este Conselho sobre estar as ordens feitas na forma
que Vossa Magestade ordenou, appontar os referidos inconuenientes
pela maneira seguinte.
Primeiro, além da despesa, e visto que se ha de fazer com cada
hum dos galleões, e cabedaes que aqui, e na índia se hão de ter

(!) Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino. Lisboa. «Conselho Ultramarino, Con-

sultas Mixtas», Cod. 14, fls. 22-24.

67
I

promptos para a despesa delies na forma desta noua introdusão, de

se pagar tudo a dinheiro, que de força ha de ser quantidade muy
considerauel, se deue aduertir o que mais se ha de despender, se
qualquer destes nauios inuernar em Moçambique, aonde se não pode
sustentar hüa pessoa quinse dias com os dous mil reis que lhe dão
de mantimentos para cada mes, pela caresa da terra, nem ha naquela
fortaleza, fazenda de Vossa Magestade prompta para pontualmente
se fazerem estas pagas como conuinha para os homens do mar não
desempararem as naos, pois faltou sempre dinheiro naquela praça,
athe para se sustentar a infantaria dos nauios deste Reino.
Segundo, e se inuernar em Goa, he mais hum anno de soldo,
e mantimento, e todo este cabedal ha de sahir da fazenda de Vossa
Magestade, e ha de hir deste Reino para não faltar, porque na índia
o não ha, nem o tem a cidade de Goa, e a ora que se faltar assy
com o soldo, como com os mantimentos se hão de deuertir todos os
homens do mar e o Vice Rey os não ha de poder obrigar, como se
pode fazer neste Reino.
Terceiro, alem de que pagando Vossa Magestade a uinte e
cinco xerafins por cada quintal de canella, como se apponta, vem
a desfalcar em cada quintal des xerafins, e em tres mil que ao menos
se hão mister para os dous galeões vem a ser trinta mil xerafins
desmembrados da renda daquele estado que fará grande falta ao
Viso Rey, para acodir as maiores neçeçidades delle, e será de grande
sentimento verem na índia que em lugar de Vossa Magestade socor¬
rer aquele estado com algum cabedal de dinheiro, como o Viso Rey
pede, lhe diminue tanta quantia desse pouco que oje la tem que será
polio em grande aparto.
Quarto, porque a fazenda dos confiscados, que se apliqua para
esta despesa, algüa que ouuer nesta occazião esta destribuida//como
auiza o Viso Rey, e hum só homem que estaua ainda preso e sahirá
condenado, ou não, e não hauerá outra tão sedo, como a não ouue na
índia ha perto de çem annos a esta parte de que se possa tirar
dinheiro, nem os dous per cento he rendimento consideruel, e esse
pouco, está applicado para as neçeçidades daquele estado e nada
basta para se acodir às muitas neçeçidades delle.
Quinto, e se pode considerar, que se ouuer alteração na índia,
e estiuer a barra de Goa impedida, e forem estes Nauios tomar outra
parte para se asegurarem, ficarão imposebilitados de poderem voltar,
e por esta cauza, o cabedal prompto que se hauerá mister para

68
 I

pagar e sustentar a gente delles e donde ha de sahir, que em lhes

faltando com as pagas, os hão de desemparar.
Seixto, alem de que, se pode reçear faltar a canella ou por
guerras que haja em Ceilão, ou hauendo as em toda a India, que
não possão vir a Goa nauios que a trouxerem por causa dos inimigos.
Septimo, e se deue preuinir também e ponderar que como a
gente da mareação das naos he a principal que as deffende, porque
a volta não trasem infantaria que os taês não vindo nellas interessa¬
dos, com a sua canella e liberdades não tratarão de pelejar, como
o fasem, defendendo cada hum o seu, nos recontros que tem com os
inimigos, e que nas taes occaziões de guerra não serão os Mestres
tão obedecidos da nobresa, e da infantaria, como são os estran¬
geiros.
Outavo, e sobretudo, he muito para reparar, que estando a índia
florente os tempos passados, e as mercansias com grandes ganhos
à ida, e à volta, se não pusesse em execução este alvitre, e oje sy
que a fazenda de Vossa Magestade está tão attenuada neste Reino,
e na India, e as mercançias tão atrasadas, que se perde em todas (2)
do proprio, da índia para este Reyno que he a causa per que vão, e
vem as naos vasias e se ve o pouco que rendem na casa da índia,
e nesta forma, com esta noua introdução, he serto que ha de ser mais
a despesa, que o interesse, quando se não perca de todo a nauegação
por este nouo modo, e com as grandes dificuldades que tras, e tão
irreparaueis, e a prudência obriga a estas considerações, e a guardar
se para melhor tempo, esta pratica // quando fora util, mormente
tendo tantos riscos e inconuenientes que podem aconteçer, e alguns
que são infaliueis.
Saluador Correa de Sa dis que a mayor dificuldade que tem este
negocio he a falta de cabedaes de que este Reino careçe.
O Marques presidente dis, que elle uotou nesta materia na
junta que Vossa Magestade ordenou para se tratar deste Negocio,
e acrescenta nesta consulta o mesmo que uotou na ditta junta que
he o seguinte, que posto que se representão a Vossa Magestade
nesta Consulta os meyos com que se poderá executar este nego¬
cio, que lhe parece, que não cumpre com a obrigação que tem de
Conselheiro destado, e com sua Consçiençia, se não lembrar a Vossa

(2) The words «e o proprio» have been struck through.

69
I

Magestade os inconuenientes que ha nella, e que grandes mudanças,

ainda que sejão com aparençias de bem publico, costumão de ordi¬
nário mouer grande descontentamentos (szc) aos vassalos que neste
negocio de mais do tempo estar muy adiante para se poder executar,
e preuenir os cabedaes que conuem para ter bom effeito este anno
lhe pareçe representar a Vossa Magestade que a nobresa se ha de
sentir de lhe faltar o lugar de Capitam Mor das Naos, em que herão
prouidos os mais nobres, com que se habelitauão para mayores pos¬
tos no Reyno e para Viso Reys da índia, e os homens nobres que
seruião nas Aramadas hão de ter sentimentos de perder os lugares de
Capitães das Naos, com que herão premiados de seus seruiços, e
sobretudo, he muito para reparar em serem os Mestres, e pillotos,
capitães das Naos, considerando que a hida, e a uinda hão de vir
fidalgos e homens nobres, e de muita consideração, e que não he
justo que estes venhão a obediência de hum homem do mar, e a
gente da nauegação ha de sentir muito perderem as liberdades com
que nauegação (sic), e que a gente mercantil se ha de também de
alterar faltando lhe a quem poder encarregar suas mercançias, as
quais lhe leuauão os officiaes das Naos, em seus gasalhados, e lhe
dauão conta delias, com toda a segurança, e na índia ha de sentir a
Camara de Goa, encarregar se lhe o sustento da gente do mar, e que
c faça pelos dous por cento que cobrão na Alfandega, e finalmente,
não ve que possam hir os cabedaes que conuem para a compra da
canella que hoje se vende na índia para o sustento da guerra de
Ceilão, para que sendo tudo presente a Vossa Magestade, e quanto
conuem no tempo presente não alterar, nem descontentar o animo
dos vassalos, eleja Vossa Magestade o que for // de mais seu ser-
uiço, Lixboa dous de Março de 647, O Marques, Castilho, Albu¬
querque, Figueira, Sá (9).

(s) Dom Jorge Mascarenhas Marques de MontalvSo, Jorge de Castilho,

Jorge de Albuquerque, the Inquisitor JoSo Delgado Figueira, and Salvador Cor¬
reia de Sá e Benavides.

70
 I

APPENDIX III

CASUALTIES IN THE CARREIRA DA INDIA, 1629-34 (>)

Certifico por ver os livros das matricolas dos soldados que na

caza da índia receberão para se embarcarem para este Estado da
India do anno de 1629 ate o prezente de 1634 e por ellas se mostra
estarem assentados para se embarcarem nas naos de todos os ditos
annos asima declarados, 5,228 soldados pela maneira seguinte. Nas
tres naos que vierão em companhia do Conde de Linhares viso Rey
1,005 soldados: nos seis galeoens que também vierão no ditto anno
em sua companhia dos quaes se perderão dous, 1,025. Nas duas
naos que vierão no anno de 1630, capitão mor Dom Jorge de Almei¬
da, 711: nos tres galeoens do anno de 1632, capitão mor o Veedor
da Fazenda Joseph Pinto Pereira, 254, Nas tres naos do anno de
1633, capitão-mor Antonio de Saldanha, 1,519. Na nao e dous
galeoens deste prezente anno de 1634, capitão-mor Jeronimo de Sal¬
danha, 714 — que todos fazem a ditta soma de 5,228 soldados. Dos
quaes não tem parecido e recebido nesta matricola geral mais que
somente 2,495 soldados pela maneira seguinte. Das tres naos de
1629, 645; dos galeoens do ditto anno, 369. Das duas naos de 1630,
400. Dos galeoens de 1632, 148. Das naos de 1633, 642. Da nao e
dous galeoens deste anno prezente de 1634, 291 — que todos fazem
a dita soma de 2,495. E assy ficão faltando dos soldados que em
Lixboa se assentarão e receberão para virem nas ditas naos e que
não tem parecido 2,733, como dos ditos livros consta a que me
reporto, Goa XX de Novembro de 634. Pedro Barreto de Rezende
contador da matricula geral a fiz e assiney per bem do regimento.
E desta nada por ser do serviço de Sua Magestade.

P° Barreto de Rezende

(!) Original autograph certidão in the writer’s collection. Cf. A. Botelho

de Sousa, Subsídios para a história militar marítima da índia. Vol. III, pp. 532-34.

71
I

APPENDIX IV

RATION-SCALE FOR PORTUGUESE INDIAMEN

IN 1636 (>)

Mantimento necessário para 800 homens de guerra e 400 de

mar, que hande yr o anno que vem a índia providos pello tempo
declarado.
Para 800 pessoas de guerra

De biscouto 1,972 quintaes para que são necessários 128 moyos

de trigo da terra e 165 de trigo do mar, a metade de hum e outra
a metade do outro.
De vinho para 6 meses, 228 pipas.
De agoa para 9 meses, 690 pipas.
De carne de porco para 3 meses, 1,200 arrobas.
De bacalhau para 2 mezes, 800 arrobas.
De arroz para um mez, 400 arrobas.
De azeyte ordinário, 15 quartos 5 cantaros.
De vinagres, 16 pipas.
E os legumes e maes cousas ordinárias.

Para 400 pessoas de mar providos pelo tempo declarado.

De biscouto 1,660 quintaes para que são necessários 104 moyos

de trigo da terra, e 139 moyos de trigo do mar em conformidade
da repartição assima.
De vinho, 154 pipas.
De agoa para 9 mezes, 193 pipas.
De carne de porco para 4 mezes, 800 arrobas.
De bacalhau para 2 mezes, 400 arrobas.
De arroz para 2 mezes, 400 arrobas.
De azeyte ordinário e lampiões, 13 quartos.
De vinagre, 1 1 pipas.
E as mais miudesas custumadas.

Lisboa em 27 Dezembro de 1636

P) Contemporary copy in the author's collection. For similar ration-scales

cf. Figueiredo FalcSo, Livro de toda a Fazenda (1859), pp. 200, and the Ataide
papers in Harvard University, Houghton Library, Vol. I.

72
 I

APPENDIX V

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE RETURN-VOYAGE

OF AN INDIAMAN IN 1645

Regim}q se deo a Joseph Pinto Picapitão do galeão sam L.co

Dom João ett. faço saber a vos Joseph Pinto Pereira capitam
do gaelão sam lourenço q ora cõ o fauor diuino parte para o Reino
que pera se conseguir a viagem q fazeis ao porto de lxa me pareçeo
deixar a vossa disposição, e do Piloto que leuaes tam experimentado
na dita viagem e das mais pessoas e officiaes com que hé custume
tomar conçelho nos casos duuidosos o tomareis sobre se se hade
fazer caminho per dentro da Ilha de sam lourenço, ou per fora delia,
tendo consideração ao dia em que partir, e aquilo que o tempo occa-
sionar conforme as paragês em que o galeão se achar, ajustandouos
sempre cÕ os meus regimentos, e com os da nauegação de vicente
Roíz, e gaspar ferreira fareis o que for melhor, e se assentar
no dito Concelho trabalhando com todas as veras possiueis de fazer
viagem em direitura a Portugal cõ a mor breuidade que puder ser
tomando as alturas porque devê de (?) hir buscar o Porto de lxa,
e no que toca a tomar outro em nenhü cazo se cometera, nem o hirão
buscar senão obrigados de tanta necessidade q não aja outro reme-
dio, e antes de o fazer se fará hum termo assinado por todos decla¬
rando a cauza que ouue para isso, e acontecendo que por descurso
da viagem se encontre algüa embarcação da qual se saiba ter noti¬
cia certa de andar a armada do inimigo na costa de Portugal, che¬
gando a altura das Ilhas terceiras, e não encontrando ao mar delias
algum aviso meu poderão tomar fala nas flores, gracioza, terceira
ou qualquer das ditas Ilhas q lhe ficar mais acomodada conforme
a altura em que se acharem cõ ella, e porque fio de vossa expa de
tanttos annos e boa elleição q tendes em tudo q nesta mata e em
todas obrareis o que mais conuenha a meu seru" se me não offereçe
q lembrar uos de nouo.
Com este se uos entregará hüa copia das tregoas com os olan-
deses escrita em latim de q uzareis sendo uos necessr0 em algüa occa-
zião. Dado em Goa christouão de m.eR o fes a 21 de Jan.ro de 645 eu

73
I

o secretr0 Andre Giz moura* este o fiz escreuer: o Conde de Aveiras.

Sobre escrito
Regimento de q hade uzar Joseph Pinto Pereira capitam do
galeão sam lourenço q cõ o fauor de Deus parte ora para o Reino
o qual abrira em presença do escriuão do dito galeão, Piloto, mestre
e mais officiaes delle de q o dito escriuão fará assento por todos
assinado, saluador da sylva o fez em Goa a 21 de Jan.10 de 1645
eu o secretr0 Andre Giz mora* este o fiz escreuer. o Conde de Aveiras.

* read Maracote

74
 I

APPENDIX VI

THE ARMADA DA CARREIRA DA INDIA

IN THE YEAR 1740

The vicissitudes of this unlucky fleet are related as follows in

the unpublished manuscript by Francisco Luís Ameno, «Noticia
Chronológica dos descobrimentos que fizerão os Portuguezes no
Novo Mundo até á índia Oriental, e das Armadas que os Reys
de Portugal tem mandado áquelle Estado até o presente» (Biblioteca
Pública de Évora, Códice CXV, fls. 111-113), Some further details
have been added from the Noticia da Viagem que fez segunda vez
ao Estado de índia, o ilustríssimo e excelentíssimo senhor Marques
do Louriçal by José Freire Montorroyo Mascarenhas (Lisboa,
1742), and extracts from relevant documents in the archives of
Bahia and Rio de Janeiro.

a) Evora Codex

«Dom Luiz de Menezes Marques do Louriçal, XLVII Vice

Rey, 1740. Partio em 7 de Mayo de 1740 com seis naos de que
erão capitaens

1 O Vice Rey D. Luis de Menezes na nao Nossa Senhora da

Esperança, de que era commandante o coronel Luis de Abreu
de Prego.
2. Bernardo Antonio Rebello da Fonseca na nao de viagem
Nossa Senhora de Nazaré.
3. D. Francisco Xavier Mascarenhas, commandante na nao
Nossa Senhora do Carmo.
4. Luis Pierrepont, commandante na nao Nossa Senhora das
Merces.
5. Joseph Caetano de Matos, na nao Bom Jesus de Villa Nova.
6 Antonio Carlos Pereira de Sousa, na nao Nossa Senhora
da Conceição (1).

(1) A Noticia da viagem de 1742 gives Joseph Caetano de Matos as com¬

mandante of the Conceição, and António Carlos Pereira de Sousa as commandante
of the Bom Jesus.

75
I

Em 28 de Março deste anno tinha partido para a costa de

Choromandel por conta de Vasco Lourenço hüa nao de
que era sobrecarga,
7. Tempest Milner na nao Nossa Senhora da Conceição e São
Francisco Xavier.

Nas primeiras seis naos embarcarão dois mil soldados infantes

que se tirarão dos Regimentos do Algarve, Peniche, Cascaes, e Se-
tuval, e dos da Corte, assentando voluntariamente mais de trc-
zentos, que se aggergarão aos corpos, que se tinhão nomeado. Le¬
vava a armada muitas armas, petrechos, e muniçoens de guerra, e
dezasseis peças de artilharia da nova invenção, que cada uma fez
vinte tiros, e todas trezentas e vinte no brevíssimo espaço de hum
minuto (2); e hindo tão bem preparada levava grande parte das vi¬
torias em huma considerável somma de dinheiro em moedas de
ouro e prata, e barras. Começou a Esquadra de navegar prospera¬
mente, mas logo o Marques Vice-Rey observou nos primeiros dias
vários defeitos em algumas das naos. Erão os ventos tão escaços que
a dez dias de viagem se avistou a ponta do Sul da Ilha da Madeira.
Nas naos Conceição, Nazareth, e Bom Jesus de Villa Nova entrarão
doenças, e de sorte se forão dilatando que em pouco tempo houve
grande mortandade. Alem das doenças governavão-se tão mal estas
tres naos que sempre hião sotaventeadas duas legoas. A nao Mer-
ces se não tinha doentes era igual no mão governo ás outras. Assim
foi o Marquez Vice Rey navegando ate que em 15 de Junho deter¬
minou largar a nao Conceição, que era a mais ronceira, e navegando
com as cinco, tendose adiantado muy pouco, assentou que jà estava
fora daquilla monção, que ensinara a longa experiencia de tantos
annos, e que era impossível a conserva. Separouse o Vice Rey com a
Almiranta, e deu às outras naos hum apertado Regimento de que
sem necessidade extrema não arribassem, e que forcejassem a vela
quanto pudessem contra a monção (3).

(2) «Estas eram destinadas para a Campanha, e deviam ser servidas por
artilheiros que foram exercitados no Forte de Sacramento desta Cidade pelo
Sargento Mayor da artelharia, e Engenheiro Federico Jacob de Winholz, seu
inventor neste Reino». (Noticia da viagem, p. 4). Winholz, or Weinholz, "was an
officer of Danish origin.
(8) This separation occurred on the 18 July (Noticia da viagem, p. 5).

76
 I

Dobrarão as duas naos o Cabo de Boa Esperança em 8 de

Setembro, sempre em conserva, mas a força das correntes e dos
ventos contrários obrigarão o repassar o mesmo Cabo com tanta
violência, que os 19 do mesmo mez se não podia segurar se prose-
guinao a viagem. Já a este tempo havia algumas doenças na Capi¬
tania de que se não livrou a pessoa do Vice Rey, mas de sorte que
só alli lhe morreo hum soldado: na Almiranta havia setenta e dous;
e erão mortos quatro, e continuava em fazer a mesma agua com
que sahira de Lisboa, ainda que sem augmento, nem diminuição.
Quando se esperava que cessassem as enfermidades, se atacarão
com tanta furia, que na Capitania havia trezentos e cinco enfermos,
e na Almiranta quatrocentos, de huma doença chamada Escorbuto,
que tinha reduzido as naos a tão perigoso estado, que não só não
havia quem tratasse dos enfermos, mas apenas havia quem mareasse
o panno. Considerado o dano que poderia cauzar esta epidemia,
para remediala se vio obrigado o Vice Rey em 3 de outubro a dar
fundo na ilha de Sao Lourenço. Mandou logo pôr em terra sete¬
centos enfermos, que com a differença dos ares brevemente recupe¬
rarão a saude perdida. Concertarão-se as naos, reparandose na
Capitania a ruina dos mastros a que se havião quebrado os vaos, e
os cobertoens, e na Almiranta tomandoselhe a agoa que trazia aberta
de Lisboa (4). Aqui se detiverão vinte e oito dias, no fim dos quaes
em 11 de Novembro derão à vela pera Goa; porém passados ses¬
senta dias, adoecendo novamente a equipagem, e fazendose mais
perigozas as doenças, foy precizo arribar a Moçambique e em 4 de
Fevereiro de 1741 (s). A 11 deste mez chegou ao mesmo porto a nao
Conceição, que arribada à Bahia se reparou do dano que padecera,

(4) «O Marquez VVice-Rey, sem embargo de nam estar ainda bem con-
valecido, nunca sahio da nau; porem fez acampar os enfermos com grande ordem,
e com boas guardas, e estableceo comercio com diferentes Rainhas e Régulos
daquella Ilha. Estes lhe mandáram alguns regalos, e Sua Excelência os corres¬
pondeu generosamente, por entender, que he aquella bahia a melhor escala,
de que podem fazer uso as naus Portuguezes, quando partem tarde de Lisboa.
Procurou fazer huma exacta descripçam de toda a Ilha, e da sua Historia natu¬
ral. Tirou delia cazaes de animais exquisitos para a índia, e para o Reino, e algu¬
mas plantas e ervas desconhecidas na Europa, com outras raridades». (Noticia,
P. 6).
(5) He put back on 22 of January 1741, «da altura de 2 gráos e 11 minu¬
tos ao Norte da Linha», according to the Noticia da Viagem, p, 7.

77
I

e partindo em 19 de Outubro [da Bahia] chegou nesse dia com tanta

felicidade, que sò trazia quarenta e dous doentes, e sò lhe havia
falecido Francisco Camello, capitão de Granadeiros, e antes de che¬
gar à índia o Coronel Luís de Abreu Prego. Chegada a mon¬
ção levou ferro o Vice Rey de Moçambique em 19 de Março,
e em vinte e cinco dias, depois de hum anno e seis dias de traba¬
lhosa viagem, deu fundo só com a sua nao na barra de Mormugão
em 13 de Mayo de 1741. No primeiro de junho em que o Vice Rey
fez a sua entrada publica, chegarão a Goa as naos Carmo e Con¬
ceição, e a nao Bom Jesus de Villa Nova, que por muito ronceira
tinha arribado ao Rio de Janeiro. A nao Nossa Senhora das Merces
tinha chegado à índia no mez de Março pela deligençia do Coronel
Luis de Pierrenport depois de ter hum encontro feliz com as palias
do Angriá, e se refez em Mahé, porto da Companhia de França
quarenta léguas ao sul de Goa. A nao Nossa Senhora de Nazareth
não chegou a índia, por naufragar na Barra da Bahia aonde arri¬
bou (G). A nao Nossa Senhora da Esperança voltou ao Reino onde
chegou em 13 de Novembro de 1742, tendo sahido de Goa em 12
de Fevereiro do mesmo anno com o capitão de mar e guerra Hilário
Gomes Moreira».

b) Ordem do Marques de Louriçal visorei da índia ao Coronel Luís

de Pierrepont, 10 Maio 1740.

«l.aOrdem. Mando esta instrução a V. S. para regullar do

modo possival esta Esquadra desregullada pelios officiaes dos Arma-
zês de Lisboa. Estes contra as intenções de El Rei, e a uontade do
Snr. Cardial da Motta, nos faltarão com todas as couzas as mais
necessárias, dandonos tão pouco numero de Marinheiros para a
manobra das Naus, e de tão pouca experiencia, que nem sequer
suprem o pouco numero; em todas as Náus os Escrivães, e despen-
ceiros são peores, que os Marinheiros, porque nunca andarão em¬
barcados: dou autoridade a V. S. para castigar todos aquelles, que
uão debaixo da sua commandancia; porque estou certo no zello, que

(6) «Faltou só da Esquadra a nau Nazareth, que por inércia do seu piloto
naufragou na barra falsa da Bahia, onde tinha arribado» (Noticia da viagem,
P. 8).

78
 I

V. S. tem no serviço de S. Mg.9, e que V. S. nao abuzará deste

autoridade.
As ordens de Sua Magestade nestas Náus, que vão a índia
dizem que só huma ues ao dia se lhe hade de dar de comer, a qual-
lidade, e a quantidade de viveres, que hé necessário dar a cada pes¬
soa se acha no livro do Escrivão assinado em nome de El Rei, pello
Provedor dos Armazéns, e nós não podemos de nenhuma sorte
alterar estas ordens, sem nos pormos no precipício de arribar e expor
a India a perecer por falta de socorro, portanto tenho ordenado esta
manhã se de hum quartilho de vinho a cada soldado, e a cada Mari¬
nheiro e Artilheiro até o Cabo de Boa Esperança para lhe dar mais
coragem; e na costa de Natal donde acharmos hum clima bastante
frio, e donde por consequência será necessário sustentarlhe as for¬
ças, poderá V. S. darlhe meya canada de vinho por cabessa, aqui
também se entende os officiaes de guerra: entrando V. S. em clima
quente, mandará examinar a quantidade de vinho e agoa que tem,
para assim o repartir a proporção do tempo que nos faltar para
chegar a índia: porem se o escrivão, e despençeiro não forem capa¬
zes, poderá V. S. meter em seu lugar o fiel de hum e do outro ate
Goa, donde o vedor geral da Fazenda julgará desta gente o que lhe
parecer, El Rei o ordena em termos expressos, tudo o tenho dito a
V. S. o achará no livro do seu Escrivão: V. S. hé o senhor da Náu
e só nella pode mandar.
A quantidade de agoa, que se distribue hé cada dia huma
canada por cabeça; finalmente o proprio livro do seu Escrivão da
receita e despesa dos viveres, mostrará a V. S. o que há para que,
ou por negligencia, ou por maldade de seus subalternos não seja
obrigado a arribar a qualquer porto; e a e.xacção do serviço de V. S.
feito em terra lhe fará inssensivelmente comprehender o mar.
Hé necessário acautellarse que o dispenceiro e Escrivão não
furtão as gallinhas e outros viveres embarcados para os doentes e
ccnualecentes, tendo hum grande cuidado nos cirurgiões e Padres
Hospitaleiros, mandados huns par os curarem, outros para tratarem
delles, 10 de Mayo de 1740, A bordo da [Nau] Esperança. [Assi¬
nado] Abarques de Louriçat».

(«Termo de Junta sobre a partida da Náu da carreira da índia, Nossa

Senhora das Merces, no Rio de Janeiro, 5 de Agosto de 1740», in Publicações do
Archivo Publico Nacional, Tomo VII, Rio de Janeiro 1907, pp. 170-171).

79
I

c) Carta do Vicerei do Brasil ao Secretario de Estado. Bahia. 28

de Setembro de 1740.

«Ill.mo e Ex.mo Snr. Antonio Guedes Pereyra,

Pelas rellações induzas será presente a Sua Magestade a
gente que embarca na fragata Nossa Senhora da Conceyção, os
concertos que se lhe fizerão e os mantimentos que se lhe meterão
para continuar a sua viagem para a índia; assentando todos os pil-
lotos que aquy se achão de mayor pratica e experiencia que o tempo
mais proprio de partir hera até os fins de outubro, para o que se
acha prompta e aparelhada de todo o necessário para o fazer; e ainda
que os mesmos Pillotos julgão por infallivel que tanto esta Nau como
todas as outras que hião adiante, lhes seria precizo arribarem a
Moçambique; como esta hé por hora a unica monção que temos
e nam ha outra em que escolher, he preciso nos aproveitamos delia.
Em alguãs advertências que fiz ao Thenente-coronel Comman-
dante desta Fragata lhe encarrego faça todos os possíveis diligencias
por hir em direitura a Goa, e sendo possível o execute por fora da
Ilha de São Lourenço, como Sua Magestade dispõe em alguns dos
seus Regimentos; quando porem nam possa conseguir, nem evitar a
arribada a Moçambique, que conforme a opinião dos homens prá¬
ticos poderá chegar aquelle porto athe meyado de Feuereyro, de
nenhuma sorte permitisse que desembarcasse a sua gente, porque
como a monção para Goa principiava no mes de Março, com poucos
dias de demora e de paciência, poderia acautellar aquelle grande
inconveniente proseguindo a sua viagem para o que levava manti¬
mentos em grande abundancia.
Sobre este particular de mantimentos, sou obrigado a dizer a
Vossa Excellencia que quando arribou a gente da Nau que arribou
a este porto, assim os que vinhão enfermos, como os outros que
passavão praça de sãos, todos parecião doentes; porque em huns
e outros hera igual a debilidade e prostração de forças, o que foy
causa de experimentarem depois diversas enfermidades; o mesmo
lhes sucederá todas as vezes que se lhe não melhorar a ração, e se
lhe nam trocar o alimento; porque meyo arratel de carne salgada
que depois de cozida se reduz a huma quarta, nam he possível que
de vinte em vinte quatro horas, baste para sustentar a hum homem
que trabalha de dia e de noite nas viagens da índia, segundo a opi-

80
 I

nião mais bem assentada de todos os homens de verdade e expe¬

riência, a carne (a modo de dizer) se lhe deve dar por asipipe e os
legumes como sustento; alem dos feijões cozidos com toucinho que
se lhe costumão repartir em dias determinados; e todo o mais que se
affastar deste methodo servirá somente para abrazarlhes as entra¬
nhas, não bastando duplicarlhe a porção de agoa para lhe extin¬
guir o fogo que lhe costuma accender o mantimento salgado; e atten-
tando a todas estas conciderações confirmadas do socesso, que tive-
rão as Fragatas que ha dois para tres annos arribarão do Ryo de
Janeiro com semelhante providencia foram a Goa livres de doenças,
assim he de esperar que este chegue com a mesma felicidade...
Deus Guarde a Vossa Excellencia muitos annos. Bahya e Se¬
tembro 28 de 1740. O Conde dâs Galveas».

(«Carta de André de Mello e Castro, Conde das Galveas, vicerei do Bra¬

sil, ao Secretario de Estado, António Guedes Pereira», in Ignacio Accioli-Braz
do Amaral, Memórias Históricas e Políticas da Provinda da Bahia, Vol. II, Sal¬
vador, 1925, pp. 394-395).

★ ★

Despite the above reports, which showed quite clearly the reasons for the
heavy mortality in the Carreira da India, hygienic conditions on board the India-
men were not fundamentally improved for many years. The two ships which
comprised the armada of 1750, Nossa Senhora das Necessidades and Nossa Se¬
nhora da Caridade e São Francisco de Paula, under the viceroy D. Francisco
de Assis de Távora, Marquis of Távora, likewise suffered heavy losses for much
the same reasons as the armada of 1740. See the document printed by António
Marques Esparteiro, «A Higiene nas naus de viagem da índia em meados do
século XVIII», reprinted from the Boletm da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa,
Outubro-Dezembro de 1958, pp. 279-96.
The chief reason for this continued mortality was, of course, the fact that
so many of the soldiers embarked were convicts and prisoners. This was pointed
out by the viceroy Marquis of Alorna in a dispatch of 21 January 1746. Referring
to the speedy and healthy passage of the Indiaman Nossa Senhora da Victoria
in the previous year, he wrote: «a viagem desta Náo foi tão feliz, que teve
tempo de refrescar a guarnição bastantes dias na Bahia de Santo Agostinho,
e demorar-se trinta e tantos em Moçambique, para esperar a monção; chegando
a esta porto só com seis, ou sete mortos, e toda a mais guarnição robusta e sam,
o que se atribue também ao pouco tempo que as Levas dos Degredados se demo¬
rarão no Limoeiro, e na Cabria» (Carta do Marquez visorei para o Secretario de
Estado, António Guedes Pereira, d. Goa e 21 de Janeiro de 1746).

81
I

If further proof of this fact is needed, it can be found in the comparable

mortality suffered by the English Convict Ships on the Australia run in 1787-
4800, when out of 7,486 convicts, male and female, who were embarked in 43
convict ships, a total of 756 died at sea, or almost exactly ten percent (C, Bate¬
son, The Convict Ships. 1788-1868. Glasgow, 1959, p. 153).

82
 II

THE PRINCIPAL PORTS OF CALL

IN THE «CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA»
(16th — 18th centuries)

There are plenty of published materials for the study of this

subject, although they are inevitably fuller and more satisfactory
for some places and periods than for others. The selection and
utilisation of ports of call in the round-voyage between Portugal
and India (in practice, between Lisbon and Goa for most of the
time that the Carreira existed) depended mainly on the navigating
conditions in the South Atlantic and in the Indian Ocean. Any
study in depth, therefore, must begin with an examination and a
comparison of the sailing-instructions (Roteiros) which were used
in the carreira, commencing with those attributed to João de
Lisboa (ca. 1521) and ending with the 1819 edition of Manuel
Pimentel’s Arte de Navegar. Fortunately, we have an admirable
bibliographical guide to this branch of nautical literature in the
late Cdte. A. Fontoura da Costa’s A Marinharia dos Descobrimentos,
with its Apendice. Bibliografia náutica portuguesa até 1700 (Lisboa,
1934; reprinted, 1939, 1960). Fontoura da Costa was also respons¬
ible for editing the extremely rare 1612 edition of Gaspar Ferreira
Reimao’s Roteiro da Navegaçam e Carreira da India (Lisboa, 1939),
and several Roteiros Portugueses inéditos da Carreira da India
(Lisboa, 1939), and some Roteiros Portugueses inéditos da Carreira
da índia do século XVI (Lisboa, 1940). Among those published
II

30

since 1940, we may note Dois Roteiros do século XVI, de Manuel

Monteiro e Gaspar Ferreira Reimão, atribuídos a João Baptista
Lavanha, edited by Cdte. Humberto Leitão (Lisboa, 1963), and
Prof. Dr. Virginia Rau’s communication, “O roteiro inédito de
Vicente de Sintra de Goa para Moçambique”, in Studia, Revista
Semestral, XI (1963), pp. 257-261.
A natural corollary of the Roteiros is formed by the journals
kept by the pilots (diários de bordo), and by numerous eyewitness
descriptions of the voyage as recorded by various voyagers in the
carreira, whether professional seamen, missionary-priests, mer¬
chants, soldiers, or travellers. A most useful list of such narratives
which are available in print in various languages, beginning with
Vasco da Gama in 1497 and ending with Moritz Thomas in the
fleet of 1753, is given by the erudite Fr. G. Schurhammer, s.j.,
in Franz Xaver. Sein Leben und seine Zeit, II, Asien (1541-1552),
Erster Halbband, Indien und Indonesien, 1514-1547 (Freiburg,
1964), pp. 806-810. To this remarkably comprehensive list (though
Fr. Schurhammer modestly disclaims it as such), I would add a
very rare little work by Dr. Francisco Raimundo de Morais Pereira,
Relação da Viagem, que do porto de Lisboa fizerão a India os Illmos. e
Exmos. Senhores Marquezes de Tavora (Lisboa, 1752. In-8°, cx -(-
320 pp.). So far as I am aware, this was the first time that a publish¬
ed account of this voyage by a Portuguese was described on a
day-by-day basis b
Of the published diários de bordo, particular mention may be
made of those edited by Quirino da Fonseca, Diários da Navegação
da Carreira da índia nos anos de 1595, 1596, 1597, 1600 e 1603
(Lisboa, 1938), and by Cdte. Humberto Leitão, Viagens do Reino
para a India e da India para o Reino, 1608-1612 : Diários de Navega¬
ção coligidos por D. António de Ataíde no século XVII (3 vols.,

1 An interesting complement to this fuller account is formed by two other docu¬

ments on this voyage published by Cdte. A. Marques Esfarteiro, “A Higiene nas
naus de viagem em meados do século XVIII” (Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia
de Lisboa, Out./Dez. 1958, pp. 279-296).
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE «CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 31

The Carreira da India
II

32

Lisboa, 1957-58). The value of the accounts by missionaries is

evidenced by Padre António da Silva Rego’s admirable synthesis
of several of them in “Viagens Portuguesas à índia em meados
do século XVI” (Anais da Academia Portuguesa da História, II
Series, Vol. V, pp. 77-142, Lisboa, 1954), and by Fr. G. Schur-
hammer, s.j.’s previously quoted Franz Xaver, II (1), pp. 1-130.
In this category of “literatura de viagens”, we can also include
the shipwreck narratives collected in Bernardo Gomes de Brito’s
celebrated História Trágico-Marítima (2 vols., Lisboa, 1735-36,
with supplementary undated volume), which is now available in
several modern Portuguese editions, as well as selections in English
translations 2.
Another relevant source comprises the accounts of the annual
India voyages given by the chroniclers João de Barros, Fernão
Lopes de Castanheda, Diogo do Couto, António Bocarro, etc.,
as well as the lists or ementas compiled by employees of the Casa
da índia, such as Luís de Figueiredo Falcão 3 and Simão Ferreira
Paes 4, or by independent writers such as the 18th-century Lisbon
printer, Francisco Luís Ameno 5. These have recently been evaluated

2 The latest Portuguese edition known to me is by António Sergio, História

Trágico-Marítima compilada por Bernardo Gomes de Brito, anotada, comentada e
acompanhada da um estudo (3 vols., Lisboa, 1955-56); C.R. Boxer, The Tragic
History of the Sea, 1589-1622 (Hakluyt Society, Second Series, Vol. CXII, Cambridge,
1959); Ibidem, Further Selections from the Tragic History of the Sea, 1559-1565
(Hakluyt Society, Second Series, Vol. CXXXII, Cambridge 1968), wherein will
be found reference to earlier English translations by G. McCall Theal.
3 Livro em que se contém toda a Fazenda e Beal Património dos Reinos de Portugal,
India e Ilhas adjacentes e outros particularidades (Lisboa, 1859), pp. 137-196.
4 Recopilação das famosas armadas que para a India foram, 1496-1650. Facsimile
edition by Captain D.I. Affonso da Costa of the Brazilian Navy, Rio de Janeiro,
1937.

5 “Noticia Chronologica ... das Armadas que os Reys de Portugal tem mandado
à que lie Estado [da índia] desde o anno de seo descobrimento até o presente [1762],”
in the Biblioteca Publica de Evora, Codex CXV/1-21, listed with a number of others
by J.H. da Cunha Rivara, Catálogo dos MSS. da Bibliotheca Publica Eborense,
Tomo I (Lisboa, 1850), pp. 309-310.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA » 33

by João Vidago, “Anotações a uma Bibliografia da Carreira da

índia” (Studia, XVIII, 1968, pp. 209-241), to which the interested
reader is referred for details. His attention may also be drawn to
V. Magalhães Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial,
Vol. II (Lisboa, 1968), Cap. 5, pp. 71-86, “A Rota do Cabo”, as
well as to the article by the same author under the same title in
Joel Serrão (ed.), Dicionário de História de Portugal, Vol. Ill
(Lisboa, 1968), pp. 673-692, supplemented by the much shorter
one by J. Gentil da Silva (op. cit., pp. 692-694). Finally, mention
may be made of some other works which bear directly on this
topic: Américo Pires de Lima, Como se tratavam os Portugueses em
Moçambique, no primeiro quartel do século XVII, (reprinted in a
limited edition from the Anais da Faculdade de Farmácia do Pórto,
Porto, 1941); J.A.A. Frazão de Vasconcelos, Subsídios para a
história da carreira da India no tempo dos Filipes (Lisboa, 1960);
Alberto Iria, Da Navegação Portuguesa no Indico no século XVII.
Documentos do Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Lisboa, 1963); José
Roberto do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da índia (Marília,
1966). This last work is conveniently supplemented by the Documen¬
tação Ultramarina Portuguesa, Vol. IV (Lisboa, 1966), pp. 1-409,
which is mainly concerned with the Indiamen calling at Bahia
between 1709 and 1784.
The foregoing by no means exhausts the bibliography of this
subject, but a careful study of this material is sufficient to establish
two points. Firstly, that during the three and a half centuries for
which the carreira endured, there were only two major ports of
call, Moçambique island and Bahia (Salvador). The former was
regularly utilised for the whole of this period, but chiefly on the
outward voyage (viagem da ida); whereas Bahia only became a
regular escala during the last third of the 17th century 6 and it

6 Caetano Montez, “Moçambique e a navegação da índia”, in Moçambique -

Documentário Trimestral, Nr. 40, pp. 5-22, Lourenço Marques, 1944; C.R. Boxer,
“Moçambique Island and the Carreira da India", in Studia. Revista Semestral,
Julho de 1961, pp. 95-132, an article unfortunately disfigured by numerous mis-
II

34

was utilised chiefly on the homeward run (torna-viagem). Of course,

other ports were utilised on occasion, such as Terceira, Recife,
Rio de Janeiro and Luanda, or islands such as St. Helena, Comoro,
and Madagascar (Bahia de Santo Agostinho). But, generally speak¬
ing, these places were used only in an emergency, and they did not
become regular escalas for any considerable length of time, as will
be explained below. Secondly, for the first two centuries of the
carreira, the Crown often promulgated instructions (regimentos)
enjoining that the voyage should be made without touching at
any place at all, either on the outward or on the homeward run.
As one instance among many, we may cite the carta-régia of the
30 March 1662, ordering the Viceroy of India: “que em nenhuma
maneira concintais daqui em diante venha mais embarcações algumas
com escala pelo dito Reino de Angola e Brasil, se não em direitura
a este Reino, nem possa tomar outro porto salvo obrigado do
tempo ou de outra cousa muito forçosa”. The reasons motivating
these injunctions were not always the same, but they included:
(i) fear that the Crown might be defrauded of its dues through the
contraband trade which inevitably occurred where an Indiaman
called at a port for any length of time * * * * 7; (ii) fear that the ship
might lose her voyage through the delay involved 8; (iii) fear that
some of the crew, soldiers, or (in later years) degredados, might
desert. With the object of ensuring that Indiamen could make

prints; Ibidem, “Moçambique Island as a way-station for Portuguese East-India-

men”, in The Mariner's Mirror, Vol. 48 (1962), pp. 3-18; J.R. do Amabal Lapa,
A Bahia e a Carreira da índia (Marilia, 1966), especially pp. 275-297, for list of
Indiamen calling at Bahia, 1500-1799.
7 This anxiety is evident as early as the Ordenações da India of 1520 (ed. A.L. Ca¬
minha, Lisboa, 1807), pp. 48, 53, 55, where Indiamen are forbidden to stop any¬
where for longer than three days and then only in case of great necessity, and no
unauthorised persons to be allowed ashore.
8 The Regimento for the armada of 1510 forbade watering at the Cape Verde
Islands or at Beziguiche, “onde atee agora todas as armadas foram, porque com a
demora diso se perde a viagem” ... (apud Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos,
As Oavetas da Torre do Tombo, V, Lisboa 1965, pp. 498-499). Though undated, this
Regimento is obviously of 1510.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA » 35

direct voyages, the Crown likewise periodically reminded the

authorities concerned that the ships must be amply provisioned
with food and water, in some cases for nine months 9.
Although through voyages, especially on the homeward run,
were far from being unknown, it is obvious that in the great major¬
ity of cases, the ships had to call somewhere; particularly if they
were delayed by calms in the gulf of Guinea, by bad weather off
the Cape of Good Hope, by a high incidence of disease on board
ship, or by the provisions of food and water running short. De¬
partures late in the season, whether from Lisbon or from Goa,
likewise had the same effect; since contrary winds and unfavour¬
able weather were then virtually unavoidable hazards in either
the South Atlantic or else in the Indian Ocean. In so far as the
outward voyage was concerned, Moçambique island soon became
and always remained the principal escala of the carreira da India,
despite its notorious unhealthiness, for the reasons explained by
João de Barros when describing the first visit of Vasco da Gama
to that port in March 1498.
“A qual povoação Moçambique daquelle dia tomou tanta posse
de nós, que em nome, é oje a mais nomeada escala de todo o mundo,
e per frequentação a mayor que tem os Portugueses : e tanto que
poucas cidades há no reyno que de cincoenta annos a esta parte
enterassem em sy tanto defunto como elle tem dos nossos. Ca
depois que nesta viagem a índia foy descuberta até ora, poucos
annos passárão que à ida ou à vinda nam jnvernassem aly as nossas
náos : e alguns jnvernou quasy todo hüa armada, onde ficou sepul-
táda a mayor parte da gente por causa da terra ser muy doentia.
Porque como o sitio delia é hum cotovello á maneira de cábo que
está em altura de quatorze graos e meyo, do qual convem que as
náos que pera aquellas partes navegam ájam vista para jrem bem

9 “Mantimento necessário para 800 homens de guerra e 400 de mar, que hande
yr o anno que vem a índia providos pello tempo declarado”, d. Lisboa, 27.xii.1636,
apud GEHU, O Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos e as Comemorações Henri-

quinas (Lisboa, 1961), p. 72.

II

36

navegadas, quando os ventos lhe não servem pera passar adiante á

jda ou vinda, tomam aquelle remédio de jnvernar aly; e desta
necessidade e doutras (como adiante veremos na descripção de
toda esta costa) procedeo elegerse pera escala de nossas náos,
hum lugar tam doentio e bárbaro, leixando na mesma costa outros
mais celebres e nobres” 10.
João de Barros was not exaggerating. Lizuarte de Abreu noted
in 1558 that the inhabitants of the island claimed that the local
records showed that over 30,000 men landed from ships in the
carreira had been buried there during the preceding thirty years n.
Fr. João dos Santos, O.P., writing half a century later, observed
in his classic Ethiopia Oriental of 1609: “Esta ilha logo no principio
quando foy povoada pelos Portugueses era muy doentia: assi
estão nella enterrados muytos milhares delies, mas jà agora pela
bondade de Deos he mais sadia” {op. cit., Parte Ia, Livro 3, cap. iv).
The Dominican friar’s optimism was evidently misplaced, as
complaints that Moçambique was a veritable “açouge de gente
Portugueza” 12 continued with few intermissions throughout the
next two centuries. One of the visitors to Moçambique who had a
better opinion of the island, was a clerical passenger in the outward-
bound Indiaman, São Francisco de Borja, which called there at
the end of July 1691: “Mossambique não he tão feo como o pintão,
mas os portugueses com a sua lascívia e gula enchem as sepulturas.
A mayor falta que tem hè de agua, que a não hà, senão de cisternas.
Os mantimentos são bastantes, ricas laranjas, e limoens, bons
leitoens, boas vaccas, figos do Reino, e athé romãs vi alli. O trigo
e arroz vem de Senna, hüa e outra couza são excellentes, mas o
pão aos que vão do Reino não sabe bem, porque o amassão com
sura que he hüa potagem que destilhão as palmeiras, e as que dão

10 João de Barros, Primeira Década da Asia (Lisboa, 1552), Livro IV, cap. 4.
I have modernised the spelling in places.
11 Apud G. Schurhammer, 8.J., Franz Xaver, 11(1), p. 59 note.
12 Francisco de Sousa, s.j., Oriente Conquistado (2 vols., Lisboa, 1710), Tomo I,
p. 881.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA » 37

sura não dão cocos. Os templos são belamente asseyados ainda as

menores ermidas. Se Deos nos conserva na India he pella grandeza,
magnificiencia, e bizarria com que se tratão os templos, e se faz
o culto divino. A igreja da menor aldeia pode confundir às das
melhoras povoaçoens de Portugal” 13. In point of fact, the perennial
high death-date on the island was due not so much to the “lascivia
e gula” denounced by the visiting cleric in 1691, as to the malarial
and bilious fevers which were endemic there. Another reason was
that many outward-bound Indiamen reached Moçambique with
their passengers and crews decimated by death and disease, for
the reasons explained by Padre Fernão de Queiroz, s.j., in 1687.
“Não se podião também escusar muitas mortes em tanta variedade
de climas; porque se bem o mar he mais sadio que a terra, podem
ser muita as causas da corrupção; como se vê nos mantimentos
velhos, recozidos, e podres; na agoa de pipas mal curadas, e muito
mais depois de passar Guiné; na gente meya corrupta, do Limoeiro,
e Cabria; na multidão dos navegantes, e pouco comodo dos gazal-
hados, que se chega adoecer em grande numero, na mayor e forçoza
falta da limpeza, está certo o mayor dano; na ruim distribuição
dos mantimentos, conforme requerem os climas; e em outros
incidentes de menos porte; causas bastantes para perder a saude
e as vidas. E se as viagens são compridas, e sem refresco, he certo
o mal de Loanda, ou corrupção dos homens vivos; inconvenientes
que quiz apontar, porque se podem remediar com as prevenções
contrárias, e com se refrescarem na viagem, como fazem multi¬
plicadas vezes os estrangeyros. Passa hüa náo nossa jà tarde por
Moçambique, e tendo muitos portos, e ilhas em que pode tomar
refresco, sem ele comete o largo do mar Indico, e faltando a monção,
chega tão tarde, que traz metade da gente morte, ou em vesperas

13 “Viagem que fez D. Agostinho da Anunciação Arcebispo de Goa Primaz da

índia Oriental na náo São Francisco de Borja o anno de 1691” (British Museum,
Additional MSS. 20953, fls. 251). Cf. John Huighen van Linschoten, his Discours of
Voyages into ye Easte and West Indies (London, 1598), pp. 8-9, for a similar descrip¬
tion of Moçambique island a century earlier.
II

38

de morrer; se não arriba a Sacatora (= Socotora)14, ou inverna

em Moçambique, aonde nunca ouve bastante disposição para se
acudir a tanta gente, que lastimosamente povóa o campo de São
Gabriel, sem os ministros Reaes compadeçerem de tão grave dano.
Como se El Rey mandara somente trazer a náo á índia, deyxando
a gente no mar e terra sepultada; e sendo dano tão ordinário,
e conhecido, por falta de providencia e de castigo, nunca teve o
remedio necessário” 15.
Padre Fernão de Queiroz, s.j., was not being entirely fair when
he criticised the home government for its indifference to the lack
of hospital and other facilities at Moçambique. As early as 1507
there was built “hüa casa grande em modo de esprital para aga¬
salhar os doentes, que ordinariamente havia no tempo que as naus
ali invernaram”, presumably on instructions from the Crown 16.
Another hospital was founded in 1538, and Jesuit visitors to
Moçambique speak glowingly of the hospital facilities available
there in 1563-67 17. Some fifty years later, Fr. João dos Santos,
O.P., in his Ethiopia Oriental, tells us : “Deste hospital tern cuydado
o Provêdor, e irmãos da Misericórdia, mas o gasto delle he a custa
del Rey, que pera isso manda pagar o capitão da fortaleza como

14 Francisco de Sousa, s.j., who wintered at Socotora island in the galleon São
Pedro de Alcantara from Nov. 1665 to Feb. 1666, noted: “A terra além de aspera,
e fragosa, he escaldada dos ventos nortes, e muito doentia, e nella nos morreo a
terceira parte da gente, e entre elles cinco Religiosos da Companhia meus compan¬
heiros”. He adds that Tristão da Cunha’s fleet wintered there in 1507, and the
Indiaman São Gonçalo in 1668 (Oriente Conquistado, Tomo I, ed. 1710, pp. 892-893).
15 Fernão de Queiroz, s.j., Conquista Temporal e Spiritual de Ceylão (ed. Colombo,
1916), p. 908. For other references to the high mortality rate at Moçambique see
ibidem, pp. 861, 931, 933.

16 João de Barros, Década II, Livro I, cap. 6; Gaspar Correia, Lendas da India,
Livro I, Tomo I, Parte II.

17 Cf. the eyewitness reports in A. da Silva Rego (ed.), Documentação para a

história das missões do padroado português do Oriente. índia, Vol. IX (1953), pp. 214,
327; Ibidem, op. cit., Vol. X (1953), p.235; G. Schurhammer, s.j. Franz Xaver,
II (1), pp. 62-66, and sources there quoted.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 39

Veador que he da sua fazenda nestes partes de Moçambique” 18.

Almost at the same time as the Dominican friar penned these
words and just before their appearance in print, this well-run
hospital was destroyed by the Dutch during their attacks on
Moçambique in 1607-08, and thirty years elapsed before another
was opened to replace it. This one seems to have functioned most
irregularly, and in 1680-81, the Prince-Regent, Dom Pedro, author¬
ised the construction of a new and better hospital, “em que se
curarem não só os soldados da fortaleza e moradores, mas todos
os soldados que ahy aportarem, assim das naos de arribada como
de viagem”. The administration of this hospital was entrusted
to the Religious of the Order of São João de Deus, “porque só elles
sabem ter cuidado dos enfermos e tratar da saude delles”. The
vicissitudes of this hospital have been admirably described in the
well documented studies of Senhor António Alberto de Andrade,
to which the interested reader is referred 19. Suffice it to say here,
that the high mortality-rate continued, mainly owing to the un¬
avoidable ignorance of the causes and cures of tropical diseases
before the scientific discoveries of the 19th-20th centuries. The
Governor informed the Crown in 1758 that this Hospital of São
João de Deus was still what it always had been, “hum sumidouro
de vidas” 20.
If it is asked why the Portuguese persisted in using the island
of Moçambique as an escala in the carreira, when experience proved
that it was a virtual açouge or sumidouro of valuable lives, several
reasons can be advanced. In the first place, as Padre A. da Silva
Rego has pointed out: “Êste afinco, esta teimosia, esta insistência
dos Portugueses por terra que uma vez tivessem ocupado, consti-

18 Ethiopia Oriental (ed. 1609), Parte I, Livro 3, cap. iv.

19 A.A. de Andrade, “Fundação do Hospital Militar de São João de Deus,
em Moçambique”, in Studia, Vol. I (1958), pp. 77-89; Ibidem, Os Hospitaleiros de
São João de Deus no ultramar. Subsídios para a sua história (Lisboa, 1957), reprinted
from articles published serially in the review Portugal em Africa, Vols. XIII-XIV.
20 Pedro de Saldanha de Albuquerque to the Secretary of State, d. Moçambique,
30 Dec. 1758, in Arquivo das Colónias, Vol. IV (Lisboa, 1919), p. 79.
II

40

tuem aliás um dos mais característicos traços da nossa coloniza¬

ção” 21. In the second place, there was its geographically advanta¬
geous situation, emphasised in the previous quotation from João
de Barros, Década I, Livro 4, cap. iv, on p. 35 above. In the third
place, there was the incentive to trade in contraband gold, ivory,
amber, ebony (pau preto), and other East-African products, which
proved an irresistible temptation to the officers and crew of many
Indiamen, as contemporaries frequently complained. These three
factors, either separately or in combination, proved stronger in
practice than the arguments which were advanced from time to
time, that the Portuguese would do better to make Madagascar,
Mombasa, or some other place their main escala in the Indian
Ocean section of the carreira.
In 1521, the last year of his reign, King Dom Manuel I ordered
the construction of a fortress somewhere in the island of São Lou-
renço (Madagascar), “por ter enformação que avia nela muyta
prata e gingibre que esperava daver; e também pera que as naos
da carga da especiaria indo para a India fazerem ali agoada e
irem por fora da ilha de Sam Lourenço que era mais segura navega¬
ção para se passar a India que por Moçambique”. The two ships
sent out with building materials and workmen for this purpose
failed to meet at the rendezvous; and the project was cancelled
in the next year by the new king, Dom João III, who ordered
“que nenhüa fortaleza das que el rey seu pay mandara fazer na
India de novo, se fizesse” 22. The discovery of this island and
consequently of the outer route to India in 1500-1510, raised the
problem of whether the outer or the inner passage was preferable
from the navigational point of view, both for the outward and/or

21 A. da Silva Rego, “Viagens Portuguesas a índia em meados do século XVI”,

in Anais da Academia Portuguesa da História, IIa Série, Vol. V (Lisboa, 1954),
p. 119.
22 Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, Os Livros quarto e quinto da historia do des¬
cobrimento e conquista da India (Coimbra, 1553), V, cap. lxxix. The standard-work on
the early connections of the Portuguese with Madagascar is still A. Kammerer,

La Découverte de Madagascar par les Portugais et la cartographic de Vile (Lisboa, 1950).

 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 41

the homeward voyage. To a large extent, the answer depended

on what season of the year the ship left Lisbon or Goa, and when
she rounded, or hoped to round, the Cape of Good Hope. The
pilots and other nautical experts were by no means agreed on this
subject; and the discussion continued for over a century, the
fluctuating viewpoints being reflected in the different roteiros and
regimentos approved by the Crown.
About the year 1540 (the exact date is uncertain), the Crown
decided that if the outward-bound Indiamen rounded the Cape
of Good Hope after the 20/25 July, they should take the outer
passage to the east of Madagascar, but if they passed the southern¬
most tip of Africa before that date, they should take the inner
route through the Moçambique channel. This ruling was not
accepted unquestioningly, and several experienced pilots, including
Gaspar Manuel writing about 1606, claimed that ships which
rounded the Cape of Good Hope at any time before the 3 September
still had a good chance of reaching India by the inner passage
before November 23. This remained a minority opinion for the first
half of the 17th century; for a study of the surviving roteiros,
regimentos, and diários de bordo for the period 1550-1650, indicates
that most pilots considered it was safer to take the outer passage
(the condition of the ship’s stores and the health of the crew per¬
mitting) if the Cape was rounded after the 25 July 24. In actual
fact, the regimentos enjoining ships to take the outer passage if

23 Martim Afonso de Sousa’s proposals and the King’s comments thereon in

1536, in J.D.M. Fokd (ed.), Letters of John III King of Portugal, 1521-1557 (Harvard
University Press, 1931), pp. 254-256; Gaspar Manuel’s “Roteiro” of ca. 1605, apud
Caetano Montez, “Moçambique e a navegação da índia”, pp. 10-11.
24 Gabriel Pereira (ed.), Roteiros Portuguezes da viagem de Lisboa à India nos
séculos XVI e XVII (Lisboa, 1898), pp. 46, 54, 107, 115-117. António de Mariz

Carneiro, Roteiro da India Oriental. Com as emmendas que novamente se fizerão a

elle (Lisboa, 1666). Manuel Pimentel, Arte Practica de Navegar e Roteiro das viagens
... [dos] Índias e Ilhas Orientaes e Occidentaes (Lisboa, 1699), pp. 346-347, inserts
a “Viagem que se pode fazer passando tarde o Cabo de Boa Esperança por dentro
da ilha de São Lourenço”, after passing the Cape as late as the 20 August.
II

42

they rounded the Cape after the 25 July were frequently dis¬
obeyed for the reasons explained by Padre António Francisco
Cardim, s.j., in his eyewitness account of the loss of the great
galleon São Lourenço on the shoals of Mogincual in the Moçambique
channel in September 1649, having rounded the Cape on the 31
July 25.
“Ordena El Rey no Regimento aos Capitães Mores façam viagem
sempre por fora da Ilha de Sam Lourenço (after the 25 July),
por evitar as invernadas, que ordinariamente fazem os officiais
em Moçambique, movidos do muito que interessam nas vendas das
fazendas, e ouro, que dalli levam para a India com total ruina de
infantaria, que a ilha a pura fome, e mao temperamento em sy
consome; e também do perigo das agoas, que em Agosto por diante
correm com grande impeto mais que rios, até o Cabo das Correntes.
Guardase muito mal esta ordem, e por se forrarem vinte dias de
viagem vemos as mais das naos virem por dentro.
Determinava o nosso Cabo guardallo, e entendido pella gente
maritima se veyo à sua camara, e alegando falta de agoa, e manti¬
mentos, com parecer dos officiais, e em fatal hora, se resolveo,
que fossemos por dentro” 26. Cardim adds: “como os Pilotos nam
sam creados nesta carreira, temem os muitos baixos, que ha por
fora, e no fim se vem perder na viagem de dentro”.
Caetano Montez points out in his article, Moçambique e a Nave¬
gação da India, p. 18, “realmente, com freqüencia vemos naus que
chegam ao Cabo em tempo de ir por dentro, seguirem por fora;
naus que dobram o Cabo tarde, mesmo assim irem por dentro;
e de armadas que chegam em formação ao Cabo vemos umas uni¬
dades irem por dentro, outras por fora”. True enough ; but although

25 António Francisco Cardim, s.j., Relaçam da viagem do galeam Sam Lourenço,

e sua perdiçam nos baixos de Moxincale em 3 de Septembro de 1649 (Lisboa, 1651),
fl. B.
26 “... havendo de ir por fora, sam necessárias mais mantimentos, e dispenseiros
fieis, e nam como hum dos dous do nosso galeam, que lavava sua roupa na agoa
doce del Rey” (Ibidem, op. cit., fl. D.).
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 43

it would be difficult to document tbe assertion statistically, I feel

sure that the great majority of outward-bound naus da carreira
da India, between 1500 and 1800, took the inner route through
the Moçambique channel and called, for better or for worse, at the
little coral island of that name.
As regards homeward-bound Indiamen (torna-viagem), the posi¬
tion was rather different. Generally speaking, we have much less
information about these voyages (save when the ships figured
disastrously in the História Trágico-Marítima) than we do about
the outward-bound fleets. Nevertheless, I would hazard the state¬
ment that the majority of homeward-bound Indiamen took the
outer passage to the east of Madagascar. This outer route for the
torna-viagem was certainly the rule rather than the exception for
most of the 16th century; though Gaspar Ferreira Reimão, “piloto-
Mór do Reino e Senhorios de Portugal”, was clearly exaggerating
when he claimed in his Roteiro of 1612 that when he navigated
the homeward-bound Nossa Senhora do Castelo by the inner passage
in 1597-98, this was the first occasion this route had been taken
since 1527 27. He adds that his successful reopening of this course
east of Madagascar had since been followed by many other home¬
ward-bound Indiamen; but I am inclined to believe that in fact
the outer passage was more often used during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, as well as in the sixteenth. Of course, we
find numerous instances of homeward-bound ships wintering at
Moçambique island; but this was usually because they had failed
to round the Cape of Good Hope (owing to leaving Goa too late
in the season, or for some other reason), and so had been compelled
to winter and refit in this port. The Captain of Moçambique com¬
plained at the end of 1666: “dura couza hé para quem navega hüa
arribada, mas tenho por mais insofrivel tolerar a de oito náos que
tantas arribarão a esta fortaleza, despois que a governo no dis-
cursso de pouco mais de dois annos”. The consensus of expert

27 Roteiro da Navegação e carreira da índia, 1612 (ed. Fontoura da Costa, Lisboa,

1939), pp. 43-45.
II

44

nautical opinion in 1615 was: “saindo de Goa até o derradeiro de

dezembro, deviam vir por dentro, por ser a navegação mais segura;
e dês do primeiro de janeiro por diante fica arriscada a navegação
por dentro, e que devem vir por fóra; e que partindo de Cochim,
todas as naus que d’alli partirem, devem vir por fora” 28. At this
time and for long afterwards, Indiamen seldom left Goa before
New Year’s Day; and most of them almost certainly took the outer
passage.
Although Moçambique island was in constant use as an escala
for as long as the carreira da India lasted, the dockyard and repair
facilities left a great deal to be desired. Some excellent timber
could be obtained from the neighbouring mainland, but there was
always a shortage of skilled shipwrights and of naval stores. Dom
Pedro de Almeida, Marquis of Castel-Novo (later of Alorna), who
called at Moçambique with the Indiamen Nossa Senhora Madre de
Deus and Nossa Senhora da Caridade e São Francisco de Paula
on his voyage to Goa in August 1744, wrote as follows to the Secre¬
tary of State from this island : “... E a respeito disto não posso
deixar de admirar que havendo duzentos annos que Portugal
possue este Porto tão frequentado das nossas Naos que vão e vem
da Europa, não haja nelle nem armazém, nem material, nem
official, nem ferroamenta para concerto dos Navios, e succedendo
arribar qualquer delles que não traga consigo as materiaes de que
necessita, ou hade apodrecer neste porto, ou ser tão larga a sua
demora, como succedeo à Nao São João e São Pedro que faça a
Sua Magestade huma inútil, e considerável despeza, podendo vir
a ser esta falta de mais perigoza consequência se aos Navios Estran¬
geiros que frequentão esta costa se lhe não tirassem os pretextos
affectados das suas arribadas pondolhes promptos os materiaes

28 Decision of a, junta of pilots of the carreira da India at Lisbon on the 18 March

1615, in R. de Bulhão Pato (ed.), Documentos Remettidos da India ou Livros das
Monções, III (Lisboa, 1885), pp. 326-327. Cf. the decisions of similar juntas in 1635
and 1646, respectively, in J.A. Frazão de Vasconcelos, Pilotos das navegações
portuguesas dos séculos XVI e XVII (Lisboa, 1942), pp. 79-84.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 45

de que necessitão emquanto os damnos sejão verdadeiros, para que

seja breve a sua demora, e não tenbão tempo de adquirirem mel¬
hores instrucções do Paiz” 29.
The Count-Viceroy went on to contrast the backwardness of
Moçambique island in this and other respects with the remarkable
development of the lie de France (Mauritius) under the guiding
hand of the enterprising Mahé de La Bourdonnais, where the
French, “tenhão hoje naquelle paiz não só com a cultura que o
nosso não tem, abundando de frutos, e de gados, mas de excelentes
armazéns de tudo quanto he necessário para qualquer concerto
de Naos que alli arribão” 30. These representations, and those of
later governors and viceroys, did not bring about any lasting
improvement, although the authorities at Lisbon made some
serious if sporadic efforts to build up stocks of supplies and material
at Moçambique.
There was a sheltered anchorage for a large number of ships to
the NW of the island, but parts of the harbour were (and are)
encumbered with banks and shoals, while the approaches to the
island from seaward required careful and accurate navigation.
The Patrão-Mór in residence was usually a Portuguese; but great
reliance was placed on the sailors drawn from the local Muslim
community, which was described by Fr. João dos Santos, O.P.,
in his classic Ethiopia Oriental: “Está também nesta ilha outra
povoação de Mouros, apartada da dos Christãos obra de dous tiros
d’espingarda, pouco mais ou menos, na qual vivem poucos Mouros,
e estes pela môr parte são marinheyros, pobres e mesquinhos, e
ordinariamente andão no serviço do capitão, e dos Portugueses,

29 Arquivo das Colonias, Vol. III (Lisboa, 1918), pp. 229-230 (“Correspondência
do Marquez de Castello-Novo, quando V. Rei e Capitão General da índia, para El
Rei e diversas autoridades da metropole, principada em Moçambique em 10 d’Agosto
de 1744”).
30 The Count-Viceroy’s tribute to this remarkable Frenchman was well deserved.
Cf. Pierre Crepin, Mahé de la Bourdonnais, Gouverneur-General des lies de France
et de Bourbon, 1699-1753 (Paris, 1922).
II

46

dos quaes são amigos, e mostrão se lhe leaes, ou por medo, ou

porque sempre dependem delles” 31.
The Marquis of Castel-Novo explained in his dispatches from
Moçambique that the moradores of that island were driving a
thriving trade in gold, ivory, and slaves with French ships bringing
provisions from Bourbon and the lie de France, despite reiterated
royal orders prohibiting all commerce with foreign nations. This
contraband trade was still more flourishing in the Querimba islands,
which the French from Mauritius and the English from Bombay
visited without let or hindrance, “porque huma Náo mercante he
superior em força à pouca gente que habita cada ilha. Tem cada
huma delias quando muito dois ou tres Portuguezes com poucos
Cafres que os servem na cultura das terras; e não ha força nenhuma
com que se lhe possa resistir quando queirão persistir, como fazem
naquelles portos, nem se lhe pode embaraçar e extracção, não só
do marfim e escravos, mas a grande copea de cuary que lhe serve
para o negocio de Bengalla... 32. E assim com verdade se pode dizer,
que este terreno mais serve para utilidade dos Estrangeiros, que
para a dos vassallos, e se Sua Majestade ao menos servir de subsidio
a esta Praça para lhe matar a fome, e dar-lhe mantimentos, re¬
dundaria delle algum beneficio, mas por falta de embarcaçoens nem
este recebe; tal he a negligencia dos Portuguezes, ainda nas matérias

31 João dos Santos, o.p., Ethiopia Oriental (1609), Parte I, Livro III, Cap. iv.
32 For further details see the documented article by C.R. Boxer, “The Que¬
rimba Islands in 1744”, in Studia, Vol. XI (1963), pp. 343-353. I may add that
Dr. Toussaint’s observation at the foot of p. 352, “il n’y avait pas de clandestinité
à 1'époque dans le trafic entre le Mozambique et les iles Françaises”, is inexact.
The trafic was clandestine, however much it flourished, since it was carried on in
despite of reiterated royal and viceregal orders for its suppression. Cf. “Instrucção
dada ao Marques de Louriçal quando veio por vicerei da índia, 1740”, in Chronista
de Tissuary, Vol. IV (Nova Goa, 1869), p. 79; and Anais da Junta de Investigações
do Ultramar, Vol. IX, Tomo I (Lisboa, 1954), pp. 271-272, for this contraband trade
in 1778: “Que a negociação dos Navios Franceses naquella Ilha como em todos os
mais Portos de Sua Magestade Fidelíssima na costa de Africa seja expressamente
prohibida, o sabem todos, como também serem nos mesmos portos generos de contra¬
bando as armas e a polvora ...”.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE «CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 47

do seo interesse, que por não trabalharem antes querem estar

ociosos nos lares da sua casa, que fazer o menor movimento para
beneficiar os seos frutos, contentandose que lhos vão procurar
por hum commercio a furto ainda que fiquem sogeitos ás penas das
prohibiçõens, fiados em que a distancia lhe facilita a ouzadia,
ou lhe encobre o deleito”. Although the “Rios de Senna” (Zam-
bezia) produced rice, maize, beans and other provisions in abund¬
ance, the Portuguese of Moçambique island did not have enough
shipping to get supplies regularly from that region. “Á vista disto
não he pouco de admirar que esta Ilha onde o terreno he secco,
e esteril esteja no centro da abundancia, padecendo mizerias e
morrendo de fome por não haver quem lhe conduza mantimentos,
e ainda he maior mizeria que achamdo-nos ha 200 annos na distancia
de 80 legoas da Ilha de São Lourenço, onde he sempre continua
e fartura, e abundancia dos frutos e dos gados, que seja necessária
que os Francezes estabelecidos ha 30 annos nas duas ilhas Masca-
renhas (Bourbon) e Mauricias (He de France) situadas na contra-
costa de São Lourenço, e em muito maior distancia de nós, nos
venhão matar a fome com o mantimento daquelle districto de que
nós estamos mais perto” 33.
If the Crown’s orders prohibiting commerce with foreign nations
were disregarded or evaded in Moçambique, the laws against
smugglers and contraband-traders were likewise difficult to enforce
at Salvador (Bahia), even though this place was the capital city of
the colony for over two centuries and was strongly garrisoned.
As indicated above, the close connection of Bahia with the carreira
da índia dates from the last quarter of the seventeenth-century.
Dom Manuel, in announcing the official discovery of Brazil to the
“Reis Católicos” in a dispatch dated 28 August 1501, had claimed:
“pareceu que Nosso Senhor milagrosamente quis que se achasse,
porque é mui conveniente e necessária à navegação da índia”.
As Alexander Marchant, Duarte Leite, and José Roberto do Amaral

33 Correspondence of the Marquis of Castel-Novo, Moçambique, August, 1744,

in the Arquivo das Colónias, Vol. Ill (Lisboa, 1918), pp. 225-240.
II

48

Lapa have already shown, this statement was distinctly pre¬

mature 34. Little use was made of Bahia as a way-station for the
carreira during the next century and a half; and the course laid
down for the India voyage in the standard roteiros of Vicente
Rodrigues, Gaspar Ferreira Reimão, Aleixo da Mota, etc., did not
envisage the use of Bahia (or of any other Brazilian settlement)
as a regular port of call, on either the homeward or the outward
voyage 35.
Of course, a number of Indiamen did call at Brazil during this
period, particularly after the foundation of Bahia in 1549. But
they did so only out of dire necessity, and not of set purpose, as
instanced by the unlucky ship São Paulo, which twice lost her
voyage to India and was forced to call at Bahia in 1556 and 1560.
Another instance was provided in 1596 by the outward-bound
Indiamen, São Francisco, which having lost its rudder in 26° south¬
ern latitude, was forced to put back to Bahia, “ainda contra um
expresso Regimento de El-Rei, porque a necessidade não tem lei” 36.
This is evidently a reference to the provisão of the 6 March 1565,
which forbade outward-bound ships which had lost their voyage
to winter in Brazil, but ordered them to return to Lisbon. It was
embodied in all subsequent regimentos for the captains and escri¬
vães of Indiamen down to 1756, and probably later (Regimento dos
Escrivaens das Naos da Carreira da India, Lisboa, 1640, fls. A7-A8.
Cf. also the reprint of 1756).

34 Alexander Marchant, “Colonial Brazil as a way-station for the Portuguese

India Fleets”, in The Geographical Review, Vol. XXXI (July, 1941), pp. 454-465.
Marchant did not, however, realise the extent to which Bahia became a port of call
for homeward-bound Indiamen after c. 1660. José Roberto do Amarad Lapa,
A Bahia e a Carreira da India (Marilia, 1966), pp. 7-10.
35 These and other standard roteiros are conveniently summarized in Frédéric
Mauro, Le Portugal et VAtlantique au XVlIe siècle, 1570-1670. Étude Économique
(Paris, 1960), pp. 23-27.
36 Gaspar Afonso, s.j., Relação da viagem e successo que teve a Náo São Francisco
... na Armada que foy para a India no anno de 1596 (in História Trágico-Marítima,
ed. Sergio, III, p. 86.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA » 49

Calls at Brazilian ports were not numerous at this period, for

there was no great inducement to break the Crown regulations
forbidding this practice save in case of unavoidable necessity.
So far as outward-bound Indiamen were concerned, unless they
were becalmed for long periods in the Gulf of Guinea (as happened
to the São Paulo in 1560), they usually had enough water and
provisions to get round the Cape of Good Hope and as far as Mo¬
çambique, if not to Goa. The commanders and officers of these
ships were anxious to reach theii destination as soon as possible,
“por razão do mesmo interesse, para chegar primeiro à India e
vender mais caro” 37. Brazil’s main export was sugar, and there
was no market for this commodity in Asia, which produced suffi¬
cient sugar of its own, and in some years actually exported a small
surplus to Europe. Homeward-bound Indiamen had more induce¬
ment to call at a Brazilian port if they were delayed in rounding
the Cape of Good Hope, so that their stores of water and provisions
ran low, or if they missed the island of St. Helena which served
as a watering and refreshment place on occasion. But their cargoes
of pepper and spices found a better market at Lisbon than at
Bahia, so they normally preferred to sail direct to the Tagus if
they were able to do so. When the Dutch began to infest the South
Atlantic, and particularly during their occupation of Pernambuco
in 1630-54, it was obviously very dangerous for Portuguese India¬
men to call at Brazilian ports, since the cruisers of the West India
Company, or the Zeeland privateers, were usually to be found in
the offing38. With the Portuguese reconquest of Netherlands

37 Op. cit., p. 85.

38 Even during the (admittedly precarious) truce with the Dutch in 1641-1652,
the homeward-bound Indiamen from Goa were ordered to make their voyage em
direitura to Lisbon, if this was humanly possible. Cf. the regimentos for José Pinto
Pereira in 1645 (0 Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos e as Comemorações
Henriquinas, pp. 73-74), and for Luís Velho in 1646 (Historical Archives, Goa,
“Livros da Correspondência Secreta”, Vol. I, 1635-1647). Cf. also the very similar
regimento for Rangel Pinto in 1668, published by Alberto Iria, Da Navegação
Portuguesa no Indico (1963), pp. 186-187.
II

50

Brazil in 1654, and particularly after the ratification of the peace

with the United Provinces in 1663, the Dutch were no longer a
deterrent. We find from then onwards a steady increase in home¬
ward bound Indiamen calling at Bahia, though not of outward-
bound vessels. These latter usually left Lisbon rather late in the
season (March-April), and they were anxious to lose no time in
passing the Abrolhos and rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
The Crown was for long reluctant to sanction the calls of home¬
ward-bound Indiamen at Bahia, and some of the numerous seven¬
teenth-century, alvarás, cartas-régias and provisoes prohibiting this
practice between 1615 and 1672 have been published elsewhere 39.
However, there were always critics of the viagem em direitura,
including the Procurador da Fazenda at Goa in January 1665,
who argued that regulations which were once justified might be
rendered positively harmful by later developments: “Por tal avalio
a prohibição de que as náos da India não venham fazendo escalas,
porque pela distancia da viagê vem as embarcaçois com muito
maior perigo, os navegantes com insoportaveis incommodidades,
com que as fazendas e os vassallos vem com tam conhecido risco,
como tem manifesto a experiencia; e desta procede que sem em¬
bargo dos regimentos de Vossa Magestade ja todas as naos buscam
causas com que se justificam a escala e quebrantam a prohibição.
Nestes termos parece que achando-se meyos para que a Navegação
tenha menos perigos e a fazenda de Vossa Magestade e seus vassallos

39 Provisão of 15 December 1615, in Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da

índia, p. 23, note 17; cartas-régias of March 1632 and January 1632, in Boletim da
Filmoteca Ultramarina Portuguesa, Nr. 23 (Lisboa, 1963), pp. 17, 28; provisão of
15 December 1661, cartas-régias of 18 March 1665, 17 June 1667 and 18 September
1670 (J.J. de Andrade e Silva, Collecção Chronológica da legislação portugueza, II,
1657-1674, Lisboa, 1856, pp. 73, 98, 129, 184, prohibiting the sale of Asian goods
on board of such Indiamen as might be forced to call at Brazil or Angola); provisão
of 29 March 1670, allowing only Terceira and Lisbon as escalas for Indiamen (op. cit.,
p. 181). Regimento for the Governor of Brazil, d. 4 March 1671, in Virginia Rau and
Maria Fernanda Gomes da Silva, Os Manuscritos do Arquivo da Casa de Cadaval
respeitantes ao Brasil, Vol. I (Lisboa, 1955), pp. 220-221.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE «CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 51

mais utilidades, convirá que ás naos da índia se permittão as

escalas por que se não busquem pretextos com que se quebrantem
as ordens tanto em prejuízo da fazenda Rial”. The viceroy, António
de Melo de Castro, in his dispatch to the Crown of the same date,
pointed out that even when there was no necessity to do so, the
ship s officers often drew up a termo, “em que dizem, que o navio
está aberto, e que infalivelmente se hira a pique, e que convem
tomar qualquer porto que puderem sem embargo do regimento,
para nelle o conçertarem, de que se segue arribarem a aquella
parte que levarão ia determinada, quando daqui partirão”, whether
it was Moçambique, Rio de Janeiro, or Bahia. On receipt of this
dispatch, the Crown relented to the extent of agreeing that smaller
vessels such as “pataxos com avisos” might be permitted to call
at Brazilian ports, but maintained the ban on the larger ndus and
galeões of the carreira doing so 40.
Reluctantly yielding to what was already an established, if an
unofficial practice, the Crown promulgated a couple of provisões
on the 2 March 1672, authorising homeward-bound Indiamen to
call at Bahia, if the captain and officers considered it advisable
to do so. In such cases, the officers and seamen could sell “as
fazendas de sua liberdade”, which had been properly registered
at Goa, but under no circumstances was any of the other cargo
to be sold. In practice, the local authorities could not always raise
the money to pay for the often extensive repairs which were needed,
maintenance of the officers and crews, etc., so on rare occasions
some of the cargo had to be sold to cover such expenses. Whenever
possible, however, the cost was defrayed from other sources, such
as the donativo de dote de Inglaterra e paz de Holanda, by the Prove¬
doria da Fazenda Real41.

40 Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, India, “Papeis avulsos”, 1665 and 1668,

in Alberto Iria, Da Navegação Portuguesa no índico no século XVII (Lisboa, 1963),
pp. 171-172, 179-181. Cf. also Panduronga Pissurlencar, Assentos do Conselho do
Estado [da índia], Vol. IV, 1659-1695 (Goa, 1956), pp. 144-145.
41 J.R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India, pp. 20-21, 58-63, 269-
271; Anais do Arquivo Público da Bahia, Vol. XXXII (Bahia, 1952), pp. 109, 126,
178, 188, 205, 239, 269.
II

52

The frequency with which homeward-bound Indiamen called

at Bahia in the last third of the seventeenth century, was partly
due to the fact that the India trade was then changing over from
being primarily concerned with pepper and spices to being largely
concerned with Indian cotton textiles, Chinese silks, and other
Asian fabrics, mostly of high quality but not occupying much
space. António Paes de Sande, writing from Goa to the Count of
Ericeira at Lisbon in 1679, urged that homeward-bound Indiamen
should be allowed to lade chests of sugar at Rio de Janeiro or at
Bahia, “pois as fazendas hoje, e os cabedais da India não são tantos
que dem carga bastante a huma embarcação por limitada que
seja” 42. This is, in fact, what took place, as instanced in the corres¬
pondence of Padre António Vieira, s.j., at Bahia in June 1691:
“Da India tivemos nau com cinco meses de viagem e mais de cem
homens mortos ... dizem aqui que vem carregada de pedraria
(= diamantes), porque não trouxe mais que pedras (por lastro),
em lugar das quais levará setecentas caixas de açúcar, e irá des¬
carregar na alfandega à vista da pobre casa da índia” 43. In the
following year the Crown finally came round to the viewpoint of
those persons who had been urging (since 1664, at least) that the
homeward-bound náos da índia should normally call at Bahia,
and should then sail to Lisbon in company with the Brazil-fleet
and its convoy. This order of the 18 December 1692 was confirmed
by another on the 4 February 1694, and is reflected in the 1699
edition of Manuel Pimentel’s Roteiro : “Passado o Cabo (de Boa
Esperança) sigase a derrota para a Bahia de Todos os Santos,

42 Virginia Rau e M.F. Gomes da Silva, Os MSS. da Casa Cadaval, Vol. I,

p. 252.
43 João Lucio d’Azevedo, Cartas do Padre António Vieira, Vol. Ill (Coimbra,
1928), pp. 612-613. This ship was the Na Sra. da Conçeição, Captain D. João de
Carcomo Lobo. For references to this ship and other Indiamen calling at Bahia
between 1684 and 1692 in Vieira’s correspondence see op. cit., pp. 515-516, 542,
592-596, 615-616, 638.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 53

governando-se conforme a carta, e os ventos, para dalli seguir

viagem ao Reino em companhia da frota e combois” 44.
This change of front (and of heart?) on the part of the Crown
and its advisers, coincided almost exactly with the first discoveries
of gold on a really rich scale in Minas Gerais. Within a few years
the total population and the purchasing power of the upper classes
in Brazil had both markedly increased. For most of the eighteenth-
century, returning Indiamen had every incentive to call at Brazilian
ports, where they could profitably dispose, whether legally or
otherwise, of great quantities of Indian textiles, and Chinese silks
and porcelain, in exchange, primarily, for Brazilian gold and
tobacco. Luis Gomes Ferreira, a Portuguese physician and surgeon
who spent twenty years in Bahia and Minas Gerais during the reign
of Dom João V, noted in 1735 that even Chinese ink and tea were
readily obtainable there 4S. A French resident at Lisbon observed
five years earlier that in Brazil “les marchandises de la Chine s’y
vendroient beaucoup plus avantageusement que par tout ailleurs” 46.
While Chinese silken fabrics were usually in great demand, it was
noted in 1758 that it was “porsolana, que hé a droga que mais
facilmente se vende nesta terra” 47.
Needless to say, the gold (and from 1729 onwards, the diamonds)
of Brazil proved a magnet for foreign ships as well as for Portu¬
guese. English, French, and (ca. 1723-28) Ostend East-Indiamen,
warships, or ordinary merchant-men, were constantly finding
excuses to call at Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, where they particip¬
ated in the contraband gold-trade in the same way as did the

44 Cartas-Régias of 18/xii/1692 and 4/Ü/1694, in Anais do Arquivo Público da

Bahia, Vol. XXXI (1949), pp. 32, 52. Cf. also D. João de Lencastre’s dispatch to
the Crown, d. Bahia, 27 June 1695, summarized in J.R. do Amabal Lapa, A Bahia
e a Carreira da India, pp. 13-14. “Viagem Moderna da India para Portugal”, in
Manuel Pimentel, Arte Practica de Navegar (Lisboa, 1699), pp. 355-356.
45 Luis Gomes Ferreiba, Erario Mineral dividido em doze tratados (Lisboa, 1735).
46 Anon., Description de la ville de Lisbonne ou Von traite de la cour de Portugal,
des colonies Portugaises, et du commerce de cette capitale (Paris, 1730), p. 248.
47 J.R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da India, p. 206.
II

54

Portuguese vessels. All the Crown’s efforts and paper legislation

failed to stop this smuggling trade, mainly because, as the King
complained to the Governor of Bahia in 1718: “os cabos e officiaes
de guerra são os que com mais devassidão e escandallo descaminhão
as fazendas dos direitos e tirão por alto as das Náos da índia e
navios estrangeiros, sendo que deviam ser os que mais procurassem
evitar-se semelhantes descaminhos; e que os mesmos a quem se
encarrega a guarda dos ditos navios e Náos da índia são os que
cometem com mais segurança de impunidade este delicto” 48.
Naturally, the naval and military officers at Bahia were not the
only ones who profited from this contraband-trade, which redounded
directly or indirectly to the advantage of many of the local mora¬
dores, “porque a esta corte (Lisboa) só trazem hoje as naos da
India, as (fazendas) que na Bahia não tenhão sahida os officiaes
e passageiros”, as the officials of the Casa da India at Lisbon com¬
plained in 1725 49. The problem was frequently ventilated in the
Conselho Ultramarino, but no satisfactory solution was ever found.
Apart from anything else, a really rigorous enforcement of the
anti-smuggling laws would have been counter-productive, as the
percipient Conselheiro-Ultramarino, António Rodrigues da Costa,

48 Carta-Régia d. 22 March 1718, in Ignacio Accioli-Braz do Amaral, Memórias

Históricas e Politicos da Provinda da Bahia, Vol. II (Bahia, 1925), pp. 338-339.
It would be easy to find annual complaints to the same effect, but the following
extract from a dispatch of the Viceroy Count of Sabugosa to the Secretary of State
at Lisbon, d. Bahia, 3 October 1733, will suffice: “Ainda muito antes das Naos da
India darem fundo nesta Bahya, se lhes introduz sincoenta fuzileiros com hum capi¬
tão, Alferes, e dous sargentos, alem de se lhe meterem guardas pela Provedoria-Mor
da fazenda, e andarem tres lanxas de ronda de dia e de noite athé sairem da barra
em fora; e toda esta cautella e prevenção custuma produzir tão pouco fruto que
tudo quanto os interessados querem extrahem por alto; e suposto se tire todos os
annos hüa devassa destes desencaminhos não vi que nenhum dos comprehendidos
fosse até agora castigado” (Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia, Vol. XXX (1732-
1733), Nr. 161, fl. 25).
49 “Carta Geral que se escreveo por esta Caza [da índia] ao vedor Geral do Estado
da índia em a monção de 1725”, in Documentação Ultramarina Portuguesa, IV (1696),
pp. 55-57.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA » 55

pointed out in 1715: “A conveniência que os vassallos do Brasil

experimentam nesta negociação com os navios estrangeiros, os faz
desejar que se lhes franquierem os portos às nações estrangeiras,
e a aborrecer o governo que lh’o impede” 50.
There is no need to discuss the details of this contraband-trade
with Indiamen, whether Portuguese or foreign, since this has
recently been done by Professor J. R. do Amaral Lapa 51. One
point which he makes, however, requires some comment. On p. 150
of A Bahia e a Carreira da India, he writes : “Num periodo de 15
anos (1697 a 1712), seguiram de Portugal para as índias cerca de
806 navios, sendo de notar que nesse espaço de tempo não parece
ter havido interdição para a escala na Bahia. As cifras de tão breve
periodo podem permitir-sos indiretamente uma ideia de quanto
teria atingido a contribuição brasileira nos séculos aqui estudados”.
The figure of 806 ships is obviously a misprint or a misapprehension.
The eynenta of Francisco Luís Ameno, which is the fullest and most
reliable for this period, gives a total of 39 ships which left Lisbon
for the East in 1697-1712, including a few bound direct for Macao
and one for Timor 52. On Professor Amaral Lapa’s own showing,
some 22 of these called at Bahia on their return voyage 53; and

50 Consulta of the Conselho Ultramarino, Lisboa, 24 July 1715, in Documentos

Históricos, Vol. XCVI (1952), pp. 163-187. The Council even considered forbidding
homeward bound Indiamen from calling at Brazilian ports, as they had been (on
paper) before 1692, but dropped the idea as impracticable (Ibidem, op. cit., Vol.
XCVII, 1952, pp. 113-115). For a list of twenty-seven laws and edicts forbidding
foreign ships from trading in Brazilian ports see “Colecção das Leys e Ordens que
prohibem os navios estrangeiros assim os de guerra como os mercantes nos portos
do Brasil, desde 1591 ate 1761”, in Catálogo dos MSS Ultramarinos na Biblioteca
Publica do Porto, pp. 249-254.
51 A Bahia e a Carreira da Índia (1966), pp. 177-194, “Fisco e Contrabando”,
pp. 195-231. Additional information will be found in Documentação Ultramarina
Portuguesa, IV (1966), pp. 35-409, passim.
52 Francisco Luís Ameno, “Notícia Chronologica”, (BPE, Cod. CXV/1-21),
fls. 100-103 verso.
53 A Bahia e a Carreira da India, pp. 283-287.
II

56

though a few more may have done so, certainly as many as thirty-
nine did not — still less anything like 800 !
It is not possible to estimate the proportion of the contraband
trade at Bahia with the amount of legitimate trade in Asian goods.
For most of this period, the Portuguese Crown acted on the mercant¬
ilist principle expressed in an alvará of the 19 June 1772 : que da
capital ou metrópole dominante é que se deve fazer o comércio e
navegação para as colonias e não as colonias entre si” 54. The Crown
therefore strove to channel the trade in Asian goods, — whether
spices, textiles, porcelain, etc., — through Lisbon, where they
would pay customs duty before being re-exported to Brazil. Hence
the numerous alvarás, cartas-régias and -provisões, forbidding the
Indiamen which called at Bahia from selling the main part of their
cargoes there, even if the goods were damaged. The sales of such
Asian merchandise at Bahia were usually limited to those com¬
modities carried in the caixas de liberdade, and the gasalhados
of the officers and crew 55. This privilege was inevitably and con¬
sistently abused, just as it was in the case of similar rules and
regulations which attempted to limit the “private trade” driven
by the employees of the Dutch, English, and French East-India
Companies throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 56.
The “psychose de fraude” which Huguette and Pierre Chaunu have
documented so impressively in the Spanish-American transatlantic
trade 57, was present in a greater or lesser degree throughout the
whole colonial world during the ancien régime, and for the same
basic reason. Neither government officials nor the employees of

54 Op. cit., p. 228.

55 Cf. the order to this effect promulgated between 1661 and 1749, listed in
J.J. de Andrade e Silva, Collecção Chronobgica, II, 1657-1674, p. 98.
56 Cf. the instances given in C.R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire, 1600-1800
(London, 1965), pp. 201-206, 244-245, 249, 254-255; and the discussion in Louis
Dermigny, La Chine el VOccident. La Commerce à Canton au XVlIle siçcle, 1719-
1833 (3 vols., Paris, 1964), I, pp. 233-243, “Pacotilles et port-permis”, II, pp. 598-
682, “La Contrabande du Thé”; III, “Le Trafic Clandestin”, pp. 937-970.
57 Séville et VAtlantique, 1504-1650 (11 vols., Paris, 1955-58).
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA » 57

chartered trading-companies were able to live on the basic salaries

which they received, and they were perforce compelled to supple¬
ment them, licitly or otherwise 58.
Since the abuse of private trading privileges and the existence
of contraband trade were obvious facts of life from the earliest
days of European expansion overseas, it is rather amusing to see
them denounced in a tone of shocked surprise by a strongly-worded
royal decree of April 1785, addressed to the Governor and senior
authorities of Moçambique and Zambesia 59. These high officials
were accused, among other things, of “Entrando em Negociações
mercantis, per si, e por interpostas pessoas com dinheiros seus
proprios, e ate com os da Minha Real Fazenda: E não havendo
meio algum, que não excogitassem para extorquir o cabedal alheio,
e engrossar o seu, chegando a sua inexhaurível cobiça a tal extremo,
que ao mesmo tempo, em que os ditos Governadores Me representa¬
vam aquelle importante Domínio, e os seus Habitantes reduzidos
á maior penúria, e á mais deplorável situação, elles mesmos, dentro
de brevissimo tempo de seu governo, appareciam senhores de
importantes cabedaes, que em seus Nomes, e de terceiras pessoas

58 “It is very well known”, wrote the English Governor and Council at Benkulen
in Sumatra, to their superiors at Madras in 1754, that “the pay of your servants will
not maintain them in such a place as this in meat and clothes; they must either
starve or seek some other means of livelihood, if every chance of getting one honestly
is shut up to them”. (Madras Records, Court and Bay Abstract, 1754. I owe this
quotation to Miss Seyamala Kathirithamby). Cf. also the Duke of Cadaval’s remark
that it was much more difficult to find suitable candidates for colonial governorships
after they had been prohibited from trading, even in some “negocio justo”, by the
royal decree of September 1720. Cadaval had been against the promulgation of this
decree, having foreseen “a difficuldade de encontrar pessoas capazes daquelles
empregos de passar o mar e hir a climas diferentes, sem outra utilidade mais que o
risco, e a despeza de sua fazenda” (Virginia Ratt and M.F. Gomes de Silva, Os MSS
da Casa de Cadaval, II, p. 310).
59 Alvara em fôrma de Ley, porque Vossa; Magestade, obviando as prevaricações
commettidas em Mossambique pelos Governadores e Capitães Generaes, e pelos Ouvi¬
dores daquella Capitania : He servida occorrer a ellas na forma assim declarada, d. 14
April and registered 21 April 1785.
II

58

remettiam para fóra, e empregavam no commercio, ou que anti-

cipando-se-lhes a morte se patenteavam nos seus consideráveis
Espólios”. Needless to add that the minatory tone and the severe
penalties threatened in this alvará era forma de Ley had no more
effect than had similar enactments in the days of Afonso de Albu¬
querque, who never tired of telling King Manuel that the worst
enemies which the uRei Venturoso had in India were some of
his own officials 60.
Although Moçambique island and the Bahia de todos os Santos
were by far the most important escalas in the carreira da India,
passing mention may be made of some of the others which were
utilised less frequently. The island of St. Helena was a watering-
place and rendez-vous for homeward-bound Indiamen for much
of the sixteenth century, although it had the disadvantage of
being “hüa boya no maar que os mais herrão, e erramdo-se bem
craro estaa quoão em perigo de sede chegarão a Portugal só com
ágoa que tomárão na India”, as an anonymous critic wrote in
1545 61. He suggested that homeward-bound Indiamen should call
at Moçambique island to fill their water-barrels and thus obviate
the need to call at St. Helena or elsewhere; but in 1568 the Crown

60 “... porque a jemte da India tem hum poucochynho a consciência grosseta e

parece-lhe que vam a Jerusalem em Romaria quando furtam”, Albuquerque wrote
in his inimitable style to the King on the 30 November 1513, when enumerating
the misdeeds of some “quadrylheiros e tanadares e escrivães das presas” (R.A. de
Bulhão Pato, ed., Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque, Tomo I, Lisboa, 1884, pp. 141-
150). Cf. also the judicious considerations of Alexandre Lobato concerning the
contraband trade at Sofala and Moçambique in his Estudos Moçambicanos. A Expan¬
são Portuguesa em Moçambique de 1498 a 1530 (3 vols., Lisboa, 1954-1960), III,
pp. 393-397. Virginia Rau, “Fortunas ultramarinas e a nobreza portuguesa no
século XVII” (Revista Portuguesa de História, Tomo VIII, Coimbra 1959, pp. 1-25),
documents the case of António Telles de Silva, who made a fortune by judicious
trading, money-lending, and investment, before his death in January 1651.
61 V. Magalhães Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, Vol. II
(Lisboa, 1968), p. 74. An alvará of the 23 February 1579, Pera que na llha de Santa
Elena não fiquem os bateis, was embodied in the standard Regimento dos Escrivaens
down to 1756 at least.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 59

categorically forbade these Indiamen to do so, “salvo semdo em

extrema necessidade” 62. We have seen above that homeward-
bound Indiamen did call at Moçambique fairly often (though not
as often as those which were outward-bound). Diogo do Couto
complained in 1603 that those ships which did so, took the oppor¬
tunity of lading cargoes of ebony (pão preto) on private account63.
Couto also tells us that the idea of some port in Madagascar for
use as an escala was revived in 1556 64, but neither this nor sub¬
sequent suggestions to the same effect in the seventeenth and
eighteenth century were implemented. The Bay of Santo Agostinho
was the place principally favoured by such Indiamen as called
at this island, but those of São Felix, São Boaventura, and Anton
Gil were occasionally visited 65. The largest of the Comoro islands,
“huma das mais altas, e mais bellas, que tem todo o mar Oceano”,
as a voyager of 1750 described it with evident exaggeration,
was also visited occasionally, though it was of more importance
for its trade with Moçambique 66.
On the other side of Africa, São Paulo de Luanda was occasionally
used as an escala by Indiamen, but only in a genuine emergency,
as it was well away from both the outward-bound and the home-
ward-bound passages laid down in the roteiros and regimentos 67.

62 “Regimento dado por El-Rei D. Sebastião a Dom Luis de Ataide”, d. Lisboa,

27 Feb. 1568, in A. da Silva Rego, Documentação. índia, X, 1566-1568 (Lisboa,
1953), pp. 458-459.
63 “... que he a total destruição das naos que ali invernão o que se ouvera de
atalhar com grandes defesas” (Década VII, Livro 8, cap. xii).
64 Década VII, Livro 3, cap. vi.
65 Francisco Raymundo de Moraes Pereira, Relação da viagem (Lisboa, 1750),
pp. 101-105; A. Fontoura da Costa, A Marinharia dos Descobrimentos (ed. 1934),
pp. 334-335; J.T. Hardyman in Studia, XI (1963), pp. 315-341.
66 F.R. de Moraes Pereira, Relação da Viagem (1752), pp. 171-172; A. Fontoura
da Costa, A Marinharia dos Descobrimentos (ed. 1934), pp. 300-305.
67 Manuel Pimentel, Arte de Navegar (Lisboa, 1699), pp. 356-358, includes an
emergency “Viagem do Cabo de Boa Esperança para Angola, se por algüa necessi¬
dade for preciso ir a Angola”. On pp. 375-381, Pimental gives short descriptions of
“alguns portos, e Bahias onde as Naos da índia se podem recolher em caso de necessi¬
dade”. Aguada de Saldanha; Bahia do Cabo de Boa Esperança; Bahia de Sto.
II

60

As regards Brazilian ports, Bahia always remained the principal

escala for homeward-bound Indiamen, with Rio de Janeiro in the
second place; although the volume of gold passing through the city
of São Sebastião was greater than that which was handled by the
city of Salvador. The great demand in Asia, Africa, and Europe for
Bahian tobacco, especially that from Cachoeira, helps to explain
why Bahia remained the chief escala for Indiamen until the closing
years of the 18th-century, when outward-bound ships started to
call at Rio de Janeiro instead. Recife was seldom visited by India¬
men, and the lesser Brazilian ports still more rarely, though the
conditions granted to a Macau-bound Indiamen in 1759 contained
the following clause: “Que possa a dita Náo arribar à Ilha de Santa
Catharina, e na volta à Cidade da Bahia; bem entendido, que não
devem fazer negociação alguma nestes portos, debaixo das penas,
em que incorrem os que commerçeão nos portos do Brazil sem
licença de Sua Magestade” 08. The terms of trade were liberalised
considerably by an alvará of the 17 January 1783, which permitted
outward-bound Indiamen to lade brandy, rum, and sugar (but not
tobacco) at Brazilian ports for sale at Goa and Macao 69. The
restriction on the direct exportation of Brazilian tobacco to the
East, where it was in great demand in China, was removed during
the last decade of the eighteenth century; and in 1810 ships were
allowed to sail direct from Macau to Brazilian ports without being
compelled to call at Goa en route 70.

Agostinho na Ilha de são Lourenço; Ilha de Anjoane (Comoro); Ilhas de Querimba,

e porto do Oibo; Ilha de Socotorá; Ilha de Mascarenhas (Bourbon); Ilha do Cirne
(Mauritius); Bahia de Anton Gil na Ilha de S. Lourenço; Ilhas da Trindade, e da
Asenção; Ilha de Santa Helena.
68 Condições, que se hão de praticar com a negociação, que no presente anno de 1759
vai fazer ao Império da China a Náo de guerra Senhora da Atalaia (Lisboa, 1/59).
The Gazeta de Lisboa of the 14 October 1760, gives a list of the Chinese goods (mainly
teas and silks) which she brought back to Lisbon after touching at Bahia (28 June-
26 July) and Faial (18-23 September).
69 J.R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Carreira da índia, pp. 199-200.
70 Ibidem, op. cit., pp. 216-221. Cf. also V. Magalhães Godinho in Dicionário

de História de Portugal, III (1968), pp. 691-692, for the revival of Portuguese trade
with Asia in the period 1784-1814.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE «CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 61

A final word on the Azores as an escala for the Naus da Carreira

da India. A glance at the map and at the standard regimentos and
roteiros for the torna-viagem will show that homeward-bound India-
men almost invariably passed through the Azores, usually by the
island of Terceira. From about 1520 onwards, when French Hu¬
guenot pirates became a menace, and were later succeeded by
English and Dutch corsairs and by the Barbary Rovers, Portuguese
warships were often sent to meet the homeward-bound Indiamen
off the Azores and convoy them to Lisbon 71. Indiamen which
touched at Terceira (or elsewhere) in this way, naturally had the
opportunity of “private trade” during their (usually, brief) stay,
as well as of obtaining fresh water and provisions. Undoubtedly,
some contraband-trade with passing Indiamen was carried on;
but the corn and wine of the Azores did not have the same attraction
for smugglers as the gold, ivory and ebony of Moçambique, or the
sugar, and tobacco and gold of Bahia. Rather surprisingly, the
Crown not merely allowed but facilitated the Indiamen of the
Ostend Company to call at the Azores and sell part of their Asian
cargoes there in exchange for provisions — possibly a favour to
D. João V’s Austrian Queen 72. In any event, Portuguese Indiamen
called often enough at Terceira to warrant the maintenance there
of a Provedor das armadas e naus da India for many years.

Summary

The two principal escalas for the carreira da India were Moçam¬
bique island and Bahia (Salvador) in Brazil; the former from the

71 Details in V. Magalhães Godinho, “A Rota do Cabo”, in Os Descobrimentos

e a Economia Mundial, II (1968), pp. 75-77. For the position of the Azores in the
maritime economy of Portugal’s empire cf. Frédéric Mauko, Le Portugal et V Atlan-
tique au XVID siècle, 1570-1670 (Paris, 1960), pp. 13-14, 22-27, 102-107, 299-301,
352-357, 362, 472-474, 490-492, 503-504.
72 Letters from the Casa da India at Lisbon to the Juizes das Alfandegas at
Terceira and Fayal, 26 November 1723, in Documentação Ultramarina Portuguesa,
IV, pp. 62-63.
II

62

beginning of the 16th-century, and the latter from 1663. Apart

from their favourable geographical situation, they both afforded
excellent opportunities for a thriving contraband-trade, which the
Crown made repeated but futile efforts to suppress.
Through voyages in either direction were not unknown, but the
great majority of outward-bound Indiamen called at Moçambique
island; and many homeward-bound Indiamen which failed to round
the Cape of Good Hope were forced to do so. There was an active
trade, largely legitimate and partly contraband, between this
island and the Portuguese Indian ports of Goa, Damão, and Diu.
It was mainly based on the exchange of African gold, ivory, and
slaves, for Indian textiles, Chinese porcelain, and missanga. The
slave-trade with Brazil was a development of the late 18th and
early 19th centuries. Contraband-trade with the French islands
of Bourbon and Mauritius did not become very important until
the spectacular development of those islands by Mahé de La
Bourdonais; but it was one of the mainstays of Moçambique’s
economy during the second half of the 18th century. The Portu¬
guese were never able to install adequate dockyard and repair
facilities at Moçambique; partly because they had no effective
control of the mainland opposite the island for more than the depth
of a few miles. Endemic fevers and other tropical diseases kept
the white population and the strength of the garrison down to a
very low level for over three centuries. The Prelate of Moçambique
noted in 1822: “Serão portanto os Portugueses brancos, ou reputa¬
dos tães entrando ambos os sexos 120 individuos”, out of a total
population of some 8,500-9,000, including government officials and
the garrison 73.

73 D. Virginia Rau (ed.), “Memória Chorografica da Província ou Capitania

de Mo8sambique na Costa d’Africa Oriental conforme o estado em que se acha no
ano de 1822”, by D.Fr. Bartolomeu dos Mártires, in Studia, XI (1963), pp. 123-
163, especially pp. 134-135. There were almost certainly fewer than 150 white
inhabitants of Moçambique island in any given year prior to 1822, except, of course,
when there were several Indiamen in the harbour awaiting the monsoon for onward
passage.
 II

PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 63

Bahia, populous and strongly garrisoned, with its rich hinterland

of the Reconcavo under effective Portuguese control, afforded much
better dockyard and repair facilities when it became (unofficially)
an annual escala for homeward-bound Portuguese Indiamen in
1663 — a practice only fully sanctioned by the Crown some thirty
years later. It was never used as a regular escala for outward-bound
Indiamen, though it sometimes served as a porto de arribada for
those which had lost their voyage; but the Crown strongly dis¬
couraged this practice, preferring such ships to return direct to
Lisbon. In the second half of the 17th and for most of the 18th
centuries, the homeward-bound Indiamen which left Goa usually
were not fully laden; and it became the practice for them to com¬
plete their cargoes by loading sugar, tobacco, and hides at Bahia
for the account of the Crown and for private individuals. With few
exceptions, these Indiamen were not allowed to sell their bulk
cargoes of Asian goods at Bahia, but they had to take them on
intact to Lisbon; whence they could be re-exported, in whole or
in part, to Bahia and other Brazilian ports, after paying dues at
the Casa da India and the Customs. The Asian goods brought by
the officers and crew in their caixas de Liberdade and their gasal-
hados, could, however, be sold at Bahia under the terms of an edict
in 1672 (in practice, long before). In this way, a flourishing legitim¬
ate and a contraband-trade, based on the exchange of Indian
textiles, Chinese silk fabrics, tea and porcelain, for Brazilian gold
(after 1695), sugar, tobacco and hides, quickly developed and
maintained itself. The moradores of Bahia naturally preferred to
buy goods secured direct from the officers, crew, and passengers
of homeward-bound Indiamen, than to pay the much higher prices
asked for Asian goods which had been re-exported from Lisbon
after paying heavy duties there.
Indiamen which reached Bahia from Goa in an unseaworthy
condition, as many of them did, were allowed to land their bulk
cargoes of Asian goods, which were stored in the Customs-House
under lock and key, until such time as the ship had been repaired
and was ready to leave for Lisbon, when these goods were re-
II

64

embarked. If the ship was condemned to be broken up, as being

too badly damaged, her cargo was distributed among her consorts
(if any), or among the royal frigates convoying the homeward-
bound Brazil Fleets, which sailed in convoys between 1650 and
1765 (and briefly in 1797-1801). It is not possible to estimate the
relative proportions of contraband and legitimate trade in Asian
goods at Bahia. But it is clear that the system of liberdade and
gasalhados was grossly abused, particularly during the reign of
D. João V, when the gold-mines of Brazil gave a great boost to the
purchasing power of the moradores.

Appendix

A Carreira da índia (viagem de ida), em 1636-1800

Anos Partirão de Lisboa Chegarão a Goa

1636-1640 14 11 or 12
1641-1645 18 12 or 13
1646-1650 26 20
1651-1655 18 16 or 17
1656-1660 14 13
1661-1665 9 8
1666-1670 12 10
1671-1675 12 11
1676-1680 13 11
1681-1685 13 13
1686-1690 5 5
1691-1695 10 7
1696-1700 13 13
1701-1705 13 13
1706-1710 9 9
1711-1715 11 11
1716-1720 9 7
1721-1725 10 9
1726-1730 9 8
 PORTS OF CALL IN THE « CARREIRA DA ÍNDIA» 65

Anos Partirão de Lisbao Chegarão a Goa

1731-1735 11 11
1736-1740 13 12
1741-1745 11 11
1746-1750 16 15
1751-1755 7 (no figures for 1753 available) 6?
1756-1760 10 10
1761-1765 9 9
1766-1770 7 7
1771-1775 7 or 8 7 or 8
1776-1780 5 5
1781-1785 7 (no figures for 1784 available) 7
1786-1790 8 8
1791-1795 (no figures for 1793 and 1795 available) 4
1796-1800 5 (no figures for 1796 available) 5

N.B. — The foregoing is a tentative estimate only, as the sources available to

me do not always agree with each other. For the years 1636-50, I have relied chiefly
on Simão Ferreira Paes, Recopilação das Famosas Armadas que para a índia foram
(ed. Rio de Janeiro, 1937); for the years 1650-1750, on Francisco Luís Ameno,
“Notícia Chronologica” (BPE, Cod. CXV-1-21); and for the years 1751-1800, on
J.A. Ismael Gracias, Catálogo dos livros do assentamento da gente de guerra que veio
do Reino para a Índia, 1731-1811 (Nova Goa, 1893). These have been checked with
various other printed sources, of which the most useful are: Manuel Xavier, s.j.,
Compendio Universal (ed., Nova Goa, 1917); and Ernesto de \asconcelos (ed.),
Relação de capitães mores e Naos (Separata do Boletim da Segunda Classe da Aca¬
demia das Sciencias de Lisboa, Vol. XVI, Coimbra, 1925).
It is highly probable that the great majority of Indiamen which reached Goa
had called at Moçambique on the way.
For a list of the outward-bound passages for the years 1500-1635, see V. Magal¬
hães Godinho, Os Descobrimentos e a Economia Mundial, II, p. 77. For a list of the
Indiamen calling at Bahia, 1500-1800, see J.R. do Amaral Lapa, A Bahia e a Car¬
reira da índia, pp. 275-297.
The third column in the above table only attempts to show the numbers which
actually reached Goa, and is not necessarily correct for the same five-year period
as column 1. For instance, of the fleet of six sail which left Lisbon in May 1740,
with the Viceroy Marquis of Louriçal, one was lost off Bahia, and the other four
only reached Goa between March and June, 1741.
 Ill

The Moçambique Channel from Terra dos Fumos to Quitangone

(from a coloured chart in the «Roteiro» of D. António de Ataide, 1631).
coleeção de C. R. Boxer
 Ill

Moçambique island and the «carreira

+

da India»

João de Barros, the chronicler of Portuguese Asia, in his

account of Vasco da Gama’s first visit to the island of Moçam¬
bique, on the 2 March 1498, described clearly and succinctly
how this place became and remained a way-station for the ships
of the carreira da India despite its notorious unhealthiness for
white men:

«a qual pouoação Moçambique daquelle dia tomou

tanta posse de nós, que em nome, é oje a mais nomeada
escala de todo o mundo, e per frequentação a mayor
que tem os Portugueses: e tanto que poucas cidades
há no reyno que de cinquoenta annos a esta parte
enterassem em sy tanto defunto como elle tem dos
nossos. Ca depois que nesta viagem a índia foy des-
cuberta té ora, poucos annos passárão que à jda o à
vinda nam jnvemassem aly as nossas náos: e alguns
jnvemou quasy todo hüa armada, onde ficou sepultáda
a mayor parte da gente por causa da terra ser muy
doentia. Porque como o sitio delia é hum eotovello á
maneira de cábo que está em altura de quatorze graos
e meyo, do qual convem que as náos que pera aquellas
partes navegam ájam vista pera jrem bem navegadas,
quando os ventos lhe não servem pera passar adiante
á jda ou vinda, tomam aquelle remédio de jnvernar
Ill

aly: e desta necessidade e doutras (como adiante vere¬

mos na descripção de toda esta costa) procedeo ele-
gerse pera escala de nossas náos, hum lugar tam
doentio e bárbaro, leixando na mesma costa outros
mais celebres e nobres» p).

João de Barros, with over a quarter of a century’s expe¬

rience of the fitting out and functioning of the annual India
Fleets by virtue of his posts of Treasurer and Factor of the
India House at Lisbon, was certainly well informed and knew
exactly what he was writing about. The earliest extant roteiros
which we have for the India voyage, and various allusions to
the carreira da India in the chronicles of Femão Lopes de
Castanheda and Diogo do Couto, as well as the Asia of Barros,
also make it clear that the Indiamen normally touched at the
island of Moçambique on the outward voyage, but, perhaps,
rather less often called there on the return voyage from Goa (2).
Caetano Montez has recently shown that the viagem de fora, or
course to the east of Madagascar instead of through the Moçam¬
bique channel, was more frequently taken in the first half of
the 16th-century than is generally realized; although I cannot

(1) João de Barros, Primeira Decada da Asia (Lisboa, 1552) Livro

IV, cap. 4.
(2) J. I. de Brito Rebello, Livro de Marinharia, Tratado da agulha
de marear, de João de Lisboa. Roteiros, sondas e outros conhecimentos
relativos á navegação (Lisboa, 1903), pp. 211-14; Femão Lopes de Cas¬
tanheda, História do descobrimento e conquista da índia, (9 vols., ed.
Coimbra, 1924-33) covers the period from Vasco da Gama’s voyage down
to 1542, lists most of the annual India Fleets, and indicates that the great
majority of them called at Moçambique on the outward voyage Like all
the contemporary chroniclers, he gives very little information about the
return voyages. Diogo do Couto, whose Decadas da Asia, IV-VII (Lisboa
1602-16) cover the years 1526-62, likewise indicates that most of the
outward-bound ships called at Moçambique. He states specifically that
one of the reasons for King Dom João III ordering the construction of a
fortress on that island in 1547 was «por ser a principal escalla das naos
do reino, aonde se vão refazer e prover, de tão longa viagem» (Decada, VI
Livro 5, cap. iii).

96
 Ill

agree with him when he suggests that before about 1530 the
outer voyage was the more normal route (3).
Opinions as to whether the inward or the outer passage
was more desirable fluctuated a good deal. In 1521, the last
year of his reign, King Manuel ordered the construction of a
fortress in the island of São Lourenço or Madagascar, «por ter
enformação que avia nela muyta prata e gingibre que esperava
daver, e também pera que as naos da carga da especiaria indo
pera a India fazerem ali agoada e irem por fora da ilha de
Sam Lourenço que era mais segura navegação para se passar a
India que por Moçambique». The two ships sent out with buil¬
ding materials and workmen for this purpose failed to meet at
the rendezvous, and the project was cancelled in the following
year by the new King, who ordered «que nenhüa fortaleza das
que el rey seu pay mandara fazer na India de novo, se fi¬
zesse» (4). Fifteen years later, Dom João III, commenting on
some suggestions made by Martim Affonso de Sousa for the
better regulation of the carreira da India and the advantages
of the outer passage, submitted these proposals to a junta of
expert pilots, «tomando porem por fundamento que ey por maior
segurança de meu serviço as naos d’armada yrem por dentro
do que por fora» (5).
In the upshot, a compromise was reached whereby the
Crown decided that if the outward-bound Indiamen rounded the
Cape of Good Hope after the 20-25 July they should take the
outer passage to the east of Madagascar, but if they passed the
southermost tip of Africa before that date they should take
the inner route through the Moçambique channel. This ruling
was not accepted unquestioningly and Gaspar Manuel in his

(3) Caetano Montez, «Moçambique e a navegação da India», in

Moçambique Documentário Trimestral, N.° 40 (Lourenço Marques, 1944),
pp. 5-22.
(4) Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, Os Livros quarto e quinto da his¬
toria do descobrimento e conquista da India (Coimbra, 1553) V, cap. lxxix.
(s) Martim Affonso de Sousa’s proposals and the King’s comments
thereon dated Evora, 3 March 1536, in J. D. M. Ford (ed.), Letters of
John III King of Portugal 1521-1557 (Cambridge Mass., 1931), pp. 254-56.

97
Ill

Roteiro of c. 1605 alleged that: «a experiência tem mostrado

outra coisa e o meu voto é que o dito capitulo é mui antecipado
e o regimento muito antigo no que toca a este ponto, e que toda
a nau que se acha em paragem depois do Cabo dobrado, por todo
o mês de Agosto até 3 de Setembro, á ponta de São Romão que
está em 26°, que por nenhum caso vá por fora, senão por dentro,
porque lhe não faltarão ventos que as lancem à índia, porque
os levantes não entram senão na entrada de novembro» (6).
Gaspar Manuel was, however, voicing a minority opinion. Most
of the pilots considered that it was essential to reach the island
of Moçambique before the end of August in order to make sure
of catching the tail-end of the south-west monsoon which would
bring them across the Indian Ocean to Goa at the end of
September or the beginning of October.
Quite apart from the conditions of wind and weather which
favoured the maintenance of Moçambique as a port of call for
Portuguese East-Indiamen, the economic attractions of this
island-entrepot formed another powerful magnet for shipping.
As early as 1514 Affonso de Albuquerque informed the King:
«asy, senhor, me parece que ha escala das naos da carga, quando
partem da india, danam Çofalla: e digo vos eu, senhor, isto,
. porque este feito qá nam amda muito escuro» (7). This is an
obvious allusion to the contraband trade in gold and ivory
driven by the officers and crews of the Indiamen which touched
at Moçambique on the homeward run. It was still truer of the
ships which called there on the outward passage, particularly
of those which belonged to the Crown, as a friar reported to
Dom João III ten years later: as naos de mercadores passão
cadanno a India per que tê dono que delas se doa e as de uosa
alteza nã por que os capitães se leixa estar ê moçãbique fazendo

(6) Apud Caetano Montez, «Moçambique e a navegação da índia»,

pp. 10-11; G. Pereira (ed.) Roteiros Portugueses do, viagem de Lisboa à
índia nos séculos XVI e XVII (Lisboa, 1898), p. 46. Cf. Ibidem, pp. 54, 66,
107, 115-17.
(7) Albuquerque to the Crown, 25 October 1514, in R. A. de Bulhão
Pato (ed.), Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque (7 vols., 1884-1895), Vol. I,
p. 300.

98
 Ill

seu proueito que deuê madar que todas vão per a Ilha de São
Lourenço» (8).
The inducement to call at the island of Moçambique, which was
already marked when Sofala was nominally the most important
Portuguese possession on the coast, became still stronger after
the fifteen-thirties when the focus of the gold and ivory trades
shifted to the Zambesi river valley with the Portuguese occupa¬
tion of Sena and Tete. These trades were channeled through
the royal customs-house at Moçambique, and all the efforts of
the Crown to secure the lion’s share of the profits for itself
and a bare minimum for its servants and for private traders,
failed to prevent these proportions being reversed. The Crown
could not afford to pay the majority of its servants adequately,
and was often unable to pay them at all. «Tarde, mal, e nunca»,
characterised Treasury payments in the popular parlance. Hence
contraband trade at the expense of the royal fisc was practised
by everyone who had a chance to do so from the governor
downwards; just as «private trade» flourished for similar rea¬
sons among the employees of the Dutch, English, and French
East-India Companies in the succeeding centuries. Everyone
traded on the side and everyone else knew it; and neither
Swahili smugglers nor Muslim pirates did as much harm to the
royal exchequer as did the officers and men of the Indiamen
who called at Moçambique (9).
As Caetano Montez suggested in his essay «Moçambique e
a navegação da India», and as Alexandre Lobato has convin¬
cingly documented in his later three-volume work, it was the
attraction of Moçambique as an entrepot with opportunities for
private trade which was decisive in keeping that island as the
main port of call in the carreira between Lisbon and Goa, in
despite of the arguments of those critics who denounced it as

(s) Mestre Frei Francisco Tamayo to the Crown, 25 December 1523,

apud A. Lobato, A Expansão Portuguesa em Moçambique de 1498 a 15S0
(3 vols., Lisboa, 1954-60), Vol. III, p. 379.
(9) A. Lobato, A Expansão Portuguesa em Moçambique, 1498-1580,
Vol. I, p. 257; Vol. II, pp. 101, 108, 136-39; Vol. III, pp. 81, 136, 277-79,
385, 394-95.

99
Ill

being literally a white man’s grave. To the testimony of the

various pilots who gave their opinion for or against the use of
Moçambique island as a way-station in the carreira da India,
and which Caetano Montez has assembled in his article, can be
added the opinion of Dom António de Ataide, Captain-Major
of the India Voyage in 1611-12, later Captain-General of the
Portuguese Home Fleet (1618-21), and one of the governors of
Portugal in 1631-33. After describing the outward voyage from
Lisbon as far as the Cabo das Correntes in his unpublished
Roteiro of 1631, he proceeds:
«Daqui saem duas carreiras, hüa por dentro da jlha de Sam
Lourenço, outra por fora. Todos os pilotos e roteiros conformão
em que chegando ao Cabo [de Boa Esperança] até vinte vinte
sinquo de julho se pode cometer a viagem por dentro, mas que
se passar hum dia de vinte sinquo se va por fora porque neste
tempo fica muito mais seguro e he mais certo irdes a Cochim
ou Goa. Alguns homens temem grandemente a viagem por fora
e sempre ha sobre isso questões. Fundão o receio em dizerem
que adoece muita gente e não se querem lembrar de quanta mais
morre nas invernadas em Moçambique. Bem se vio o anno de
1608 em que forão invernar a Moçambique hüa nao e tres galioês
da companhia do Conde da Feira e morrerão seis centos homens;
e tudo he mizeria e pobreza. A verdade é que cuidam os homens
que em Moçambique venderão o biscouto e o vinho e o queijo,
mas tudo se gasta e tudo se consuma em hüa invernada. E indo
por fora fica el rey melhor servido e a viagem segurissima, por¬
que neste tempo por fora ha ventos suestes claros que em dous
mezes sois em Goa ou Cochim, e por dentro he polio contrario
porque he gastada a monção e faltão os ventos, e as agoas sam
muito furiosas, quando cuidaes que estaes em São Lourenço
achais-vos no parcel de Sofala, e não tendes pera onde vos guar¬
dar metido entre o parcel de Sofala, Ilhas Primeiras e de Angoxa,
baixos e coroas de hüa banda; costa, parcel, e arrecifes da ilha
de São Lourenço da outra; agoas com grande furia, ventos fra¬
cos e escassos. Certo que he milagre sahir hüa nao a salvamento
deste canal vindo tarde. Nam he assy por fora, que vos afastais
pera leste quanto quereis e salvais os baixos e podeis segura¬
mente andar em volta sem perigo de correntes porque as não ha.

100
 Ill

Trasem logo hum ou dous exemplos de nao que passou a

India por dentro chegando a Cabo em setembro, como se não
ouvera mfenitos de naos e perdidas e polo menos invemadas,
porque chegando em Agosto ao Cabo quiserão ir por dentro; e
das que forão por fora são rarisimas as que nao chegarão a
índia. Digo vos o que escreverão e experimentarão os melhores
pilotos desta carreira» (10).
Although Dom António de Ataide’s allegation that every¬
thing was «mizeria e pobreza» in Moçambique was not true of
this island at all times and seasons, there is not the slightest
doubt that the death-rate among the white residents and tran¬
sientes was normally very high. This was particularly so with
the passengers and crews of the outward-bound Indiamen which
stopped or wintered there, and who usually reached the island
in very bad shape for reasons explained by Padre Femão de
Queiroz S. J. in 1687:
«Não se podião tambê escusar muitas mortes em tanta
variedade de climas; porque se bem o mar he mais sadio que a
terra, podem ser muita as causas da corrupção; como se vê nos
mantimentos velhos, recozidos, e pobres; na agoa de pipas mal
curadas, e muito mais depois de passar Guiné; na gente meya
corrupta, do Limoeiro, e Cabria; na multidão dos navegantes,
e pouco comodo dos gazalhados, que se chega adoecer em grande
numero, na mayor, e forçoza falta da limpeza, esta certo o
mayor dano; na ruim distribuição dos mantimentos, conforme
requerem os climas; e em outros incidentes de menos porte;
causas bastantes para perder a saude, e as vidas. E se as viajês
são compridas, e sem refresco, he certo o mal de Loanda, ou
corrupção dos homes vivos; inconvenientes que quiz apontar,
por que se podem remediar com as prevenções contrarias, e
com se refrescarem na viagem, como fazem multiplicadas vezes
os estrangeyros. Passa hüa náo nossa jà tarde por Moçambique,

(io) Dom António de Ataide, «Roteiros para Differentes partes»

(Unpublished codex of 1631 in the author’s collection) fls. 9-10. Cf. Gaspar
Ferreira Reimão, Roteiro da Navegação e carreira da India 1612 (ed.
Fontoura da Costa, Lisboa, 1939), pp. 18-19. I have kept the original
spelling of the 1631 codex but modernised the punctuation in a few places.

101
Ill

e tendo muitos portos, e ilhas em que pode tomar refresco, sem

ele comete o largo do mar Indico, e faltando a monção, chega
tão tarde, que traz metade da gente morta, ou em vesporas de
morrer; se não arriba a Sacatora [Socotra], ou inverna em
Moçambique, aonde nunca ouve bastante disposição para se
acudir a tanta gente, que lastimosamente povôa o campo de
São Gabriel, sem os ministros Reaes compadeçerem de tão
grave dano. Como se El ftey mandara somente trazer a nao a
índia, deyxando a gente no mar e terra sepultada; e sendo
dano tão ordinário, e conhecido, por falta de providencia e de
castigo, nunca teve o remedio necessário» O1).
Anyone who has studied the numerous narratives of the
India Voyages which are now extant must agree that Padre
Femão de Queiroz was mainly correct in his diagnosis. There
is no doubt that the principal causes of the heavy mortality in
the carreira da India were, as he says, insufficient or (more
often) badly contaminated supplies of food and water, which in
any case were bound to deteriorate during the voyage in tropi¬
cal seas; overcrowding and insanitary conditions for the pas¬
sengers and crew; and the reluctance of the ships to stop
anywhere between Lisbon and Goa, save only at the unhealthy
island of Moçambique. To these may be added the fact that
adequate medical attention for the sick was not available on
board ship, since the origin and cure of tropical and of some
aspects of malnutritional diseases were not known. Bleeding
was still practised as the sovereign remedy in many cases when
it killed more often than cured patients exhausted by gastro-en-
teric and fecal-bome diseases. When all the circumstances of
a six-months’ voyage under such conditions are taken into
account, it is not surprising that so many people died, but rather
that in some (admittedly exceptional) years the passege was
made under apparently idyllic conditions, and with virtually no
loss of life. Such an instance was recorded by the chronicler

(ii) Femão de Queiroz S. J.( Conquista Temporal e spiritual de

Ceylão (ed. Colombo, 1916), Livro VI, cap. 14, pp. 908. For other referen¬
ces to the high mortality rate at Moçambique see ibidem, pp. 861, 931, 933.

102
 Ill

Femão Lopes de Castanheda, whose own voyage to Goa had

been accompanied by heavy loss of life in the fleet of 1528.
Writing of the arrival of the next year’s fleet, he observed:
«esta armada levou tão boa viagem que quando chegou a Goa
yão os homens dela que erão quinhentos tão sãos e tão gordos
que parecia que avia quinze dias que partirão de Lisboa»,
adding significantly, «e nunca depois eu vi outros tais» (12).
Padre Femão de Queiroz S. J., may have been correct when
he implied that the 17th-century Dutch and English East
Indiamen had much fewer casualties than their Portuguese
counterparts because they called at more places for fresh provi¬
sions and water, although statistical proof of this assertion is
inevitably lacking. This belief was shared by most people who
had voyaged in the ships of these three nationalities, as instan¬
ced by the classic account of the French sailor, Pyrard de
Laval (13). However that may be, the fact remains that the
English and Dutch themselves often suffered very heavy casual¬
ties from disease in their naval and maritime enterprises. An
English historian has recently reminded us that the British
losses during the whole of the Seven Years’ War (1756-63)
amounted to 133,708 by disease or desertion, compared with
only 1,512 killed in action. He adds that in the next war, by
which time the medical lessons of Cook’s voyages might have
been learned, the Channel Fleet once landed 2,500 cases of
scurvy after a mere ten weeks’ cruise. Admiral Hawke’s com-

(i2) Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, Ho Sétimo Livro da historia do

descobrimento da India (Coimbra, 1554), ch. lxxxv and ciii for the
strongly contrasted voyages of 1528 and 1529.
(is) «Estes navios [da carreira da India] são extremamente sujos, e
infectos, porque a maior parte da gente não toma o trabalho de ir acima
para satisfazer as suas necessidades, o que em parte é causa de morrer
alli tanta gente. Os Hespanhoes, Francezes, e Italianos fazem o mesmo;
mas os Inglezes e Hollandezes são mui limpos e aceiados» (Viagem de
Francisco Pyrard ás índias Orientaes. 1601 a 1616, vertida do francez em
portuguez por J. H. da Cunha Rivara (2 vols., Nova Goa, 1858-62), Vol. II,
p. 172. Cf. also Travels and voyages by John Mocquet (London, 1696)
pp. 203-07, for similar observations by another Frenchman, who sailed to
India in the armada of the Conde de Feira in 1608.

103
Ill

ment on hearing this news was: «I do not wonder at the men

being sickly after so long a cruise. Six weeks is long enough in
all conscience. Any time after that must be very hurtful to the
men, and occasion their falling down very fast» (14). If English
sailors sickened of scurvy after a cruise of six weeks without
fresh meat and greens, it is not surprising that the Portuguese
sailors of the carreira da India fared much worse after a voyage
which seldom lasted less than six months.
As for the Dutch, they too had their troubles, though their
casualty-rate from sickness in the East India run does not seem
to have been so serious in the 17th-century as it was in the 18th.
Even so, it was bad enough to cause constant concern. In
November 1660, for example, the Marseveen left Texel with
348 men on board, of whom only 265 reached the Cape alive.
In 1694, 527 persons died on the voyage between the Nether¬
lands and the Cape, and 143 in the hospital ashore. In 1766,
368 persons died on the voyage, and 450 were landed sick.
Inadequate food and clothing were two of the main causes of
the mortality among the Dutch sailors, as Simon van der Stel
reported from the Cape. «They lose heart from want of nouris¬
hment, and all germs of strength failing them, they die» (15).
The hospital established at the Cape for the cure of sick seamen,
seems to have been almost as much of a death-trap as was its

(i*) Christopher Lloyd, «Hearts of Oak: The battle of Quiberon Bay,

20 November 1759», in History Today (November 1959), pp. 744-51. For
a masterly study of the often catastrophic ravages of disease in the British
navy see J. J. Keevil, Medecine and the Navy, 1200-1T1U (2 vols., Edin¬
burgh, 1957-58). The main causes were similar to those which operated
in the carreira da India, viz: overcrowding ships with (often disease-rid¬
den) landsmen unfamiliar with ship hygiene: badly contaminated pro¬
visions and drink, resulting in the spread of dysenteric, gastro-enteric and
fecal-borne diseases; inadequate medical knowledge and lack of proper
nursing accomodation for the sick.
(is) Apud Alice Trotter, Old Cape Colony from 1652 to 1806 (Cape
Town, 1903), pp. 235-37. E. H. Burrows, History of medicine in South
Africa up to the end of the 19th-century (Cape, Town, 1958), pp. 22-26
has an interesting discussion on the death-rate aboard Dutch East India-
men in the 17th-18th centuries.

10If
 Ill

Portuguese counterpart at Moçambique, at any rate at certain

periods, if Stavorinus’ account of this institution in 1768-71 is
to be believed. This was certainly the case with the hospital at
Batavia, which had a most unenviable reputation as being the
equivalent of a cemetry. Most of the heavy mortality among
the Dutch East India Company’s seamen in the second half of
the 18th-century was ascribed to the increasing and well attes¬
ted unhealthiness of this place; but in 1783 the Directors also
complained of the loss of 1,000 men in eight East-Indiamen on
the high seas (16).
Padre Fernão Queiroz S. J., was not being completely
accurate or entirely fair when he wrote his above quoted
indictment of the island of Moçambique, «aonde nunca ouve
bastante disposição para acudir a tanta gente, que lastimosa¬
mente povôa o campo de São Gabriel, sem os ministros Reaes
se compadeçerem de tão grave dano». João de Barros and Gas¬
par Correia inform us that as early as 1507, there was built
«üa casa grande em modo de esprital para agasalhar os doentes,
que ordinariamente havia no tempo que as naus ali invemavam»,
apparently on instructions from the Crown (17). Perhaps this
institution did not function for very long; for in 1538 another
hospital was founded by an incoming captain, as a Jesuit
chronicler informs us: «Em Santa Cruz vinha Antonio de Lima,
e Aleixo de Sousa Chicorro em Santa Catherina que ficou em
Moçambique por capitão daquela praça, e foi o primeiro que
nelle fez com seu proprio dinheiro hum hospital para nelle se
curarem os doentes das naos do reino a sua custa» (18).
It was presumably this hospital which was still functioning
twenty-five years later, when it was described in glowing terms

(is) A. J. Boeseken, Die Nederlandse Kommissarisse en die 18 de

eeuse samelewing aan die Kaap (Cape Town, 1944), pp. 17-18, 108, 147.
(i7) João de Barros, Década II, Livro I, cap. 6; Gaspar Correia,
Lendas da India, Livro I, Tomo I, Parte II.
(is) «Conquista da India per humas e outras armas reaes, e evan¬
gélicas:», written at Goa in 1652, and first printed in Documentação Ultra¬
marina Portuguesa, I, British Museum Add. MS. 281/61; Egerton 161/6
(Lisboa, 1960), pp. 520, 531.

105
Ill

by a Jeasuit missionary who visited the island on his way from

Lisbon to Goa in 1563. «Favoreceo-nos Nosso Senhor mais com
nos ter muito provimento no esprital de Moçambique, e pessoas
de muita caridade que tinhão cargo do esprital, as quaes, como
souberão que nos vinhamos, buscarão logo embarcações em que
trouxerão os emfermos, os quaes, tanto que chegarão os lavavão
todos com lavatórios de ervas, que pera isso tinhão aparelhados,
e os vestião com suas camisas lavadas e carapuças, e os lan-
çavão em suas camas muito limpas, que pera isso tinhão apa¬
relhadas. Tinhão aparelhado muita soma de manjares e medi¬
cinas para os curarem. Isto em tanta abundancia que não avia
mais que pedirem os emfermos tudo quanto quisessem, porque
tudo avia aparelhado para lhes dar. Avia no esprital trezentos
e setenta e tantos emfermos; todos estes dias se lhes dizia missa
e cumungavão a ella, de maneira que, em oito dias que alli esti¬
vemos, se confessarão e commungarão todos os que estavão
pera isso, porque alguns avia que estavão fora de si, das grandes
febres que tinhão. Nos passamos todos aqueles dias no esprital,
aonde serviamos aos emfermos, de noite e de dia». Another
Jesuit passenger in the fleet of the following year which touched
at Moçambique also had words of high praise for the hospital
and for «aquellos buenos hombres portugueses, moradores alli,
qualles tienen un especial cuydado del hospital, porque le tienen
limpio, y con todo lo necessário y servicio de muchos negros,
y sus mujeres, donde su casa y embian todo lo que han
menester» (19).
The hospital described by the Jesuit missionaries of 1563-64
in terms which recall Pyrard de Laval’s enthusiastic praise of
the great hospital at Goa fifty years later, was apparently still
functioning satisfactorily at the end of the 16th-century, judging
by the description of it in Fr. João dos Santos’ O. P.’s classic

(is) «Carta do Irmão Jácome de Braga S. J., Goa, 2 Dezembro 1563»

and «Carta do Padre Pero Fernandes S. J., Goa, 23 Novembro 1564», in
A. da Silva Rego, Documentação para a história das missões do padroado
português do Oriente. India, Vol. IX (Lisboa, 1953), pp. 214, 327. Cf. also
Ibidem, Vol. X, p. 235, where the hospital is described by another Jesuit
eyewitness as being «bem capas» in 1567.

106
 Ill

Ethiopia Oriental: «Perto desta fortaleza velha está hum hos¬

pital, onde se curão todos os enfermos, que adoecem na terra, e
os que vem de fora a este porto, assi da índia como de Portugal.
O que se faz com muita charidade, e diligencia. Deste hospital
tem cuydado o Provêdor, e irmãos da Misericórdia, mas o gasto
delle he a custa dei Rey, que pera isso manda pagar o capitão
da fortaleza como Veador que he da sua fazenda nestes partes
de Moçambique» (20).
Unfortunately, this well-run hospital was destroyed during
the Dutch attacks on the island of Moçambique in 1607-08, and
many years elapsed before it was adequately replaced, if, indeed,
it ever was. The viceroy Conde da Vidigueira proposed in 1625
that a new hospital should be built and entrusted to the care
of the Jesuits after it had been adequately equipped and
endowed from Crown funds. The King approved of this sug¬
gestion, but the authorised endowment of 1,000 cruzados a year
(deducted from the lease-money paid by the captain of the
fortress who was entitled to monopolise the local trade) proved
to be quite inadequate. Not until 1637 was the building suffi¬
ciently advanced for patients to be admitted, and it is not clear
whether the Jesuits in fact took over the administration, or,
if so, for how long. The correspondence for the years 1640-1680
is full of complaints about the high mortality in Moçambique,
particularly among the soldiers of the garrison and the men
landed from passing Indiamen, allegedly due to the chronic
want of proper hospital and medical facilities (21).
In 1680-81 the Prince-Regent of Portugal, Dorn Pedro,
decided to authorise the construction of a new and better hos¬
pital at Moçambique, «em que se curarem não só os soldados
da fortaleza e moradores, mas todos os soldados que ahy apor¬
tarem, assim das naos de arribada como de viagem». Acting on
suggestions made to him four years previously. Dom Pedro

(20) João dos Santos O. P., Ethiopia Oriental e varia historia de

cousas notáveis do Oriente (Évora, 1609), Parte I, livro 3, cap. iv.
(21) Cf. E. Axelson, Portuguese in South-East Africa 1600-1700
(Johannesburg, 1960), pp. 117-19; 130; Studia, Vol. I, pp. 78-81.

107
Ill

decided that the administration of this new hospital should be

entrusted to the Religious of the Order of São João de Deus,
«porque só elles sabem ter cuidado dos enfermos e tratar da
saude delles». The establishment and subsequent vicissitudes of
this hospital have recently been admirably described in the well
documented studies of Senhor António Alberto de Andrade,
and there is no need to repeat this information here (22). Suffice
it to say that the high mortality-rate at Moçambique continued
to decimate the men landed in the island from passing Indiamen
as well as the soldiers of the garrison. Wether this was partly
due to the real or alleged defects of the friars of São João de
Deus, or to the lack of support which they received from the
local Crown officials (as the friars themselves complained), or
to causes beyond the control of both parties to this perennial
dispute, the reader of the copious but conflicting documents
published by Senhor A. A. de Andrade must decide for himself.
On one point, however, both the friars and their local
critics — to say nothing of visiting foreigners — were all
agreed, the extreme unhealthiness of Moçambique island in
itself. Ships which reached there with few or no sick on board,
often left with large numbers, as the outward-bound viceroy
Conde de Redondo complained in 1561: «Foi-me necessário . . .
guastar nesta tterra sadia trinta e dous dias com as minhas
cinquo naos, que custarão muito a my e nad’a Vossa Alteza; e
quando aquy cheguey trazia um só doente: quando me parti,
foy com mais de duzentos» (23). If this happened at a time when
the hospital was functioning more than satisfactorily, it can be
imagined what happened one or two centuries later when the
reverse was the case. Fortunately, the 17th-century hospital’s
shortcomings were sometimes mitigated by the charity of the

(22) A. A. de Andrade, «Fundação do Hospital Militar de São João

de Deus, em Moçambique», in Studia, Vol. I (Lisboa, 1958, pp. 77-89;
Ibidem, Os Hospitaleiros de São João de Deus no ultramar. Subsídios para
a sua história (Lisboa, 1957), reprinted from articles published serially
in the review Portugal em Africa, Vols. XIII-XIV.
(23) Conde de Redondo to the Crown, Goa, 20 December 1561, in
Studia, III, p. 44. The word sadia is obviously sarcastic in this context.

108
 Ill

local moradores — if not always of the local officials — to

which the Jesuits had paid tribute in 1563-64. As an instance
of this in later years, I may cite the case of Joseph Pereira de
Brito, one of the heroes of the defence of Fort Jesus at Mombasa
in 1696-98, who reminded the Crown in 1704 of his previous
services in Moçambique. He had made his home into a «second
hospital», when the Conde de Vila Verde’s two outward-bound
ships wintered there with many sick and dying in 1692: and he
spent 5,000 cruzados of his own money on relieving the sick
from the Santo António de Tand which wintered there in
1697 (24).
The criticisms made of the unsatisfactory state of affairs
in the royal hospital at Moçambique throughout the greater
part of the 17th and 18th centuries are all the more noteworthy
as the Portuguese had a deservedly high reputation for hospital
administration. Pyrard de Laval’s praise of the hospital at Goa
in the first decade of the 17th century has been quoted too
often to need reproduction here. It is perhaps more to the point
to quote the observations of John Methuen, the English envoy
at Lisbon a century later. Though never sparing in his criticism
of the Portuguese whenever he thought this justified, he wrote
of their hospitals in 1704: «I must do justice to the Portuguese,
for certainly there never was better care taken of sick men in
all the places, and there is on that account a great deal to
acknowledge» (25). Captain John Stevens, another contemporary
who knew Portugal well, described the great Lisbon hospital
of Todos os Santos as being a model of its kind. «Here all sick
persons, of what sex, age, degree, country, or religion soever,
are indifferently received, and looked after with as much care,

(24) Joseph Pereira de Brito to the Crown, Damão, 30 October 1704.

For the trials and tribulations of the Conde de Vila-Verde’s voyage to
India in 1692-93, see J. H. Cunha Rivara, O Chronista de Tissuary, Vol. II
(Nova Goa, 1867), pp. 30-32; F. Oliveira Martins, Um heroe esquecido.
João da Maia da Gama (Lisboa, 1944), pp. 12-16.
(25) John Methuen to the Earl of Nottingham, Lisbon, 22 April 1704

(Public Record Office London, State Papers Portugal 89/18, Pt. I, fl. 90.
I owe this reference to Mr. John Villiers).

109
Ill

neatness and plenty as if every one of them were the only charge
of that place... Naturals and Lunaticks are also entertained
here, besides a vast number of infants continually left about
the doors, all of whom they breed up, and when they come to
years dispose of, either to trades, or some course of livelihood,
that they may get their bread» (26). The anonymous French
author of the Description de la ville de Lisbonne (Paris, 1730),
also observed that the city «a plusieurs Hôpitaux qui sont
parfaitement bien fondés» (p. 31).
Incidentally, but perhaps not altogether surprisingly, the
island of Moçambique did not prove nearly so unhealthy for the
Swahili, Bantu, and Indian residents of that town as it was for
white men. Interesting testimony to this effect is given by an
English naval officer who visited the island in 1812, and whose
account in this as in some other respects is applicable to an
earlier period. After describing the main town with its Euro¬
pean, Indian, and Eurafrican inhabitants, he proceeds: «Black
Town lies in the rear of the former, facing the sea, to the
southward. It consists of lines of huts, formed of hurdles, or
bamboos fixed in the ground, and connected by wicker-work,
with sod or dry grass for the roofs. The greater number could
only be entered in a stooping posture; some even required pros¬
tration and did not admit of the owners remaining upright when
within. Yet they were filled by strong, healthy, active inhabi¬
tants whose numerous children, gambolling to and fro, naked
as they were born, displayed ample proofs of health and viva¬
city; and in some respects their numbers, added to the structure
of the huts, suggested the idea of so many breeding-cages. Both
men and women, except the domestic slaves, have rarely any
other clothing than a mere rag to cover their nakedness. They
are fed with as little difficulty as they are clothed or housed.
Cocoa-nuts, plantains, cassava, rice, and other vegetable pro¬
ductions, constitute the principal articles» (27).

C8) [John Stevens], The Ancient and present state of Portugal (Lon¬
don, 1706), pp. 188-89.
(27) James Prior R. N., Voyage along the Eastern coast of Africa
in the Nisus frigate (London, 1819), p. 34. Cf. the description of the actual

110
 Ill

Jan Huighen van Linschoten in his description of Moçam¬

bique as it was in the last quarter of the 16th-century, wrote:
«The island of Mossambique is about half a mile in compass,
flat land, and bordered about with a white sand. Therein grow
many Indian Palmes or nut trees, and some orange, apple, lemon,
citron and Indian fig trees: but other kinds of fruit which are
common in India are there very scarce... They have no sweet
water in this island to drink, but they fetch it from the firm
land, out of a place called by the Portingales Cabaceira, and
they use in their houses great pots which come out of India, to
keep their water in» (28). This description remained essentially
correct for the next two centuries, except, of course, for the
years when the island was suffering from the devastation
caused by the Dutch (1607-08) and Arab (1670) invasions.
The bulk of the island’s food supplies came from the mainland,
often from as far away as the Querimba islands and Zambesia,
sometimes from Madagascar. This dependence on imported
provisions was undoubtedly one of the causes of mortality
among the passengers and crews of visiting Indiamen, who were
often in very poor condition and too numerous for such supplies
as were available at short notice (29).
Apart from recurrent difficulties with food supplies, the
island had an unenviable reputation on account of the tropical
diseases which were endemic there, as Alexander Hamilton
noted in his description of the place at the beginning of the
18th century: «Mosambique is an island belonging to the Crown
of Portugal, it is well fortified both by art and nature, but is
very unwholesome, in so much, that when any Reynol, or Euro¬
pean Portuguese in the King of Portugal’s service in India,

bairro indígena in. the standard monograph of Alexandre Lobato, A Ilha

de Moçambique (Lourenço Marques, 1945), from which we learn (p. 37)
that in earlier days «para lá do Tanque dos Mainatos era logradouro pri¬
vativo dos negros gentios e vedado a brancos que lá não fossem em gru¬
pos armados».
(28) iohn Huighen van Linschoten, his Discours of Voyages into ye

Easte and West Indies (London, 1598), pp. 8-9.

(29) Cf. my article in O Centro de Estudos históricos ultramarinos e as
comemorações Henriquinas (Lisboa, 1961), pp. 57-58.
Ill
Ill

commits any capital crime, instead of punishing him according

to their national or martial laws, they are banished to Mosam-
bique, for as many years as the viceroy of Goa and his council
shall order, and very few ever return from their exile, for 5 or
6 years is a long life there. It also serves for a refreshing place
for the Portuguese ships, that are bound from Europe to India,
where they generally stay about 30 days to recruit their soldiers
and seamen (30), (not with fresh numbers, but fresh victuals
and whores) who, by their inactivity and laziness at sea, con¬
tract the scurvy and dropsy, which the acid fruits and nou¬
rishing roots dispel. Their ships are generally at sea the whole
month of August, between Mosambique and Goa» (31).
Hamilton’s sneer at the «laziness» of the Portuguese seamen
is certainly unjustified, and the contemporary Count of Galveas
was nearer the truth when he observed in 1740 that: «meyo
arratel de carne salgada que depois de cozida se reduz a huma
quarta, nam he possivel que de vinte em vinte quatro horas,
baste para sustentar a hum homem que trabalha de dia e de
noite nas viagens da índia» (32). Similar testimony was given
by the captain of one of two Indiamen which wintered at
Moçambique in 1753. He ascribed the heavy mortality among
the crew to the «mao tratamento no hospital» together with the
«intemperensa do clima, falta de viveres, e continuo trabalho
das marinhagens das duas fragatas». The inadequacy of the
seamen’s basic ration in some respects and its unsuitability in
others was also criticised by the viceroy Marquis of Tavora
and the Fisico-Mór do Estado da India, Dr. Baltasar Manuel de
Chaves, as a result of their experience on the passage from
Lisbon to Goa in 1750 (33). On the other hand, Hamilton’s

(so) Dom Gonçalo da Silveira, S. J., wrote in 1557 that outward-

bound Indiamen usually stopped for «oito ou quinze dias» in Moçambique.
Silva Rego, Documentação, Vol. VI (1951), pp. 204-05.
(u) Alexander Hamilton, A New Account of the East Indies, 1727
(ed. 2 vol., London, 1930), Vol. I, pp. 16-17.
(32) Letter of the Viceroy of Brazil, Conde das Galveas, to the
Secretary of State, Bahia, 28 September, 1740, in O Centro, pp.80-81.
(•’3) Their respective reports dated Goa, December 1750, were printed
in full by A. Marques Esparteiro, «A higiene nas naus de viagem em mea-

112
 Ill

allegations about sexual immorality at Moçambique can be

confirmed from contemporary sources, including a clerical
visitor of 1691 who noted that: «Mossambique não he tão feo
como o pintão, mas os Portugueses com a sua lascivia e gula
enchem as sepulturas» (34). In point of fact, the ravages of
venereal diseases were probably not so serious as those of the
malarial and bilious fevers which were endemic in the island.
The majority of the white inhabitants admittedly did not live
long, although there were always some robust exceptions. Such
a one was Dionizio Manuel Viegas, who served there and in the
equally unhealthy fortress of Sofala for about thirty consecutive
years in 1720-50, during which time he was twice acting
governor.
The extreme unhealthiness of the island for white men,
whether due to unavoidable or to preventable causes, led to
recurrent suggestions that Moçambique should be abandoned
as a port of call for Indiamen in favour of some healthier
locality, Mombasa, Madagascar, and even the Querimba islands
having their advocates at different times. The abortive scheme
for the occupation of a port on the coast of Madagascar in 1521
has been mentioned above, and similar projects were occasio¬
nally considered by the government at Lisbon during the next
two and a half centuries, though nothing concrete ever came of
them. Alternatively, it was suggested that ships should sail
directly between Lisbon and Goa, without stopping anywhere
on the way, and this course was frequently embodied in the
Crown regimentos or sailing-orders given to the commanders
of Indiamen (35). These orders were apt to be honoured rather

dos do século XVIII», in Boletim, da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa

(Outubro-Dezembro, 1958), pp. 279-96. Cf. especially pp. 286-93. A. A. de
Andrade, in Portugal em Africa, Vol. XIII (1956), p. 274 for the mortality
at Moçambique in 1753.
(34) «Viagem que fes a Nao São Francisco de Borja o anno de 1691»
(BM, Add. MS. 20953, fl. 251).
(35) Some instances are given in my articles in The Mariner’s Mir¬
ror, Vol. XLVI (London, 1960), pp. 44, 46, and in O Centro, 55-56,73-74.
Cf. also the Crown instructions of 1568 printed in A. da Silva Rego,

113
Ill

in the breach than the observance, as I have indicated above,

and for reasons which Padre António Cardim S. J. expressed
with his usual forcefulness in 1650:
«Ordena El Rey no Regimento aos Capitães Mores façam
viagem sempre por fora da Ilha de Sam Lourenço, por evitar as
invernadas, que ordinariamente fazem os officiais em Moçam¬
bique, movidos do muito que interessam nas vendas das fazen¬
das, e ouro, que dalli levam para a India com total ruina da
infantaria, que a ilha a pura fome, e mao temperamento em sy
consome, e também do perigo das agoas, que em Agosto por
diante correm com grande impeto mais que rios, até o Cabo das
Correntes. Guardase muito mal esta ordem, e por se forrarem
vinte dias de viagem vemos as mais das naos virem por dentro.
Determinava o nosso Cabo guardallo, e entendido pella gente
maritima se veyo à sua camera, e alegando falta de agoa, e
mantimentos, com parecer dos officiais, e em fatal hora, se
resolveo, que fossemos por dentro» (36).

Documentação, Vol. X, pp. 458-59; A. Botelho de Sousa, Subsídios para a

história militar marítima, 1585-1650 (4 vols., Lisboa, 1930-56), Vol. IV,
p. 420.
(sá) António Francisco Cardim, S. J., Relaçam da viagem do galeam
Sam Lourenço, e a sua perdiçam nos baixos de Moxincale em S de Septem-
bro de 16^9 (Lisboa, 1650), fl. B. Elsewhere in the same pamphlet (fl. D),
enumerating the reasons for the loss of this galleon and her consort, the
galleon Nossa Senhora do Bom Successo do Povo, he writes: «Terceira,
nam se guardar o Regimento de Sua Magestade que manda que façam a
viagem por fora da ilha de Sam Lourenço, mas como os Pilotos nam sam
creados nesta carreira, temem os muitos baixos, que ha por fora, e no fim
se vem perder na viagem de dentro. This is one of the many instances
which could be quoted to disprove Caetano Montez’ contention that «a
navegação por fora era fácil, mar largo e aberto, sem correntes e, até,
despreocupado da questão das monções» («Moçambique e a navegação da
índia», p. 9). On the contrary, even those pilots who advocated the outer
route, could not ignore the «sobresaltos e temores de se verem mettidos
entre tantos baixos e ilhas», such as the Garajaos, Saia de malha &c.
Cf. also Humberto Leitão, «Identificação dos Baixos de Pero dos Banhos e
das Chagas», in Studia, Vol. I, pp. 118-22; W. Ph. Coolhaas, «As notícias
neerlandesas mais antigas acerca dos Baixos de Pero dos Banhos e das
Chagas», in Studia, Vol. V, pp. 7-19.

m
 Ill

On the other hand, experience showed that ships which

made the voyage direct from Lisbon to Goa (or vice-versa)
often suffered as heavy a casualty-rate from disease as did
those which called at Moçambique. A typical instance was that
of the viceroy Conde de Sandomil who voyaged to India in 1732
with a fleet of five sail. Noting the result in his diary in August
of the following year, the fourth Conde da Ericeira recorded:
«0 Vice Rei Conde de Sandomil chegou aquelle Estado com seis
mezes e tres dias de viagem sem tomar porto algum, nem o de
Mossambique: teve na Nao terriveis febres malignas, e mal de
Loanda, e lhe morrerão 100 pessoas, mas nenhuma conhecida.
Dispendeo com os doentes todos os seus remedios e gali¬
nhas» (37). Dr. Manuel de Chaves, who made the India voyage
with the viceroy Marquis of Tavora in 1750, sided with those
who criticised the direct passage when he wrote:« Huma das
principais cauzas das doenças hé, a que há muito tempo se
pertende evitar, e creyo, que a clamores dos feridos, e pella
confirmada experiencia dos infeliçes socessos se intenta já agora
remediar; e hé que não queiramos experimentar forças com os
climas diferentes buscando-os todos de hum assalto sem entre-
meyo respirar; não advertindo, ou não tomando exemplo das
outras nasçoens que nunca buscão porto na Azia sem se refres¬
carem, ou na America, ou na Africa muitas vezes» (38). Possibly
as a result of this representation and of an earlier one by the
Count of Galveas viceroy of Brazil (1735-49), outward-bound
Indiamen seem to have called at Brazilian ports more frequently
in the second half of the 18th century than they had done
previously.
An interesting comparison of the mortality figures is

(37) Diário do IV Conde da Ericeira», 11 de Agosto de 1733, published

by Eduardo Brazão in Biblos, Vol. XVIII (Coimbra, 1942), p. 452. The
diarist added that another ship, the Nossa Senhora do Rosario, «arribou
a Moçambique com morte de 150 homens, e com os que morrerão nas
outras naos e em terra faltão mais de 400 dos que levou o visorei de
Lisboa».
(as) Relatorio of the 5 December 1750 in A. Marques Esparteiro, «A
higiene nas naus de viagem em meados do século XVIII», p. 292.

115
Ill

afforded by a study of the outward-bound ships of the carreira

in 1744-45. The Madre de Deus and the Nossa Senhora da Cari¬
dade left Lisbon together on the 29 March 1744, and though
they parted company in a storm off Madeira in April, they fell
in with each other again off the coast of Malabar and entered
the river Mandovi on the 19 September. Jail fever and other
infectious diseases had prostrated most of those on board at
one time or another; but whereas the Madre de Deus which
touched at Moçambique had lost thirty men by the time she
arrived there after a speedy voyage of three months and ten
days («felicidede ha muitos annos não esperimentada»), the
Caridade, which did not do so, had lost over a hundred men by
time she reached India. Yet next year, the Nossa Senhora da
Victoria which left Lisbon in March, «foi tão feliz, que teve
tempo de refrescar a guarnição bastantes dias na Bahia de Santo
Agostinho, e demorar-se trinta e tantos em Mossambique para
esperar a monção; chegando a este porto [de Goa] só com seis,
ou sete mortos, e toda a mais guarnição robusta e sam, o que se
atribue também ao poco tempo que as levas dos degredados se
demorarão no Limoeiro, e na Cabria» (3S).
It may be noted in passing that although the island of
Moçambique was used so frequently by ships of the carreira
da India, the lack of proper dockyard and repair facilities was
a continual cause of complaint. The observations of the viceroy
Marquis of Castelo-Novo on this matter are printed in the
appendix below, but his representations had no lasting effect,
as can be seen from similar comments by his successors. The
same can be said of his suggestions for the improvement of the
food supplies, as can be seen from the difficulties experienced
by the Nossa Senhora da Caridade when she was forced to call
there with 120 sick in 1773. Nevertheless, it is equally clear

(a») José Freire Monterroyo Mascarenhas, Epanaphora Indica. Na

qual se dá noticia da viagem que o senhor Marquez de Castelo Novo fez
com o cargo de vice-rey ao Estado da índia (Lisboa, 1746), pp. 14-17;
correspondence of the viceroy Marques de Castelo-Novo printed in Arquivo
das Colonias, Vol. Ill (Lisboa, 1918), pp. 225-33; Ibidem, Vol. V (1930),
p. 97.

116
 Ill

that the Crown was not unconscious of these shortcomings,

and made serious if sporadic efforts to remedy them, as ins¬
tanced by the copious stores and materials sent out in April
1756, when Lisbon had hardly begun to recover from the
appaling earthquake and fire which ruined the city in the
previous November (40). A perusal of the relevant correspon¬
dence between Lisbon, Moçambique and Goa, as published in
the Arquivo das Colónias and the above quoted works of Ale¬
xandre Lobato and A. A. de Andrade, gives the impression that
local shortcomings were more often responsible for the unsa¬
tisfactory condition of Moçambique than was neglect by the
ministers of the Crown.
However that may have been, the fact remains that the
continued function of the carreira da India during three centu¬
ries was indissolubly bound up with the use of Moçambique
island as a way-station despite the enormous sacrifice of life
which this entailed. Gil Vicente perhaps spoke more aptly than
he knew when he exclaimed rhetorically in the Auto da Fama:

E não fique
Preguntar a Moçambique
Quem ê o Alferes da Fé
E Rei do Mar quem é!

(«o) Correspondence published in the Arquivo das Colonias, Vol. IV,

pp. 31-33, 70-79, 97-119, 212-19; Alexandre Lobato, Evolução administra¬
tiva e económica de Moçambique, 1752-176S (Lisboa, 1957), pp. 288-92.

117
Ill

APPENDIX

Extracts from the correspondence of the viceroy marquis

of Castelo-Novo concerning his voyage to índia in 1744

(a) Instrucção del Rei D. João V, Lisboa, 25 Março llkh- (*) *2. Para
fazeres a viagem tenho mandado preparar as Nàos Nossa Senhora Madre
de Deus e Nossa Senhora da Caridade e São Francisco de Paula. E porque
no Regimento que também mandei fazer para a mesma viagem, o qual
vos será entregue pelo Conselho Ultramarino vai prevenido tudo o que
nella pode occorrer-vos; sô vos recomendo muito particularmente que se
a Nào Nossa Senhora da Caridade se separar da vossa conserva por algum
accidente, e os officiaes delia não obstante a prohibição do dito Regimento
tomarem o arbitrio de arribar a Moçambique com os affectados pretextos,
de que costumão valerse para dessimularem as negociações e interesses
particulares que vão buscar ao dito porto, logo que chegam ao de Goa,
mandeis tirar húa informação particular do seu procedimento: e cons-
tando-vos que foi affectada a arriba, os mandareis logo prender até haver
occasião de serem remettidos para este Reino com a informação das suas
culpas.
3. Com esta instruçção mando entregar-vos mappas da gente, muni¬
ções, e matérias que levão as ditas Naos: E attendendo a que em algumas
das que fizerão viagem nas monções próximas, se vio a desordem de que
sahindo deste Porto superabundantemente providos de tudo o necessário,

0) From the original via in my own collection, formerly in that of J. J.

Biker, who printed it in his C&llecçâo de Tratados e concertos de pazes Que o
Estado da India Portugueza fez com os Reis e Senhores com quem teve relações
nas partes da .Asia e Africa Oriental desde o principio da conquista até ao fim do
século XVIII, Tomo VI (Lisboa, 1885), pp. 243-62. I have restored the original
spelling.

118
 Ill

dentro de poucos dias lhes faltaram as dietas, e athe os medicamentos

mais ordinários, e precizos para os doentes; tenho ordenado que se vos
entregue juntamente hum mappa geral de todos os mantimentos, dietas, e
boticas, que se embarcarão em cada hüa das Nãos, do qual se darão tam¬
bém copias aos comandantes para que soccedendo experimentaremse na
viagem semelhantes faltas se possa pelo dito mappa averiguar facilmente
o descaminho, e proceder-se logo contra os officiaes a quem tocar para
que dem conta do que receberão: E na que vos me deres da viagem decla¬
rareis se houve os ditos descaminhos para que eu possa mandar castigar
aos que cometterem como for servido... (2).
13. A respeito da Companhia Franceza he precizo prevenir-vos, que
alem do exorbitante contrabando que está fazendo desde as suas Ilhas de
Bourbon, assim em Moçambique, como nos mais portos daquella costa per¬
tencentes ao meu dominio, sem que para impedillo tenhão sido bastantes
as apertadas ordens, que o Marques de Louriçal deixou, quando esteve em
Moçambique, ainda são muito mais largas as vistas da mesma Companhia,
porque favorecida da Corte de Pariz, pertende ha annos, que eu lhe ceda
hum daquelles Portos, em que possa fazer hum establecimento; e na falta
delle deseja outro igual cessão do direito que tenho ao Dominio de Mom-
baça, e costa de Pate. E porque de tudo o que tem occorrido neste impor¬
tante negicio mandei instruir largamente ao Conde de Sandomil em carta
de 14 de Abril de 1739, e depois ao dito Marques do Louriçal nos despachos
que levou, e nos que se lhe remetterão nas Monções seguintes, vos ordeno
que examineis todos os ditos despachos (os quaes achareis na Secretaria
do Estado) para por elles vos regulares; vendo também as cartas que
escreveo de Moçambique o Governador Dom Lourenço de Noronha, em
que refere as differentes astúcias, e tentativas, com que os Francezes
costumão occultar, e pretextar o seu illicito comercio, para que pelos
meyos, que julgares mais efficazes, o procureis evitar; e juntamente pre¬
venir que o Governador das referidas Ilhas de Bourbon, e de cuja vivaci¬
dade achareis também em Goa bastantes noticias, não intente, ou na dita
corte, ou na de Mombaça, e Pate algum dos projectos, de que he fecundo,
em prejuizo do Estado» (3).

(») For the use and abuse of ships’ boticas cf. the previously-quoted studies
of A. A. de Andrade, «Os Hospitaleiros de São João de Deus no Ultramar. Subsídios
para a sua história», pp. 367-68, and A. Marques Esparteiro, «A higiene nas naus
de viagem em meados do século XVIII», p. 294, from which it can be seen that the
abuses of which the Crown complained in 1744, still existed in 1750andeven in 1822.
(3) The allusion is to the enterprising Mahé de la Bourdonnais, for whose
long-standing connections with the Portuguese and schemes on the East African
coast cf. A. C. Germano da Silva Correia, «Os Francezes na colonização Portuguesa
da India» (Studia, Vol. IV, pp. 35-39, where, however, he is wrongly split into two
separate individuals), and Alexandre Lobato, Evolução administrativa e económica
de Moçambique, 1752-6S (Lisboa, 1957), pp. 87-93, 108.

119
Ill

(b) REZUMO DO MANTIMENTO COM QUE SE PROVERÃO

AS DU AS FRAGATAS QUE NESTE PREZENTE MONÇÃO DE 1744
VAO PARA O ESTADO DA INDIA. (4)

A.

Arcos de ferro com que se ferrarão as vazilhas . 7508

Arroz . 1201 @ 12
Quartos em que vay . 77
Azeytes . 337 canteiros
Barris em que vay . 54
Assucar . 20 @
Barris em que vay . 4
Ameyxas . 72 alqueires
Barris em que vão . 9
Almofadinhas de laã . 110
Assafrão . 40 onças
Folhas em que vay . 6
Algodam . 25 lb.
Alfazema . 48 lb.
Sacos em que vay . 2
Alhos . 930 molhos
Quartos em que vão . 2
Arpoens de ferro. 4
Almotolias de folha . 24
Arcos de pão de Barril . 22 feixes
Alecrim . 4 feixes
Barris em que vay . 2
Alface. 2 barris

B.

Biscouto ordinário . 1423 quintaes @ 15

Biscouto branco. 46 > @16
Braços de balança . 4
Bombas de folha . 24
Barris de gale . 24

f4) From the original In the author's collection of MSS compiled by the
Marquis of Castelo-Novo in 1744-50, formerly in the collection of J. J. Biker (cf.
note (1) above), who entitled this codex «Governo da India e Africa Oriental,
1744-1750».

120
 III

Baldes. 24
Bacalhão . 501 @
Barris em que vay 50

C.

Carne de vaca . 100 @

Quartos em que vay . 10
Carne de porco . 517 @
Quartos em que vay . 57
Colchoens . 110
Camizas para doentes . 180
Barris em que vão . 2
Coentro seco . 2 alqueires
Saquinhos em que vay . 2
Caixas para roupa . 2
Carvão . 2 sacos
Barris em que vay . 2
Caldeyras de cobre . 4
Canos de ferro para funis . 18
Conchas de pão para balanças. 4
Cadeas de ferro dos fogoens. 2
Cravos de ferro . 1200
Colherinhas de pão . 950
Celhas . 24
Cortiça . 40 pastas
Cocos de pão . 14
Cadiados. 35
Candeiyros de bitacula. 4
Capoeyras . 8
Chicória . 4 barris
Caldeyroens de cobre . 2
Cayxas de botica. 5
Canastras de ervas. 1
Cuscus . 10 @
Barris em que vay . 4

D.

Doces . 20 @
Cayxas em que vay. 2

E.

Estopa . 38
Escumadeyras de ferro 4

121
Ill

p.

Farinha coada . 72 alq.

Barris em que vay . 6
Fogareyros de cobre . 2
Fizgas de ferro . 4
Funis de folha . 24
Frasqueyras de botica . 1
Frasqueyras de agoardente . 4

G.

Galinhas . 1150
Graons . 72 alq.
Barris em que vão . 9
Ganchos de ferro . 4
Graêz . 2

L.

Letria . 10 @
Barris em que vay . 4
Lentilhas . 75 alq.
Barris em que vão . 9
Legumes . 34 mos 52 alq.
Quartos em que vão . 106
Lancoês novos . 220
Lancoês velhos . 20
Lampioens de folha . 22
Lanternas. 22
Louça pintada . 30 dúzias
Louça vermelha . 30 duzlas
Lenha . 7200 achas
Línguas . 340

Quartos em que vão . 4

M.

Martellos . 4

Medidas de folha... 12 jogos

Medidas de pão . 6 jogos
Manobls . 4

Milho . 4 \ moyos

122
 Ill

Quartos em que vay . 14

Mantas de retalhos . 110
Machados . 4

Milho mais . 12 alq.

Vacos em que vay . 2
Maoriz de cameyro . 6

O.

Ovos . 60 duzias
Barril em que vão . 2

P.

Pano de linho . 57 varas

Panellas . 4
Pezos de ferro . 16
Pregos de cabeça de pipa . 1200
Palha de tabua . 11 molhos
Paz de pão . 22
Pipas de aguada . 140
Pimenta . 16 lb.
Peros secos . 2 barris

S.

Sumo de limão . 4 almudes

Barris em que vay . 2
Sabollas . 940 cabos
Quartos em que vão . 5
Sal . 220 alq.
Quartos em que vão . 11
Seyroens das camas . 110
Sestos de verga . 38
Sacos . 24
Sevada . 12 alq.
Barris em que vay . 2

T.

Taxos . 2
Tinas . 16
Toneis . 279
Toucinho . 314 @
Quartos em que vay . 23

12S
Ill

V.

Vinho . 2,580 almudes

Pipas em que vay . 96
Vinagre . 654 almudes
Pipas em que vay . 24
Velhas de cebo. 29 @
Cayxas em que vão 14
Varetas de pão. 24
Vimes. 22 leaços

(c) RELAÇÃO DOS MEDICAMENTOS COM QUE SE PROVEO A

BOTICA DA FRAGATA NOSSA SENHORA A MADRE DE DEOS
QUE NA PREZENTE MONÇÃO DE 1744 VAY PARA O ESTADO
DA INDIA (5)

Xaropes

Xarope Rey . 8 lb.

Xarope contra morbum . 9 ib.
Xarope de Dormidcoras . 9 lb.

Xarope de limões . 9 lb.

Xarofe de Mortinhos . 8 lb.

Xarope de Romans . 8 lb.
Xarope Rozado . 3 ib.

Xarope de Almeirão . 8 lb.

Xarope violado . 7 jb.

Xarope de Avença . 9 ib.

Xarope de Papoylas . 9 lb.

Xarope de Sorvas . 3 ib.

Xarope de Rozas secas . 3 ib.

Xarope de Camoezas . 7 ib.

Xarope Acetoza . 5 jb.

Xarope Mel Rozado . 8 lb

Xarope Arroba de Amoras . 6 lb.
Xarope Oximel simples . 6 lb.

(5) From the Castelo-Novo codex cited in the previous note. For other
boticas used in the carreira da India in the 16th-17th centuries cf. O Centro EHU,
pp. 62-66; Frazão de Vasconcelos. Subsídios para a história da carreira da India
no tempo dos Felipes (Lisboa. 1960), pp. 66-79, and the earlier articles by Dr. Luis
de Pina and Professor Américo Pires de Lima there quoted.

121t
Electuarios

Deacatelicão . 12 lb
Deaprincos simples . 12 lb.
Polpa de Tamarindos . 5 ib.
Triaga magna . 4 ib.
Confeição de Jacinthos . 1 ib.
Conserva Pérsica . 10 lb.
Tilonio Pérsico . 2 lb.
Benedicta Laxitiva . 2 lb.
Confeição Alquermes . 1 ib.
Polpa de canafistula . 10 lb.
Horfata . 14 jb.

Oleos

Oleo antipleuritico . 4 lb.

Oleo rozado . 9 ib.
Oleo de Aparicio . 6 lb.
Oleo de copaiva . 5 lb.
Oleo de Mortinhos . 9 lb.
Oleo de Marcela . 2 lb.
Oleo de minhocas . 5 ib.
Oleo de Marmelos . 9 ib.
Oleo de Losna . 5 ib.
Oleo de amêndoas doces . 4 lb.
Oleo de mathiolo . 1 lb.
Oleo de Almecega . 2 lb.
Oleo de Ouro . 3 oz.

Ungoentos

Ungoento defencivo de bolo . 4 lb.

Ungoento da sarna . 12 lb.
Ungoento branco . 9 lb.
Ungoento de Altea . 3 lb.
Ungoento Nervino . 6 lb.
Ungoento Egipeciaço . 6 lb.
Ungoento bazalicão preto . 6 lb.
Ungoento bazalicão amarelo . 6 lb.
Ungoento camelo . 3 lb.
Ungoento de Azogue . 6 lb.
Ungoento Peitoral . 6 lb.
Ill

Ungoento chumbo . 5 lb.

Ungoento de fezes de ouro . 6 lb.
Ungoento rozado . 7 lb.
Ungoento refrigente de Galeno . 6 lb.
Ungoento Popolião . 5 lb.
Ungoento Alabastro . 3 lb.
Manteira de chumbo . 2 lb.
Serebontona fina . 8 lb.

Emplastros

Emplastro de D. João . 3 lb
Emplastro de manus Dey . 3 lb.
Emplastro Zaechanas . 3 lb.
Emplastro Geminis . 3 lb.
Emplastro contra rotura . 3 lb.
Emplastro de Geronimo Serven . 3 lb.
Emplastro Oxierocio . 3 lb.
Emplastro de ranz . 4 lb.
Emplastro de Apalma. 4 lb.
Emplastro Paracelso . 3 lb.
Emplastro de Achillão mn . 3 lb.
Emplastro de Archilão zomado . 3 lb.
Emplastro de Achilão mayor . 3 lb.
Emplastro de Espermacete . 3 lb.
Emplastro confortativo . 3 lb.
Cáustico de cantandas . 3 lb.

Espíritos

Espirito de ferruge . 4 z.
Espirito vitriolo . 1 z.
Espirito de enxofre . 4 z.
Espirito de sal comum . 4 z.
Espirito de sal doce . 4 z.
Espirito de sal armoniaco . 4 z.
Espirito de coclearia . 2 lb.
Balçamo Catolico . \ lb.
Laudano opiado . 4 z.
Laudano liquido . 4 z.
Espirito de cornu sevi . 2 z.
Espirito de vinho . 5 £ lb.
Agoa da Rainha de Ungaria . 2 lb.

126
 Ill

Sães

Sal de Saturno . £ lb.

Sal Prunel . 3 ib.
Sal de Lorna . 4 z.
Sal de Sentauria . 4 z.
Sal Gema . 6 z.
Antimonia Deaphoretico . 4 z.
Cremor Tartaro . 4 z
Tartaro vitriolado . 4 z.
Mercúrio doce . 4 z.

Purgas e póz

Guintilio . 1 lb.
Salapa em pó. 1 lb.
Tartaro emetico . 4 z.
Deagridio . 4 z.
Calamelanos . 4 z.
Rezina de Salapa . 4 z.
Manà . 20 lb.
Ponta deviado pp° . 4 z.
Aljofar pp° . 4 z.
Prociscos de fiorabunto . 1 lb.
Pedra cordial . 5 z.
Eipo em pó . 4 z.
Coral vermelho pp° . 2 lb.
Olhos de carangejo pp® . 2 lb.
Póz contra cazum . 2 lb.
Buzuartico do curbo. 1 lb.
Pedra vazar occidental . \ z.
Pedra vazar oriental . \ z.
Pòz restretivos . \ lb.
Abutua em pò . 1 lb.
Rozas em pò . 1 lb.
Mortinhos em pò . 2 lb.
Mira em pò . 4 z.
Monicega em pò . 2 lb.
Ensenço em pò . \ lb.
Sangue de Drago em pò . 1 lb.
Sandalus vermelha em pò . \ Ib.
Quina em casca . 4 lb.
Terra sigelada . \ lb.
Bolho Armênio em pò . 2 lb.

127
Ill

Pedra Numi erva . 4 lb.

Pedra Numi queimada . 2 lb.
Catto . 3 lb.
Pòz de Joanes . 2 lb.
Carifor . 2 lb.
Sulimão . 2 lb.
Espermacete . 2 lb.
Salçaparrilha . 4 lb.
Raiz de China . 4 lb.
Pedra imiatites pp* . 4 z.
Pão Santo sinado .. 4 lb.
Senne . 18lb.
Sementes frias . 16lb.
Truciscos do Sangue . ^lb.
Pedra Infernal . 2 z.
Flores de violas . 3 lb.
Papoylas . 6 lb.
Alforvas . 2 lb.
Linhaça Galega . 4 ib.
Polipodio . 4 ib.
Das quatro farinhas . 8 lb.
Quina em pò . 4 ib.
Rhabarbo . ^ 1b.
Vitriolo branco . £ ib.
Tutia ppa . 1 ib.
Pedra Lipes . 3 ib.
Raiz de Almeirão . 2 lb.
Cevada . j alq.
Malvas . 2 lb.
Violas . 2 lb.
Semente de cidra . 1 ib.
Mavarisco . q ib
Raiz de Malvas . 1 ib.
Raiz de Escorcion* . 0 ib.
Douradinha . 1 ib
Tragaria . 1 ib.
Avença . 2 lb.
Grama . 2 lb.
Alvayade em pò . 4 15
Flores cordiães . 1 ib.
Alcacus . 4 ib
Fromentila . 3 p-,
Agrimonia . 2 lb.
Almeirões . 2 lb
Anuda . 4 p-,

128
 Ill

Barbasco . 1 lb
Setanria menor . 1 ib.
Coroa de Rey . 3 n>.
Losna . 2 lb.
Maroyos . 1 ib.
Marcela . 2 lb.
Ripinela . i ib.
Rosmaninho . 3 lb.
Sulva . 2 lb.
Escabioza . 1 ib.
Tanxage . 1 lb.
Molarinha . 3 lb.
Cardo Santo . 2 lb.
Escordlo . 2 lb.
Hypericão . 2 lb.
Flor do Sabuqueiro . 2 lb.
Troçiscos de razis . 4 z.
Pos de amargaritão frio . 4 z.
Rozas . 2 lb.
Irmogos . 4 lb.
Cascas de romans. 2 lb.
Balanstias . 1 lb.
Mancaes de Asipreste . 1 lb.
Alfavaca de cobra . 1 lb.

Agoas

Agoa rozada . 18 lb.

Agoa de escorcion0 . 42 lb.
Agoa de cardo santo . 18 lb.
Agoa de flor de sabugeiro . 24 lb.
Agoas cordeas . 96 lb.
Agoa de chicória . 60 lb.
Agoa de Malvas . 12 lb.
Agoa de Azedas . 6 lb.
Vinagre rozado . 12 lb.
Malvas . 4 lb.
Raiz das ditas . 4 lb.
Folhas de violas . 4 lb.
Almeirões . 4 lb.
Oclearia . 2 lb.
Macela . 4 lb.
Amêndoas doces . 4 lb.
Flores de violas . 3 lb.

129
Ill

Sal Tartaro . £ lb.

Ponta de viado pp° sem fogo . 4 z.
Cristal montano pp° . £ lb.
Xarope aurio. 5 lb.
Xarope de Paporlus. 5 lb.
Xarope Perclco . 5 lb.
Oleo de Linhaça . 3 lb.
Oleo violado . 4 lb.
Oleo de amêndoas doce . 2 lb.
Barris de chicona . 2
Barris de Alface . 1
Trastes da botica

Almofans com sua mão 1 Perrilho de Artéria . 1

Balanças e seus pezos ... 1 Sacabolas . 1
Caceia . 1 Serrotes . 2
Coladeira . 1 Seringas grandes . 2
Colher . 1 Seringas pequenas . 2
Onça e meyo quart0 . 1 Ventozas . 48
Espatolas de ferro . 2 Frascos sortiados . 45
Tonil de lataã . 1 Vidrinhos sortiados . 22
Cavilhetes . 12 Faxos de lataã . 2
Papel . \ resma Dotes sortiados . 91
Linha . i 1b. Bocetas sortiados . 10
Estopa . i 1b. Sacos sortiados . 18
Agulhas de Laguear . 2 Caixas de botica . 2
Badalho . 1 Caixa em que vão as
Bico de Grow . 1 ervas . 1
Cautérios . 5 Caixa em que vão os
Dilatador . 1 ferros . 1
Especula do peito . 1 Frasqueira em que vão
Faca curva. 1 as Agoas . 1

A Botica da Fragata Nossa Senhora da Caridade e São Francisco de

Paula foy provida com a mesma quantidade de Xaropes, Electuarios, Oleos,
Unguentos, Emplestos, Espiritos, Saes, Purgas, Pòs, Agoas, e Ferros, que
comtem a Rellação da Fragata Nossa Senhora a Madre de Deos, que
ambas vão na prezente Monção de 1744 para o Estado da índia.

130
 III

(d) CARTA DO VISOREI MARQUES DE CASTELO-NOVO PARA O

SECRETARIO DE ESTADO, ANTONIO GUEDES PEREIRA,
MOÇAMBIQUE, 10 DE AGOSTO DE 1744 (s).

«...E a respeito disto não posso deixar de admirar que havendo du¬
zentos annos que Portugal possue este Porto tão frequentado das nossas
Naos que vão, e vem da Europa não haja nelle nem armazém, nem mate¬
rial, nem official, nem ferramenta para concerto dos Navios, e succedendo
arribar qualquer delles que não traga consigo as materiaes de que neces¬
sita, ou hade apodrecer neste Porto, ou ser tão larga a sua demora, como
succedeo à Nao São João e São Pedro que faça a Sua Magestade huma
inútil, e considerável despeza, podendo vir a ser esta falta de mais perigoza
consequência se aos Navios Estrangeiros que frequentão esta Costa se lhe
não tirassem os pretextos affectados das suas arribadas pondolhes
promptos os materiaes de que necessitão emquanto os damnos sejão verda¬
deiros, para que seja breve a sua demora, e não tenhão tempo de adquirirem
melhores instrucções do Paiz.
Ainda me admira mais que os Francezes, que ha pouco mais de 30
annos que se estableçerão nas duas Ilhas de Mascarenhas, e Mauricias
tenhão hoje naquelle paiz não só com a cultura que o nosso não tem,
abundando de frutos, e de gados, mas de excelentes armazéns de tudo
quanto he necessário para qualquer concerto da Naos que alli arribão,
como succedeo á Galeota que os Governadores da índia despacharão a
Lisboa con a noticia da morte do Marquez do Louriçal, que se sopunha
perdida, porque arribando com hum temporal á Mauricia alli se preparou
de todo o necessário em breve tempo (?). De tudo isto tiro por consequência
que a nossa nação tendo sido tão habil para os descobrimentos como atestão
as historias, não he a mais feliz para establecer, e fazer florecer aquellas
colonias que mesmo quizemos povoar, nem os sabemos aproveitar daquellas
utilidades que cs Estrangeiros nos vem, a furto, procurar a nossas casas.
Por todas estas razões assima declaradas acho que segundo a minha
opinião he muito util ao serviçio de Sua Magestade que as Naos que partem
de Lisboa venhão sempre a este Porto, o que conseguirão sem duvida
sahindo em dias de Março, porque com isto saberão ao menos os Estran¬
geiros que neste tempo terão quem lhe embarace o seo commercio, e ao

(s) Arquivo das Colonias, Vol. IV (Lisboa, 1918), pp. 229-30 («Correspondência
do Marquez de Castello-Novo, quando VRei e Capitão General da índia, para El Rei
e diversas autoridades da metropole, principiada em Moçambique em 10 d'Agosto
de 1744»),
(7) Another tribute to the work and energy of Mahé de la Bourdonnais, who
had in fact transformed the previously unprofitable islands of Bourbon and France
into thriving French colonies. Cf. Pierre Crepin, Mahé de la Bourdonnais Gouver-
neur-Général des isles de France et de Bourbon, 1699-1753 (Paris, 1922).

131

I
Ill

mesmo tempo transportarão deste paiz algumas madeiras, e outros gene-

ros sem nenhum gasto da Fazenda Real.
Muito maior utilidade considero que os Vice-Reis toquem sempre este
Porto, porque assim poderão saber o estado em que a índia se acha, e na
minha opinião he de grande consequência que vejão com os seos olhos
hum paiz que não terão oportunidade de ver depois da sua chegada a Goa.
Eu fallo nesta materia já com esperiencia, porque confesso que não tinha
a idêa deste governo, que hoje tenho, antes vejo que se se cuida delle com
a atenção que merece, que poderá ser de grande ajuda não só para a
conservação da índia, mas talvez que pelo tempo adiante vanha a ser
tão considerável como as minas da America, se se lhe aplicarem os pou¬
cos meios de que necessita».

132
 IV

PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700

S ome account of the interesting exhibition of sixteenth and

seventeenth century Portuguese Roteiros—Rutters or Rut-
tiers as our Tudor and Stuart ancestors sometimes called
them—held at the Naval College in Lisbon during the first
week in January of this year, will probably be of interest to
readers of The Mariner s Mirror, and I have therefore written
the present article which is largely based on the noteworthy
lecture of Commander Fontoura da Costa on the opening day of
the exhibition1.
The first Roteiros were of Mediterranean origin and probably
date from the time of the earliest Phoenician navigators. Oral
to begin with, they were transmitted from generation to genera¬
tion, with such additions as the rough and ready observations
of the mariners of those times permitted them to record. In this
fashion they continued for centuries until the appearance of the
earliest portulan charts, the work of Italians, which were in a
way the forerunners of the Lusitanian Roteiros. These last owe
their being to that great genius Prince Henry the Navigator,
for it was he who first traced a definite plan for the prosecution
of the Portuguese voyages of discovery along the West coast of
Africa, organising and centralising the direction of this naviga¬
tion from his chosen base in Algarve. With the systematic prose¬
cution of these voyages under his directing hand came the
necessity of delineating and describing the sinuous African
coasts; of recording their characteristics and those of the in¬
habitants of the newly discovered lands; of knowing their
shallows and depths; of charting their perilous banks; of a
knowledge of the prevailing winds and currents, and of record¬
ing directions and distances—in short, there arose the necessity
of acquiring a knowledge of all the elements of which a Roteiro
is composed.
Although no single Roteiro prior to the year 1500 has come
i The chief credit for organising the exhibition was due to Captain Tan-
credo de Moraes, Commander Fontoura da Costa and Snr. Frazaõ de Vasconcelos,
all of the Escola Naval.
IV

172 PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700

down to us, either in manuscript or in print, yet there can be

no doubt that the first Portuguese Roteiros began to be compiled
some time after the doubling of Cape Bojador in 1434. The
actual Roteiro of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama in 1497 is
unfortunately very deficient in scientific nautical observations,
systematically noted and recorded, it being rather a simple
description of the voyage, and hence scarcely deserves its title.
With the discovery of India, however, as a result of this momen¬
tous voyage, a fresh impulse was given to the describing and
recording of the new sea route; and during the ensuing century
were compiled those works on navigation and sailing directions
which served as guides and models to the early English and
Dutch navigators, who were destined to deprive their Lusi-
tanian predecessors of their hard-won inheritance, and were the
origin of the magnificent English Pilot series of the present day.
For practical purposes it is best to divide Portuguese Roteiros
written during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries into the
following three groups:
(A) Roteiros before Dom Joaõ de Castro (1500—40).
(B) Roteiros from the time of Dom Joaõ de Castro until 1600.
(C) Seventeenth-century roteiros.

(A) Roteiros before Dom Joaõ de Castro.

I. Although, as has been stated, the earliest Portuguese
Roteiros must already have been in circulation in manuscript
during the last quarter of the fifteenth century, yet the oldest
document we have is a copy of some Roteiros of this period
recorded by the famous German bombardier, printer and author,
Valentim Fernandes, and probably written down in Lisbon
about the year 1506. The language is simple—not to say rude
—in the extreme, as may be seen from the following passage:
And the cape of Saint Paul lies east north east and west south west with the
River of Lago. And this distance is 72 leagues straight along the shore.

This is followed by a description of the villages, woods, and

recognisable features which lie along the coast between the Cape
and river referred to. Valentim Fernandes does not tell us from
 IV

PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700 173

where he copied this manuscript, which is now preserved at

Munich; but from another part of this same Codex we gather
the names of two navigators of the period, namely Gonçalo
Pires and Joaõ Rodrigues. This earliest Roteiro does not go
further than the Gulf of Guinea, but in the next landmark we
are well on the way to India.
II. In the Esmeraldo of the famous hero Duarte Pacheco—
the Portuguese Achilles—we have a detailed Roteiro of the
coasts of IVest Africa, \and\ passing the Cape of Good Hope until
the River of the Infante, written about 1505—8. In this the
language is a good deal more polished than in the first Roteiro
mentioned, as might be expected from so cultured and erudite
a scholar, whilst the information given is likewise more de¬
tailed1.
III. We now come to the earliest Roteiros of the Indian
Ocean, namely those of Joaõ de Lisboa and André Pires. The
first of these, namely the Livro das Rotas of Joaõ de Lisboa, is an
improved copy of an earlier fifteenth-century one, extended to
include the coasts of India and Malaisia. It seems certain that
the work includes many passages from contemporary Arab
sailing directions, since no Portuguese ship had yet reached the
islands of the East Indian Archipelago which are recorded in
this work. The original dating from 1514 has been lost; but a
fine contemporary copy exists in the Library of the Duke of
Palmella, which was printed by J. I. de Brito Rebello in 1903,
and to this work, entitled Livro de Marinharia. Tratado de
Agulha de Marear de Joao de Lisboa, etc. the reader is referred
for further details. This pilot Joaõ de Lisboa, who was still
alive in 1528, enjoyed a great reputation amongst his contem¬
poraries, although critics were not wanting among his own
countrymen, amongst these latter being the celebrated Chronicler
of India, Diogo do Couto (1542-1616), who sarcastically
observes in one of his works that he had little use for such pilots,
who were so clever at drawing charts, or making great play with
mathematical instruments, but who invariably ended by wreck¬
ing their ships on some shore, thus losing their own lives
i Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, two editions, both published at Lisbon in 1892 and
1905 respectively.
IV

174 PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700

together with those of the crews entrusted to their care1. The

Roteiro of André Pires, written about 1518—24, is little more
than a copy of that of Joaõ de Lisboa, and does not need any
special mention.
IV. The next Roteiro cited by Commander da Costa is a
Livro de Rotear de Portugal para a India, which exists in Seville,
and which from various indications he assumes to be little more
than a modified copy of one of the above-mentioned Roteiros.
V. We now come to the first Roteiro dealing with Brazil.
This is the famous Roteiro do Brasil written by Pero Lopes de
Sousa in 1530—2, when accompanying his brother, the more
celebrated Martim Affonso de Sousa, on his voyage thither in
1530. This Roteiro is a notable piece of work, and although the
original has long since disappeared, a copy of it was published
by Varnhagen at Lisbon in 1839 with the title Diário da nave-
gaçao da armada, que foi a terra do Brazil em 1530 sob a capitania
mór de Martim Affonso de Souza, escrito por seu irmaõ Pero Lopes
de Sousa. Incidentally Martim Affonso himself was also an
expert navigator2.
VI. The three well-known Roteiros of Dom Joaõ de Castro
deserve special mention, as marking a turning point in the
history of Portuguese nautical science. The first of these Roteiros
deals with the voyage from Lisbon to Goa in 1538, the second
with that from Goa to Diu in 1538-9, and the third with his
expedition to the Red Sea in 15413. The depth of knowledge
which these works reveal is truly extraordinary, and nothing
seems to have escaped the keen perception of his scientific mind.
From the numerous observations which show his exceptional
value as a practical observer, Commander da Costa selects the
two following:
i. Because the needle of the compass varied on board ship,
when moved from one place to another, he concluded that this
was due to the fact that it had been placed near an iron cannon,
and that “the iron of the cannon attracted to itself the needle

1 Dialogo do Soldado Pratico. Lisboa, 1798.

2 Cf. the documents printed on pp. 254-6 of Letters of King John III of
Portugal, where Martim Affonso makes several interesting suggestions about the
sea route to India and alterations in the Roteiros.
3 First published in 1882, 1843 and 1833 respectively.
 IV

PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700 175

and made it move.” Commander da Costa observes that here

we have the deviation of the needle noted 128 years before it was
vaguely suggested by Denis of Dieppe.
2. Because the needle varied when the ship was close to the
shore off the bar of Bassein river, he concluded that this was
due to ‘‘these rocks being of the same sort and substance as that
of the magnet,” which is the phenomenon of local attraction
verified in the distant sixteenth century. In addition, his
descriptions of meteorological phenomena, such as the water
spout and halo, are of an astonishing accuracy, whilst his obser¬
vations on coastal navigation leave nothing to be desired in
precision, as the following extract, relating to the crossing of
the bar of Bassein river, will serve to show:

and of the bank and flats within the river, very close to the shore on the south side
and off a prominent tongue of land, lies a great heap of black stones, which are
visible at low tide and disappear from view at high tide. Along this heap of stones
is situated the deepest and most frequented channel, which is used when entering
the river or port. This channel I sounded with my own hand at low-tide one
morning, and I found ij fathom of water on the bank. Before we get clear of
these banks, going along the channel, on one side there is a crown-shaped rock at
a depth of one fathom, and when we are over it, the island will lie to the North
quarter of the North East, and one of the four islets to the South quarter of the
South West. Once this bank is passed, the depth increases rapidly, and at once
we find three and afterwards four and further on five fathoms, and in some places
six, and so it goes until we get close to the prominent tongue of land which I said
was projecting from the shore of the south bank of the river.

The maps which accompany the descriptions of his voyages

to Diu and the Red Sea are veritable hydrographic charts, most
remarkable considering that they were drawn up in an era when
such were unknown.
Dom Joaõ de Castro’s talents did not pass unnoticed in his
own day. The famous Spanish cosmographer, Alonso de Santa
Cruz, took special pains to meet him when he visited Lisbon
in 1545, whilst our own Sir Walter Raleigh purchased the
original of Castro’s Red Sea Roteiro, for the sum of £60 (a
colossal price for those days), it being published in translation
by Purchas in his Pilgrimes more than 200 years before its first
printed appearance in its native tongue1.

j Purchas also says that the original was dedicated to the Infante Dom Luis,
and that Sir Walter Raleigh had added numerous marginal notes and observations.
IV

176 PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700

Enough has been said to show that the works of Dom Joaõ de
Castro form a veritable landmark in the history of nautical
science, and as regards Portuguese Roteiros, the standard they
set was never surpassed, though personally I consider that the
works of Gaspar Ferreira Reimaõ in the early seventeenth cen¬
tury come near to equalling them. Passing over some Roteiros
of Sumatra and the Moluccas by Antonio Dias and Manoel
Godinho, believed to have been written about 1520—5, but of
which all trace has long been lost, we come to the second division
of our classification, namely:

(B) Sixteenth-century Roteiros after Dom Joaõ de Castro

(1540-99).
VII. Omitting, for lack of space, all mention of a few
Roteiros of this period of which little has been preserved, save
the citation of their authors in subsequent works, we come to
the Roteiros of Manuel Alvares and Aires Fernandes of circa
1540-50.
A Codex of the works of these two pilots is cited by the
Visconde de Santarém and other nineteenth-century writers,
as being in the National Library at Paris, but no trace of it could
be found during Commander da Costa’s visit there in 1932.
Fortunately, however, a sixteenth-century Roteiro, acquired by
the present writer in London a short while ago, turned out on
examination to be the original manuscript of Manuel Alvares,
or at least a contemporary copy thereof, since it bears the auto¬
graph signature of André Thevet, the celebrated French
traveller, and the date 1563 in the text. That this Roteiro was
written by Alvares himself is placed beyond all doubt by the
fact that referring to the banks of Judea off the East African
coast, he states inter alia “.. .and I Emanuel Alvares, and Ayres
Fernandes, saw the banks of Judea from afar, by steering N.E.
etc”; but whether the observations of Fernandes are also in¬
cluded in the work, as Commander da Costa suggests, is open
to some doubt. Alvares refers also to the loss of the Bom Jesus
in 1533, so that this work must have been written between
1533 and 1563. It is also worth noting that Manuel Alvares
 IV

PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700 I 77

was the pilot of Dom Joaõ de Castro on his outward voyage to

India in 15385 whilst the manuscript contains an interesting
Roteiro of the Red Sea, so that all things point to its being in¬
fluenced by the works of Dom Joaõ, although the first part is
practically identical with that of Diogo Affonso, of whom
more anon.
VIII. The Roteiro do Cabo de Boa Esperança ao das Correntes
of Manoel de Mesquita Perestrelo (1575) is also a notable piece
of work, and has been reproduced in whole or in part several
times, the earliest being in a French translation by Thevenot
in 1664. The original has been lost, but two contemporary
(or nearly so) manuscript copies exist at Evora and Oporto
respectively.
IX. Still more famous are the Roteiros compiled by two great
India pilots of the sixteenth century, Diogo Affonso and
Vicente Rodriguez of Lagos. The original work of the former
pilot has long since disappeared; but fortunately the greater part
of it was copied by Linschoten circa 1583 and reproduced by
him in his famous Itinerário, first printed at Amsterdam in 1596
and subsequently reprinted in English, French, Latin and
German in editions too numerous to mention here. Com¬
mander da Costa suggests that this Roteiro was compiled about
1570, but personally I am inclined to date it some twenty years
earlier. Diogo Affonso himself states that he was on board the
Santa Clara as pilot when he saw the Bom Jesus founder off the
Cape of Good Hope, and as we know that this disaster occurred
in 1533, it is more reasonable to suppose that the Roteiro would
have been compiled about 1540—50 than in 1570, when Diogo
Affonso, if still alive at that date, must have been a very old man.
As we have seen, Manuel Alvares also refers to the loss of the
Bom Jesus in 1533, and as both these Roteiros have much in
common it seems probable that they are both of the same
decade, 1540-50; but which is the earlier of the two it is difficult,
if not impossible, to say.
X. Vicente Rodriguez has left us two Roteiros, both dating
from between 1570-90, the second being a slightly expanded
and corrected copy of the first. A contemporary copy of the
second Roteiro is preserved in the National Library at Lisbon,
IV

Ij8 PORTUGUESE ROTEIRAS, 150O-I7OO

and was published by Gabriel Pereira in his Roteiros portugueses

da viagem de Lisboa à India, nos séculos XVI e XVI1, Lisbon,
1898. Linschoten in his Itinerário has likewise preserved for us
a translation of part of Rodriguez’s Roteiro—whether the first
or second is open to some doubt. Commander da Costa sup¬
poses it to have been the former; but it is equally possible that
it may have been the latter, as Vicente Rodriguez lost his life
in the ship Bom Jesus which disappeared on the homeward
voyage in 1592 as her earlier namesake had done in 1533; this
being the case, his last Roteiro must have been written before
1591, so that there would have been plenty of time for Lin¬
schoten to secure a copy before the publication of his work in
1596. Incidentally, it may not be out of place here to remark
on the excellence of Linschoten’s monumental treatise, which
has preserved for us, in contemporary translation, so many
Portuguese Roteiros of the period which would otherwise have
been lost. If all the printed and manuscript copies of Portu¬
guese Roteiros which are known to exist were to disappear,
leaving only Linschoten’s Itinerário, this would still be more
than sufficient to establish the fame and efficiency of those pilots.
Linschoten, as he himself tells us, took especial pains during
his seven years’ residence at Goa to seek out and secure the
Roteiros of the best Portuguese pilots, and although he himself
was never east of Cape Comorin, yet so successful was he in his
efforts to secure trustworthy Portuguese portulans and Roteiros,
that John Saris, sailing from Japan to China after the first visit
of an English ship to the land of the Rising Sun in 1613, noted
that he found“ Jan Huyghen’s booke to be very true, for thereby
wee directed ourselves setting forth from Firando.” It is well
known that copies of Linschoten’s work were carried on board
all English and Dutch East-Indiamen sailing to the East, for
many years, and the Itinerário is indeed a worthy monument,
not only to the industry and acumen of the learned Hollander,
but also to the ability of the sixteenth-century Lusitanian pilots.
Particularly noteworthy in Linschoten’s work are his tran¬
scriptions of Roteiros of the Japan and China coasts, which
occupy sixty folio pages in the English edition of 1598, and are
remarkable for their accuracy of detail. No copies of any of
 IV

PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700 179

these Roteiros survive in Portugal to-day, and had it not been

for the diligent Fleming, no record of them would have been
preserved. Reverting to Vicente Rodriguez, we may add that
his Roteiro, with slight alterations, was first printed in Portu¬
guese by Manoel de Figueiredo in 1608—more than ten years
after its appearance in translation in the Itinerário. The remain¬
ing Roteiros of the sixteenth century need not detain us, as they
are of small importance except perhaps the—
XI. Roteiro of Manuel Gaspar, written in 1594, which
deserves a passing mention as containing one of the earliest
Roteiros of the West Indies. This work and that of Linschoten
bring us to the end of the sixteenth century, and to the next and
final section of our classification.

(C) Portuguese Roteiros of the seventeenth century.

XII. The earliest of these is due to the hand of the versatile

Joaõ Baptista Lavanha, who, in despite of his Jewish origin,
rose to be Engineer, Cosmographer and Chronicler-in-chief of
Portugal, and was the author of numerous scientific, historical
and literary works. It was a copy of the Roteiro da India of
Vicente Rodriguez, but with numerous additions and correc¬
tions. Unfortunately neither the original nor any copy has
survived; but that it existed is certain, as the India fleet of 1608
were ordered to take copies with them, and to correct or annotate
the same during the voyage when necessary. In this connection
the King’s instructions dated March 13th, 1608, to Gaspar
Jorge do Couto read:

For the voyage you will use the Roteiro da India which was compiled by Joaõ
Baptista Lavanha, and of which you will take a copy; and should you find it to
differ in any part from what your actual experience teaches you, you will note the
same, so that it may be corrected where necessary.

The actual title of the work was—Roteiro da navegaçaõ da

India, & de Rotas com ha Agulha ferrada debaixo da flor de Lis, e
diferenças delia, Cf signaes correntes de Agoa, he Ventos q em
diversas parages se achaõ: Este derroteiro foi, ho que emmendon
IV

l8o PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 15OO-170O

Joaõ Baptista Lavanha polio de Vicente Rodriguez, E he muito

certo, E tem muitas E mui boas curiosidades, and dated from about
1604.
XIII. Dating from the same period is the next item on our
list, which is the Roteiro da Carreira da India written by Gaspar
Manuel of Villa do Conde. This Gaspar Manuel, who appears
to have been a different person from the Manuel Gaspar whose
Roteiro is cited under No. XI above, went to India as the Pilot-
Major of the Viceroy Martim Affonso de Castro in 1604.
Whether this work was compiled before or after this particular
voyage is uncertain; but if the latter, then it must date from
about 1606. A contemporary copy exists in the National
Library at Lisbon, which was printed by Gabriel Pereira in his
above-quoted work published in 1898.
XIV. This brings us to the earliest printed collection of
Roteiros in Portugal, which are those included in the various
editions of Manoel de Figueiredo’s Hydrographia. Exame de
Pilotos &c.y first published in 1608; and with subsequent re¬
prints, more or less slightly altered, in 1609, 1614, 1625 and
1632. We have neither the time nor the space to sort out the
differences between these various editions, which is a well-nigh
impossible task considering their erratic pagination, compli¬
cated arrangement, and the fact of the few existing copies being
bound au liable, so that no two of them are alike. Interested
readers are therefore referred to Commander da Costa’s
Bibliografia dos Roteiros Portugueses até ao anno de 1700 (Lisbon,
1934), but even this work, although a vast improvement on all
previous efforts, contains several errors and omissions. Here
we can only note that the Roteiro of Vicente Rodriguez was
printed for the first time (in his native tongue) in 1608, perhaps,
to judge from the title, from the version of Joaõ Baptista
Lavanha; whilst another issue of the same year contains the
earliest printed Roteiros of Brasil, Angola, Guiné and Cabo
Verde, as well as that of New Found Land. In 1609 followed
a supplement with the Roteiros of the Spanish Main and West
Indies; and all of the foregoing were reprinted in 1614. At
some date between this year and 1625 was issued a second
edition of Vicente Rodriguez’s Roteiro, very much altered and
 PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700 l8l

extended from the original, and with extracts taken from a

Dutch Roteiro1 in the part describing the island of Mauritius,
and some brief extracts from some of the Roteiros of Japan,
China, Siam and the Philippines which had already been repro¬
duced (and in full) by Linschoten in 1596. This version was
issued without a frontispiece, and is found bound up with
either the edition of 1614 or, more often, with that of 1625.
It should further be noted that all of these editions—save that
of 1609 and the second edition of Rodriguez’s Roteiro are —

prefaced by an Arte de Navegar of about 30 pages, divided into

a number of chapters in which are explained the rules of ele¬
mentary mathematics, geometry, and astronomy together with
illustrations of the use of navigational instruments, sufficient,
as the author states rather naively, to make a good pilot of
anyone who studies them. Another point worth noting is that
the first edition of this Arte de Navegar of 1608 is very different
from the subsequent issues of 1614-32, as in these latter
editions it appears in a much altered and expanded form.
Stockier, in his work on the history of Mathematical studies in
Portugal, accuses Manoel de Figueiredo of arrant plagiarism
and states that all of value in his work has been taken wholesale,
and without acknowledgment, from the works of his sixteenth-
century predecessor, André de Avellar. This may be true as
regards the purely theoretical and mathematical part of his
work; but Portugal at least owes him a debt of gratitude for
collecting, editing and publishing all the Roteiros of the East and
West Indies which his various editions contain, and which
would otherwise have been lost for ever. The works of Figuei¬
redo (who served as Cosmographer-Major of Portugal from
1607 until his death in 1622), or rather these Roteiros as pub¬
lished by him, became the basis of all future publications of a
similar kind in Portugal, and continued to be reprinted, with
little or no alteration, under differing titles throughout the
next two centuries. Actually, however, of more value and

I At least I presume these additions were copied from a Dutch source. The
chapter in question starts by saying that the Hollanders frequent the island; and
as the Portuguese seldom or never went there, it seems probable that the account
was taken from the Hollanders. I know of no Portuguese version.
IV

I 82 PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 150O-170O

interest than the Roteiro da India Oriental of Figueiredo, who

never went to sea at all so far as is known, is the—
XV. Roteiro da Carreira da India, of Gaspar Ferreira
Reimaõ, printed at Lisbon in 1612, and of which only one copy
—that now in the National Library of Lisbon—is known to
exist, apart from a few contemporary manuscript versions.
Gaspar Ferreira, who was sota-piloto of the ill-fated Sad Thome
in 1589, rose to be the Pilot-Major of India, and as such went
out to the East with the Viceroy Rui Lourenço de Tavora in
1608. Returning to Portugal in 1610, he was made a Knight
of the Order of Santiago and again went out to India in 1614
as Pilot-Major of a squadron of five ships. He made the return
voyage in 1615 on board the ship of Nuno da Cunha (fresh
from his unsuccessful attacks on the English off Swalley Hole),
which, after touching at Angola, was wrecked off Faial in the
Azores with great loss of life, though Ferreira himself was
amongst the survivors. He enjoyed a great reputation amongst
his contemporaries, in spite of the fact that most of the voyages
he made were rather unlucky, and his Roteiro circulated in
manuscript both before and after its publication. As is the case
with all seventeenth-century Roteiros, it was based on that of
Vicente Rodriguez, but with considerable detail added by the
author, principally concerning the East African coast where
Ferreira had wintered with his whole fleet in the island of Ibo
in 1609. In this connection, it is worth noting the following
passage in the Instructions given to Rui Gonçalo de Sequeira,
who was appointed chief of an expedition of seven caravels to
carry reinforcements to the Philippines in March 1613:
and you will ensure. . .that good relations are maintained between the Spanish
and Portuguese pilots, in such wise that the Portuguese instruct the Spaniards in
the art of navigation, taking the latitude of all the islands and lands which you see,
taking soundings thereof, and carefully making the necessary observations of the
course taken, with due care and vigilance. . .taking in each of the caravels a copy
of the Roteiro of Gaspar Ferreira, Pilot-Major of my Crown of Portugal, printed
in Lisbon in the past year of 1612.

XVI. In a manuscript collection of Roteiros compiled by

Dom Antonio de Ataide (Captain-Major of the India Fleet in
1611 — 12, and Captain-General of the Home Fleet in 1618—
21) dating from about 1615-31, and to which extensive
 IV

PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700 183

reference has been made elsewhere1, we find practically the

whole of the work of Gaspar Ferreira transcribed, together with
most of the charts which accompany the original work. How¬
ever, Dom Antonio de Ataide has added two which were not
included by Ferreira, one of them being a singularly fine and
detailed map of Madagascar—probably from the hand of Luis
or Joaõ Teixeira, famous cartographers of the early seventeenth
century—and copied from the original one which accompanied
the account of the expedition sent from Goa to explore and
chart the coasts of Madagascar in the year 1613, written by its
leader, the pilot Paulo Rodrigues da Costa on his return to Goa
in 1614. This latter version is still preserved in Evora, and has
been published; but the original map has long since disappeared,
so that the copy made for Dom Antonio de Ataide forms an
important and hitherto unregistered contribution to the history
of the early cartography of Madagascar.
XVII. Another important and oft-quoted Roteiro of the
period is the Roteiro da Carreira da India written by the pilot
Aleixo da Motta about 1621, after he had made the voyage six
times. There is a contemporary manuscript copy of this work
in the National Library at Lisbon, with some additions in the
hand of the pilot of the galleon Nossa Senhora de Atalaya, 1641,
but its first appearance in print was in a French translation
included in Thevenot’s Voyages of 1664. In the last quarter
of the same century it was included in Pimentel’s Roteiros
(cf. infra), and was published in entirety for the first time by
Gabriel Pereira in 1898. Of the remaining seventeenth-century
works the most remarkable are:
XVIII. The Roteiros compiled by Antonio de Mariz Car¬
neiro and published by him in 1642, 1655 and 1666. Antonio
de Mariz Carneiro who served as Cosmographer-Major of
Portugal from 1631 until some time after 1666, is an elusive
figure of whom little is known. He was nicknamed the Agulha
Fixa, on account of his preoccupation with the problem of
magnetic variation, and was the inventor, or adaptor, of several
nautical instruments of doubtful merit. Personal honesty was
i Cf. my article Um Roteirista desconhecido do século XVII, printed in the
Arquivo Historico da Marinha, Lisbon, 1934-
IV

184 PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700

certainly not one of his virtues, for his Roteiro da India Oriental
is taken wholesale from those of Manoel de Figueiredo (1608),
and Gaspar Ferreira (1612), with the unblushing substitution of
his own person for the name of the latter wherever it occurred
in the original! Similarly, his Roteiros of Brazil, Africa and
America are likewise “lifted” from those of Figueiredo; whilst
his Arte de Navegar is equally copied word for word from that
of his predecessor. The editions of 1642 and 1655 are further¬
more very badly printed and with the proofs left uncorrected,
so that the latter version especially is almost unintelligible in
parts. These two editions are accompanied by eleven singularly
badly executed wood-cuts of the chief ports between Vigo and
Cadiz inclusive, with a brief description of the entry into each,
which appears to be Mariz Carneiro’s sole original contribution
to the Roteiros printed in his name. Barbosa Machado states
that the author died in 1642, and even reproduces the inscrip¬
tion on his tombstone; but this is certainly an error as was
discovered a few years ago by Mr Frazaõ de Vasconcelos who
published a document proving that Mariz Carneiro was exiled
to Brazil for some unspecified crime in 1646 for a period of
five years. That he returned to Portugal and was reinstated in
his former post is also certain, as his signature as Cosmo-
grapher-Major in June 1666 appears in a document of that
date printed in the Roteiro da India Oriental which was pub¬
lished in the same year at Lisbon.
Of more value than the rather scratchy productions of Mariz
Carneiro are:
XIX. The Roteiros of Luis Serraõ Pimentel of 1675 and
1681, and of his son:
XX. Manoel Pimentel in 1699. The Roteiro of 1675 con¬
cerns the Mediterranean only, and was translated from some
foreign work. The edition of 1681 contains Roteiros relating to
all seas save the Mediterranean. The Roteiro da India Oriental
in this edition is a copy of that of Aleixo da Motta, whilst the
others are drawn from the works of Manoel de Figueiredo, save
the Roteiro of the South African coast by Manoel de Mesquita
which is here printed for the first time in Portuguese. The 1699
edition by Manoel de Pimentel is a slightly increased and im-
 IV

PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700 I 85

proved reprint of the 1681 edition together with the Arte de

Navegar which was included therein. This last edition was
frequently reprinted throughout the eighteenth century and
even into the nineteenth, but these later versions fall outside
the scope of our article.
It is not worth while to quote extensive passages from these
old Portuguese Roteiros, for many of the best amongst them are
readily accessible in the inimitable contemporary translations of
Jan Huyghen van Linschoten; readers of that work will agree
that they are models in their descriptions of the coasts visited
and of their geographical situation; in their records of the
different compass readings obtained, and of the magnetic varia¬
tion; of the physical and natural features of the lands, bays,
ports and anchorages visited; in their observations of meteoro¬
logical and oceanographic phenomena, as well as of the pre¬
vailing winds and currents, and consequently of the various
courses recommended for different seasons of the year1. Small
wonder that Richard Hawkins—a contemporary Englishman
and a competent judge—noted in his Observations2 of 1622
that:
In this poynt of Steeridge, the Spaniards and Portingalls doe exceede all that
I have seene, I meane for their care, which is chiefest in Navigation. And I wish
in this, and in all their workes of Discipline and reformation, we should follow
their examples.... In every Ship of moment, vpon the halfe decke, or quarter
decke, they haue a chayre, or seat; out of which whilst they Navigate, the Pilot, or
his Adiutants (which are the same officers which in our Shippes we terme, the
Master and his Mates) never depart, day nor night, from the sight of the Compasse;
and haue another before them; whereby they see what they doe, and are ever
witnesses of the good or bad Steeridge of all men that do take the Helme....

Enough has been written in this article to show the import¬

ance, scope and interest of the recent Lisbon exhibition, which
certainly achieved its purpose in arousing fresh interest in the
pioneer part played by Portugal in the advancement of nautical

1 For further details concerning all the Roteiros and other books quoted in
this article, see the Bibliografia dos Roteiros Portugueses até ao ano de 1700 printed
in the Arquivo Historico da Marinha, Lisboa, 1934» which ak° contains an account
of Commander Fontoura da Costa’s lecture, Este Livro he de rotear..., on which
this article is based.
2 Cf. Observations, p. 57. Argonaut Press edition by J. A. Williamson.
London, 1933.
IV

I 86 PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, 1500-1700

science. Several new and unrecorded editions of the printed

works of Manoel de Figueiredo and of Antonio de Mariz
Carneiro came to light as a result of it, as well as some manu¬
scripts, including an unregistered version of Dom Joaõ de
Castro’s Roteiro.
It is to be hoped, also, that those who gazed upon these worn
title-pages or well-thumbed manuscripts, gave a thought to the
sufferings of the countless nameless pilots who sacrificed their
lives in unchartered seas for the making of them; since Portugal
of old, like England, is entitled to exclaim with mingled pride
and sorrow,

If Blood be the price of Admiralty, Lord God we have paid in full.

 V

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
HISTÓRIA TRÁGICO-MARÍTIMA

A. THE SOURCES OF THE «HISTÓRIA TRÁGICO-MARÍTIMA»

A definitive bibliography of the eighteen shipwreck narratives

collected in Bernardo Gomes de Brito’s História Trágico-Marítima
(2 vols., Lisboa, 1735-36, and a third anonymous and undated volume)
has yet to be compiled. I have not the requisite qualifications to
undertake this task myself, which can only be done satisfactorily by
someone who is in a position to handle all the first editions he describes.
But before considering the importance of these classic stories of the
sea, and briefly comparing them with similar narratives in other
national literatures, it is essential to identify the original accounts
which Gomes de Brito utilised in his famous compilation. As no
two bibliographers agree in their classification and description of the
original editions on which the História Trágico-Marítima was based x,
I describe below the earliest published accounts which I have been
able to find. The shipwrecks are here listed in chronological order; but
the last six narratives are sometimes bound up differently in the third
and anonymous volume, whose connection with Gomes de Brito is open
to argument. If this essay serves to inspire a qualified bibliographer
to compile a definitive bibliography, it will have served its purpose.

1 Compare the titles given in J. C. Figanière, Bibliographia Histórica Por-

tugueza, (Lisboa, 1850) pp. 197-203; Catálogo da Livraria de Azevedo-Samodães,
i (Porto, 1921), n.° 1416; História da Literatura Portuguesa Ilustrada, hi (Lisboa,
1932) pp. 50-2, 211-4; James Duffy, Shipwreck and Empire (Harvard University
Press, 1955), pp. 175-80. All references to the História Trágico-Marítima are taken
from the original two volume edition of 1735-36, which is hereafter referred to as
the HTM.
 V

49

1. São João (1552).

a) Historia da muy notauel perda do Galeão grande sam João.

Em q se contam os innumeraveis trabalhos e grandes desauenturas q acon-

* Diftoria t»a mny nottmcl perdaoo *

Qaleào grande íam foâo. Cm 4 íc con
tatu oeinnumeraueie trabalboei gran¬
dee ©eíauenturae 4 aconteceram
ao Capitão dDartoel oe Sou
íaoe Sepulueda.

<i« C o lamètauel fim qelle? fua molber

•z filboe t toda a mate gente outierâo.
C® qual feperdeono annooe.dl5 9,
Zih a vinte 7 quatro oe ?unbo,na
terra ©o flatal em mb grace.
Title-page of the first edition of the Historia da perda
do Galeão grande Sam João (Lisboa, rs??). Only recor¬
ded copy, since lost.
(Diccionario Bibliogr. Port., X, 26)
V

50

teceram ao Capitão Manoel de Sousa de Sepulueda [woodcut representing

a nau or galleon] E o lamètauel fim q elle e sua mother e filhos e toda a
mais gente ouverão. O qual se perdeo no anno de M. D.LII. a vinte e quati o
de Junho, na terra do Natal em xxxj graos. Small 4to. Sixteen
unnumbered leaves, with signature Aii-Aviij. Printed in gothic type,
the text being divided into thirty-one short chapters, chapter xxvi being
wrongly numbered xxv. The woodcut representing the ship on the
title-page is identical with that previously used in the Estoria de muy
nobre Vespesiano of 1496, and in the Marco Paulo of 1502. No date
or place of publication is given on the title-page, but this may have been
indicated in the colophon.
So far as I am aware, the only recorded copy of this edition is
that described by Inocencio-Brito Aranha, Diccionario Bibliographico
portuguez, x, 26 where the title-page is reproduced in facsimile. The
present whereabouts of this copy is unknown, but it is evidently the
first edition. It was presumably printed at some time between 1555,
when the first accounts of the disaster reached Portugal, and 1564,
when the second edition was published. Diogo Barbosa Machado,
Bibliographia Lusitana, in voce Alvaro Fernandes, briefly describes
what he alleges to be the first edition of this work, which he states was
printed at Lisbon by João de Barreira in 1554. But in this particular
year, João de Barreira seems to have been printing exclusively at
Coimbra'. Since Barbosa Machado gives no particulars as to type,
pagination etc., it is very doubtful if he ever saw the original, and his
date of 1554 may well be a misprint for 1564, which is that of the second
edition described below.

b) Historia Da muy notauel perda do galeão grande sam loam.

Em que se recontão os casos desvairados que acontescerão ao capitão
Manoel de Sousa de Sepulveda. E ho lamètauel fim que elle & sua
mother & filhos, & toda a mais gente ouuerão. O qual se perdeo no
anno de M. D.LII. a vinte quatro de Iunho, na terra do Natal em xxxj
graos. Com licença impresso. Em Lisboa. Acabouse aos. xx. dias

1 Cf. the list of his works for that year printed in A. J. Anselmo, Bibliografia
das obras impressas em Portugal no século XVI (Lisboa, 1926), pp. 35-7. Mr Duffy
gives a cogent textual reason for concluding that the first edition can hardly have
been printed before 1556 at the earliest (Shipwreck and Empire, p. 175).
 V

51

do mes de Mayo. Em casa de loam da Barreyra. M.D.LXIIII.

Small 4to. Sixteen unnumbered leaves, with signature Aij-Aiij.
Printed in roman type, the text being divided into thirty-one short
chapters.
The copy which I have examined in the British Museum Library

HISTORIA
Da muy notauel perda do galeao grande
fam Ioam.Em que fe recontao oscafos
defuairados que acontefcerao ao
capitão Manoel de Soufa
de Sepulueda.
Sbo lametauelfim que elle fua molber
filbos,& teda amais gente ouuerao.

Oquatleperdeonoannodc M. D. LII*
avincequatro deIunho,na terra do
Natal cm xxxj. graos

Com licença imprejjo.

Em Lisboa.
Acaboufcaos.xx.dias do mes dc Mayo.
Em caía de loam da Barreyta.

'M.D.LXIIII,

Title-page of the very rare second edition of the Histo¬

ria da perda do galeão grande Sam loam (Lisboa, 1564).
(British Museum, London)
V

52

(Pressmark, C. 32.e.24) is apparently identical with that offered for

sale in Maggs Bros, Catalogue 452 (London, 1924), item no: 37. The
text of this edition of 1564 is, in all probability, the same as that of
the first edition of 155[ ?] described above, since it consists of the same
number of pages and of chapters. However this may be, the text
of the 1564 edition is markedly different from that of the third edition,
published in 1592, of which there is also a copy in the British Museum
(Pressmark, 10095, b. 37).

c) Galeam Sam loam, [crude woodcut of the Virgin and Child

above a sinking and dismasted ship]. Historia da muy notável perda
do Galeam grande Sam loam. Em que se contam os grandes trabalhos,
& lastimosas cousas que aconteçerão ao Capitão Manoel de Sousa de
Sepulveda. E o lamentável fim que elle & sua molher & filhos, & toda
a mais da gente ouueram. O qual se perdeo no anno de mil, &
quinhentos & cincoenta & dous, a vinte quatro de Iunho, na terra do
Natal em trinta & hum graos. Impresso com licença: & visto polio
Reverendo Padre Mestre Frey Bertholameu Ferreyra. Em Lisboa, por
Antonio Alvarez Impressor. Anno 1592. Frey Bertholameu Ferreyra.
4to. Sixteen unnumbered leaves, signature A2-8. On the verso of
the last leaf are two woodcuts of shipping scenes. The text is divided
into a prologo and twenty-eight chapters, chapter xii being wrongly
numbered xxiii. The prologo of the 1592 edition corresponds to ch. 1
of that of 1564.

d) This edition of 1592 was reprinted by Francisco Simões at

Evora in 1614, with a different woodcut on the title-page, and the
chapters numbered correctly. The woodcuts on the verso of the last
leaf have been dropped, but there are two other even cruder woodcuts
on the verso of the title-page, one of which was previously used in the
Repertorio dos Tempos, Lisboa, 1570.
There is also an edition printed by Antonio Alvares at Lisbon
in 1633, which I have not seen; but judging by the description given
of it in Maggs Bros., Catalogue 519 (London, 1929), item no: 368,
this is a reprint of that of 1592, with the omission of the woodcuts
at the end. There is a spurious edition bearing Antonio Alvarez’
imprint, but which is undated, and is obviously an 18th-century
counterfeit edition, judging by the format, typography, paper and
 V

53

watermark. It is a quarto with two preliminary unnumbered leaves

(including the title-page and prologo), and text numbered pp 5-46.
Comparison of Gomes de Brito’s version of this shipwreck, as
printed in the História Trágico-Marítima (i, 5-38), with the editions
of 1564 and 1592, at once reveals that his version is based on the latter,
or on one of the subsequent editions derived from it. The subdivision
in chapters has been dropped and the text now forms an integral whole,
but Gomes de Brito has otherwise followed the 1592 edition fairly
faithfully, albeit with minor changes of wording and a few errors. For
instance, in Gomes de Brito’s text, the word «quintães» has twice
dropped out of the sentence in the opening paragraph: ...«E partio
tão tarde por hir carregar a Coulão, e lá haver pouca pimenta, onde
carregou obra de quatro mil e quinhentas [quintães], e veyo a Cochim
acabar de carregar a copia de sette mil e quinhentas [quintães] por
toda com muito trabalho por causa da guerra que havia no Malavar».
There is, however, one major difference. The editions of 1564, 1592,
1614 and (I presume) 1633, all end with the arrival of the survivors
at Moçambique on the 23 May 1553. Gomes de Brito’s version of
1735, goes on to relate how Pantaleão de Sá cured a Bantu chief by
applying a makeshift plaster of urine and mud to the Negro’s septic
leg. Whence did Gomes de Brito derive this anecdote? I cannot
find it in Diogo do Couto’s Decadas, in João dos Santos’ Ethiopia
Oriental, in Faria y Sousa’s Asia Portuguesa, or in any other likely
sixteenth and seventeenth century work which I have consulted.
Judging from the high-flown and inflated style in which this anecdote
is couched ', it may well be an interpolation of Gomes de Brito himself,
but I suspect that he must have found the core of the incident in an
earlier work. In any event, future editors of this narrative would
do well to base their text on the edition of 1564, rather than on the
later but less reliable versions.

1 The arrival of the naked and famished Pantaleão de Sá at some miserable

Kaffir kraal is pompously described as follows: «...chegando-se à porta do Paço,
pedio aos Áulicos alcançassem do Rey algum subsidio...» There is more of this
ridiculous hyperbole on pp. 37-8 of the 1735 version, which is conspicuously absent
in the editions of 1564, 1592, 1614, etc.
V

54

2. SÃo Bento (1554).

Naufragio da Nao sam Beto [woodcut of galleys approaching port]

Summario de viagè que fez Fernão d’Aluarez Cabral, q partio pera a
India por Capitão moor da armada q foy ho anno de M.D.LIII. até que
se perdeo na costa do Cabo da Boa esperança, & dos seus trabalhos e
morte. E do q mais socedeo aos cj da sua cõpanhia escaparão do caminho
q fizerão por terra & mar: até chegarem as ditas partes. Feyto por
Manoel da misquita palestrelo M.D.LXIIII.
8vo. [1], 2-73 (alias 74) leaves. The colophon reads: Foy impresso
em Coymbra por Ioão de Barreyra. Acabouse aos xiij dias do mes de
Novembro. Anno de M.D.LXIIII. The woodcut on the title-page
had previously been used by Germão Galharde in the Coronica del
pricipe dõ Florãdo (1545), and by João de Barreira himself in the first
edition of Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, Historia do descobrimento
& conquista da India pelos Portuguezes (Coimbra, 1551-1561). This
narrative offers no particular problem. The author and his work
have been fully discussed by King Manuel, Livros Antigos Portuguezes,
1489-1600, ii, 692-9, from the copy (apparently unique) in his own
library; Armando Cortesão, Cartografia e cartógrafos portugueses
dos séculos XV e XVI (2 vols., Lisboa, 1935), n, 252-8; and A. Fontoura
da Costa, Roteiro da Africa do Sul e sueste desde o cabo da Boa Esperança
até ao das correntes (1576) por Manuel de Mesquita Perestrello (Lisboa,
1939). These writers point out that the contemporary manuscript
copy from which the 1564 editio princeps was printed, is still preserved
in the Biblioteca Nacional (Colecção Pombalina, Codice 490). Fontoura
da Costa reproduces the title-pages of the 1564 and 1735 editions;
but neither he nor anybody else has stated how far, if at all, Gomes
de Brito’s version diverges from the original text. This can only be
decided by an inspection of King Manuel’s copy in the Library at Vila
Viçosa.

3. Nossa Senhora da Conceição (1555).

(a) Relação do naufragio da nao Conceyção, de que era capitão

Francisco Nobre, A qual se perdeo nos baixos de Pero dos Banhos aos
22 dias do mez de Agosto de 1555. [woodcut of a sinking ship] Escrita
Por Manoel Rangel, O qual se achou no dito Naufragio :e foy despo is
 V

55

ter a Cochim em Janeiro de 1557 (História Trágico-Marítima, I, 169-217).

I have not been able to find out anything about Manuel Rangel, nor
can I trace an earlier edition of this narrative. Mr. Duffy asserts 1
that «one early edition lacks both date and place of publication; another
printed in Lisbon by Antonio Alvares is placed at about 1620 by the
British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books». He gives no authority
for the first statement, and the British Museum Library contains only
the Gomes de Brito version listed above, and another anonymous
account from a different hand which is listed below.

(b) Relaçam do lastimozo naufragio da nao Conceiçam chamada

Algaravia a nova De que era Capitão Francisco Nobre A qual se perdeo
nos bayxos de Pero dos Banhos em 22. de Agosto de 1555 [woodcut
very similar to one of those on the verso of the last leaf of the 1592
edition of the São João] Em Lisboa Na Officina de Antonio Alvares.
4to. one unnumbered leaf with the title-page, and text on pp. 2-23.
This is undoubtedly an 18th-century counterfeit edition of about 1735,
judging by the format, typography and paper. The previous editors
and commentators of the História Trágico-Marítima do not adequately
distinguish between versions (a) and (b). They state, or imply, that
both narratives are by Manuel Rangel. In point of fact, they are
totally distinct. Apart from the fact that text (b) is very much shorter,
the writer was not Manuel Rangel, or anyone on board the ship, but
an anonymous Jesuit in Portugal who was writing many years after
the event. Such at least is a legitimate deduction from various passages
like the following: «Pelo que contarey hum lastimoso Naufragio do
numero daquelles, cõ que os nossos Portuguezes fizerão celebre o mar
Oceano: & porque Diogo do Couto na sua Septima Década, &
Francisco de Andrade na Vida dei Rey D. João o III tocão brevemente,
& elle tem muyto que contar pelo que nos pertence por razão dos
nossos tres Padres da Companhia de Jesu, que nella acabarão, o quero
aqui referir mais por extenso» (p. 5).
Diogo do Couto’s Década VII was published in 1616, and
Francisco de Andrade’s Chronica de D. João III in 1613, so this account
was presumably written (and possibly originally published) about 1620.
The anonymous writer repeatedly refers to «os nossos tres Religiosos»

1 Shipwreck and Empire, p. 176n (16).

V

56

in eulogistic terms, and implies that one of his informants was Pedralvares
de Mancellos, «filho de Antonio de Mancellos, Capitão Mór das
Armadas neste Reyno». This indicates that his account was written
in Portugal and not in India, but I have not been able to carry the
identification of the Jesuit writer any further.

4. Aguia and Garça (1559).

Relação da Viagem, e successo que tiverão as naos Aguia e Garça

Vindo da India pera este Reyno no Anno de 1559 [woodcut of two ships,
one of which is sinking] Com huma descrição da Cidade de Columbo,
pelo Padre Manoel Barradas da Companhia de Jesus, Enviada a outro
Padre da mesma Companhia morador em Lisboa. (História Trágico-
-Maritima, I, 219-307).
This account as printed by Gomes de Brito in the História Trágico-
-Maritima affords an amusing example of the tendency of bibliographers
to copy from each other without verifying their assertions. Mr. Duffy,
the latest writer in this field, unwarily following in the footsteps of
his Portuguese predecessors, states that while the author of the Relação
da viagem e successo cannot definitely be identified, his style is very
similar to that of the Jesuit Manuel Barradas. «But», adds Mr. Duffy,
tightening the noose round his own neck, «the matter is purely academic,
for Manuel Barradas S. J., remains as unknown as the unnamed
author» K
A careful reading of the Relação da viagem e successo discloses
that it was taken by Gomes de Brito, without acknowledgement and
with very minor modifications in wording, from Diogo do Couto’s
narrative of the loss of the Aguia and Garça in his Década VII, Livro 6,
Cap. iii, and Ibidem, Livro 8, caps, i, xii and xiii (Lisboa, 1616). The
description of Columbo which Gomes de Brito arbitrarily annexed to
the narrative he had purloined from Couto, has nothing whatever to
do with it, but was written by the celebrated Indologist, Padre Manuel
Barradas S. J., (1572-1646), towards the end of the year 1614. Barradas
states that he was in Ceylon during the short-lived governorship of
Dorn Francisco de Menezes Roxo (1613-14); and on p. 284, he alludes
to the attempt of the English to found a factory at Pulicat, which was

l Shipwreck and Empire, pp. 29-30.

 V

57

thwarted by the death of the Hindu king of Vellore in October 1614 1.

Why Gomes de Brito suppressed all mention of Couto’s name and
retained that of Barradas, or why he joined these two disparate accounts
together, is anybody’s guess.

5. Santa María da Barca (1559).

Naufragio Da viagem que fez a Nao Sancta Maria da barca, deste

Reyno pera a India: em q hia por Capitão mor dom Luis fernandes de
Vasconcellos. No ãno de M.D.L.VII. [woodcut of a ship as described
under 1(a) above] Foy impresso em Lisboa em casa de Marcos borges
impressor del Rey nosso senhor. Aos quatro de Ianeyro de M.D.L.XVL
Vendem se na impressam detrás de Nossa Senhora da palma. Com
licença impresso.
4to. Fourteen unnumbered leaves; collation by signature A,
14 leaves; leaf A8 wrongly numbered Aix. King Manuel, from whose
Livros Antigos Portuguezes, ii, 746-9, the above description is taken,
believed that his copy was the only one in existence, and I have not
been able to trace another. The King added that the account printed
by Gomes de Brito in the História Trágico-Marítima, I, 309-49, contains
much more matter than the original text printed in 1566. Unfortunately,
he does not specify what these additions are, and this point can only
be resolved by an examination of the apparently unique copy at Vila
Viçosa. But the version printed by Gomes de Brito begins with an
interesting account of the devotion of the Portuguese mariners in
general and those of the Alfama in particular to the cult of São Pedro
Gonçalves. This account (unless it also is in the original edition of
1566, which I very much doubt) is apparently taken, again without
the slightest indication or acknowledgement, from Diogo do Couto’s
Década VII, Livro 5, cap. ii. Couto also embodied this account in
his Vida de Dom Paulo de Lima, cap. ii, written at Goa in 1611, but
which was first printed in 1765. As we shall see below, Gomes de
Brito had access to a manuscript copy of this work, but whether he

1 For Manuel Barradas, S. J. (1572-1646) and his work see R. Streit, Biblio¬
theca Missionum, v (Aachen, 1929), p. 214; and for the abortive English establish¬
ment at Pulicat see W. H. Moreland, Relations of Golconda (London, 1931).
p. xxiii.
V

58

took the account of this cult from the Vida or from the Década VII,
is immaterial, the point being that it is Couto’s work '.

6. São Paulo (1561).

Nao sam Paulo, [woodcut of a ship as in nos: 1(a) and 5 above]

Viagem & naufragio da Nao sam Paulo, que foy pera a India o anno de
mil e quinhentos e sesenta. Capitão Ruy de melo da camara Mestre
Joam luys, Piloto Antonio Dias. Com licenca Ympresso.
Small 4to.; Twenty-two unnumbered leaves including the title-page.
Signature: A (Title page) — Aiiij + 4 unsigned leaves. B, Aij,
Biii — Bv, + 3 unsigned. C — Ciij + 3 unsigned. Gothic type. Title
printed in red and black. On verso of the last leaf is the following
colophon:
Aqui se acaba o Naufragio da Nao sã Paulo feyto por hum homem
de credito que vio & passou tudo ysto. E foy impresso em casa da viuva,
mother que foy de Germão Galhard. Aos oyto do mes Dabril. Anno
de M.D.LXV.
I have examined the apparently unique copy of this first edition,
which is not recorded by any previous bibliographer or commentator,
and which is now in the library of the National Maritime Museum
at Greenwich near London 1 2.
This text of 1565 is less than one quarter of the length of that
printed by Gomes de Brito, who states that the Relação da viagem,
e naufragio da nao S. Paulo (História Trágico-Marítima, I, 351-479),
was originally written by Henrique Dias, «criado do S. D. Antonio
Prior do Crato». The name of Henrique Dias nowhere appears in
the text of the 1565 edition, nor does the author give any indication
who he was, other than the fact that he was a layman. It will be seen
that the printer’s colophon of the 1565 edition states that the author
was a «homem de credito», who was one of the survivors of the disaster.

1 This passage is quoted from the HTM version by Dr. Augusto César Pires
de Lima, Fogo de Santelmo (Lisboa, 1943) pp. 7-8, but he does not realise that it
originated with Diogo do Couto.
2 First recorded in Maggs Bros., Catalogue 452 (London, 1924), item n.° 39
ar.d Plate XI whence the reproduction of the frontispiece reproduced here by cour¬
tesy of Mr. F. B. Maggs.
 V

59

1 am inclined to think that the anonymous author was, in fact, Henrique

Dias; since despite the great differences in the texts of 1565 and 1735,
many passages are identical in both, and others nearly so. I would
tentatively suggest that Henrique Dias wrote a much longer account
of the wreck after the publication of the first edition in 1565, and that

Nao fam Paulo.

^ V lagem & naufragio da

ifoo Cam Í0aulo,que fo?{*ra a Jndfa o anno
mil * quinamos? lefenta. Capitão
Jftum tnelo oa camara Jfl&dtr*
3oamlu^||^iloto2In#
tonic* tDiaa-
*
íoialtaoía^mpKiío.

Title-page of the very rare first edition of the Naufragio

da Nao Sam Paulo (Lisboa, 1565).
(National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)
V

60

this was the version (whether manuscript or another unrecorded edition)

which Gomes de Brito utilised for the História Trágico-Marítima.
This is, of course, pure supposition; and if there are striking similarities
between the texts of 1565 and 1735, there are also great differences.
For instance, the date of the departure from Belém in the 1565 edition
is given as the 20 April 1560, and the next date mentioned in the text
is the 23 April. In the 1735 version these dates appear as the 25 and
28 April, respectively; nor is there any question of a misprint, since
in both the texts the dates are given in words and not in figures. The
narrative of the voyage down to the time of the shipwreck is very much
shorter in the 1565 edition than in the 1735 version. The details of
the stay in Brazil and the description of Sumatra are omitted in the
1565 text; and the narrative on pp. 368-425 of the História Trágico-
-Maritima, is reduced to a few lines on leaves 5v-6r of the 1565 edition.
And so forth and so on.
One feature which both the 1565 and the 1735 texts have in
common is the outspoken admiration of the writer for the personality
and character of the Jesuit Padre Manuel Alvares. This Jesuit, «pintor
insigne», also wrote an account of the wreck of the São Paulo and
the subsequent misadventures of the survivors in Sumatra, which was
resumed by Antonio Franco, S. J., in his Imagem de Virtude em o
noviciado da Companhia de Jesus no Real Collegio de Jesus de Coimbra,
Tomo II, Livro III, pp. 359-73 (Coimbra, 1719). Padre Manuel
Alvares’ account was first published in full, together with the
reproduction of the charming little pen-and-ink sketches which
illustrate the original, by Frazão de Vasconcelos in 1948 h There is
also an interesting account of this disaster by Diogo do Couto,
Década VII, Livro 9, cap. xvi, but neither Diogo do Couto nor Manuel
Alvares S. J., allude to Henrique Dias and his account. Couto,
writing in November 1603, mentions that some survivors from the

1 Frazão de Vasconcelos, Naufrágio da nau «S. Paulo» em um ilhéu próximo

de Sumatra no ano de 1561. Narração inédita, escrita em Goa em 1562 pelo Padre
Manuel Alvares, S. J. (Lisboa, 1948). Another version of this narrative, from a
copy in the Ajuda Library, will be found in Padre Artur de Sá, Documentação para
a história das missões do padroado português no Oriente. Insulíndia, 2.° volume.
1550-1562, (Lisboa, 1955), pp. 381-429. From a comparison of these two versions
it is clear that the letter was not written at Goa, but at Malacca, with the final para¬
graph added at Cochim on the 5 January 1562.
 V

61

wreck were still living at Goa, one of them being Francisco Paes, who
was the Provedor-Mór dos Contos. This man is probably identical
with Francisco Paes, Capitão-Mór da viagem de China e Japão in 1585-86,
whose round voyage between Macao and Nagasaki in the Santa Cruz
has been preserved for us in the pages of Linschoten’s Itinerário
(Amsterdam, 1596)h

7. Santo Antonio (1565).

Naufragio, que passou Iorge Dalbuquerque Coelho, Capitão e

Governador de Pernambuco. Em Lisbao, por Antonio Aluarez, Anno
MCCCCCCI [1601] 1 p.l., (vip), front., Pi., 18-1/2 cm.
I have not seen a copy of this exceedingly scarce book, and have
taken the collation from R. E. V. Holmes, Bibliographical and historical
description of the rarest books in the Oliveira Lima collection at the
Catholic University of America (Washington, 1927), no: 33, p. 65.
Whether, as Gomes de Brito affirms in his reprint (História Trágico
Marítima, li, 1-59), Bento Teixeira Pinto was the author of the above
narrative as well as of the Prosopopea dirigida a Jorge de Albuquerque
Coelho which was published with it, is still an open question. At one
time, the Brasilian historian, Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, maintained
that the pilot, Afonso Luis, was primarily responsible for this relation;
but he adduced no convincing proof of this assertion which has been
dropped from the later editions of the work where it was originally
made * 2. Most modern writers are inclined to attribute the Naufragio
to the pen of Bento Teixeira Pinto, and I likewise feel that the
traditional attribution should stand unless some new and convincing
evidence can be adduced to disprove it.

8. Santiago (1585).

(a) Relaçam do naufragio da nao Santiago & Itinerário da gente

que delle se saluou. Escri. ta por Manoel Godinho Cardoso. Com licença

] English translation by C. R. Boxer, The Christian Century in Japan, 1549-

-1650. (Berkeley, 1951), pp. 406-14.
2 Compare his História geral do Brasil, ii (Madrid, 1857), p. 53, and Ibidem,
i (5.a edição, São Paulo, 1949), p. 349.
V

62

da Sancta Inquisição. Em Lisboa. Impresso por Pedro Crasbeeck.

Anno M.DCII.
8vo. Sixty-four leaves including the title-page, numbered on

RE L A C> A M
DO NAVFRAGIO
DA NAO SANTIAGO
tc Itinerário da gente
que dellc fc
íàluou.

Efaitta par Mamet Oadinb*

Qardçfo.

Qm licença dafanBa Inyui/tçáo,

EM LISBOA.
ImpreiTo por Pedro Crasbeeck.
Anno M. DCII,
Title-page of the first edition of Manuel Godinho Car¬
doso, Relação do naufragio da nan Santiago
(Lisboa, 1602).

(C. R. Boxer)
 V

63

the recto only. Mr. Duffy states 1 that it is uncertain whether Godinho
Cardoso was a survivor of the wreck, but his doubts would have been
resolved had he consulted a copy of the (admittedly very rare) first
edition. This contains a dedicatory epistle by the author, addressed
to Dom João Luis de Vasconcellos e Menezes, which was suppressed
in the version printed by Gomes de Brito (História Trágico-Marítima,
ii, 61-152). Godinho Cardoso states in this epistle: «Este relação do
infelice naufragio da nao Santiago, me veo a mão, & sabendo quam
verdadeira he pellos testemunhos dos q delle se saluarão, me pareceo
digna de se diuulgar, não sò pera a gente cõmü, mas também pera os
Pilotos da carreira da India, & gente do mar, porq nella se descreue
o sitio deste nouo baixo, em que a nao Santiago tocou, com algüas
demonstrações de geographia, em que se proua não ser este o baixo da
Iudia, situado nas cartas antiguas de marear, como erradamente algüs
cuidão, mas nouo baixo incognito dos antiguos, q como tal se deue
situar nas cartas de marear». It may be added that Diogo do Couto
in his account of this famous wreck (Década X, Livro 7, cap. iii) takes
just the opposite view, and argues that the scene of the disaster was
indeed the baixos da India 2.

(b) There is a counterfeit 18th century edition of this Relaçam,

which reproduces the text of the 1602 edition, including the dedicatory
epistle, forming a quarto volume of seventy numbered pages, including
the title-page.

(c) Gomes de Brito did not simply reprint the original edition of
1602, but, as he himself stated on the title-page of the História Trágico-
-Maritima version, it was «agora novamente acrescentada com mais
algumas noticias». As usual, he does not state where he obtained the
additional information which he embodied in his account; but judging
by the great stress which this version lays on the devotion and good
works of the Jesuits who were on board, I suspect that it was derived

1 Shipwreck and Empire, p. 33.

2 For the baixos da Iudia or baixos da India as they were indiscriminately
called cf. A Fontoura da Costa, A Marinharia dos Descobrimentos (2.a edição, Lis¬
boa, 1939), p. 322n (436), and his edition of the 1612 Roteiro of Gaspar Ferreira
Reimão (Lisboa, 1939), pp. 22-3.
V

64

from the narrative of a Jesuit or a Jesuit sympathiser. One of these

passengers, Padre Pedro Martins, S. J., who was later Bishop of Japan,
wrote an account of the wreck dated Goa, 9 December 1586, which was
published two years later in Italian and French translations
A Portuguese version of this letter, and that an abbreviated one, was
only published in 1719 “, but a comparison of Pedro Martins’ letter
of 9 December 1586, with the text printed by Gomes de Brito reveals
that the former was not the latter’s subsidiary source. The differences
in style and wording are very marked, and stress is laid on different
episodes in the two versions. The graphic complaint in the História
Trágico-Marítima version about the heat in the Gulf of Guinea1 2 3, is
lacking in Pedro Martins’ letter. I am unable to carry the identification
any further at the moment, but the problem should not prove insoluble,
for the disaster made a great impression on contemporaries, as can be
seen by the accounts given in Linschoten’s Itinerário of 1596 4 5, and in
Duarte Gomes de Solis’ Discursos of 1622°. Godinho Cardoso’s
text of 1602, begins with the actual wreck on the baixos da India, and
the matter added by Gomes de Brito from his Jesuit (or other) source,
chiefly relates to the voyage from Lisbon to the Moçambique Channel,
which is described with a wealth of detail.

1 Raguaglio d'un notabilíssimo Naufragio cavato d'una lettero del Padre Pietro
Martinez scritta da Goa, 9. xii. 1586 (Rome and Venice, 1588); Recveil d'un fort
notable naufrage tirés des lettres du Père Pierre Martinez, escrites en la ville de Goa
és lndes Orientates, 9.xii. 1586 (Paris, 1588).
2 Antonio Franco, S. J., Imagem de Virtude do Noviciado de Coimbra, i (Evora,
1719), Livro 2, cap. 23, pp. 281-97.
3 «...passando a Linha a vinte e sete de Mayo, de calma tão enfadonha e
tão ardente, que as do Alemtéjo ficão como frios de Noruega em comparação daquella
paragem» (HTM, n, 69).
t The account of the loss of the Santiago printed in the French and English
shipwreck anthologies cited on page 52 below, is taken from the first French edition
(Amsterdam, 1610), and not from Godinho Cardoso or Pedro Martins, S. J.
5 Discursos sobre los comércios de las dos índias, donde se tratan matérias
importantes de Estado, y Guerra, fls. 154, 218, 242-3, of the editio princeps of 1622.
Duarte Gomes de Solis was a passenger in the Santiago.
 V

65

9. São Tomé (1589).

Relação do naufragio da nao S. Thomé Na Terra dos Fumos, no

anno de 1589. E dos grandes trabalhos que passou D. Paulo de Lima
Nas ten as da Cafraria athé sua morte, [woodcut of a sinking ship and
a boatload of survivors] Escrita por Diogo do Couto Guarda mòr da
Tone do Tombo. A rogo da Senhora D. Anna de Lima irmãa do dito
D. Paulo de Lima no Anno de 1611. (História Tráfico-Marítima, ir
153-213.
Although this narrative was first published, by Gomes de Brito in
1736, its origin must be sought in Diogo do Couto’s lost Década XL
As printed in the História Trágico-Marítima, the account is virtually
identical with chapters xxxii-xli of Couto’s Vida de Dorn Paulo de Lima
Pereira, which was still in manuscript in the year 1736, but which was
published twenty-nine years later ’. As stated above, Diogo do Couto
compiled this account at the request of Dona Ana de Lima Pereira,
the sister (or rather the half-sister) of Dom Paulo de Lima Pereira,
and the wife of Dom Antonio de Ataide, who was Captain-Major
of the India Fleet in 1611-12. Neither Gomes de Brito nor the editor
of the 1765 edition of the Vida have printed Diogo do Couto’s original
dedication to D. Ana de Lima Pereira, which explains how he came
to write the work, and which I reproduce in part from an 18th-century
copy in the British Museum 1 2.
«A Senhora Dona Ana de Lima Pereira. Tem tanta força os
rogos de hüa senhora como VM a quem eu devo tanto, por Irmãa de

1 Vida de D. Paulo de Lima Pereira, Capitam-mór de Armadas do Estado

da índia, donde por seu valor, e esforço nas batalhas do mar, e terra, de que sempre
conseguio gloriosas victorias, foy chamado o Hercules Portuguez (Lisboa, 1765).
Reprinted with a shorter title in Mello d’Azevedo’s Bibliotheca de Clássicos Portu-
guezes, Vol. xxxv (Lisboa, 1903).
- Additional MSS. 28487. «Summario de todas as cousas que socederão
a Dom Paulo de Lima Pereira do dia que entrou na India té sua perdiçam e morte.
Dirigido a Senhora Dona Ana de Lima Pereira sua irmãa molher de Dom Antonio
dataide filho do segundo conde de Castanheira. Por Diogo do Couto Chronista
e guarda mor da torre do tombo da índia». As noted by the Conde de Tovar, Catá¬
logo dos Mss. Portugueses no Museu Britânico (Lisboa, 1932), pp. 229-30, this codex
includes some material which is omitted in the editions of 1765 and 1903. The
«papel de Diogo do Couto» to which he refers, was published by me in the Con¬
gresso do Mundo Português. Publicações, Vol. vii, tomo i, pp. 454-5 (Lisboa, 1940).
V

66

hum dos mores amigos que tive, que em dando o senhor Dom Antonio
de Ataide recardo da parte de VM em que me mandava a serviçe
neste negocio, logo larguei tudo, e pus as mãos nesta obra no que não
fis mais do que tinha feito, que tirar dos meus livros mais abreuiadamente
os soccessos deste valeroso capitão, o senhor Dom Paulo de Lima,
Irmão de VM, em que o tinha bem servido, por que pareçe que a
advinhava que me auia VM demandar isto em que agora a sirvo ... Goa,
10 de Novembro de 1611».
That Couto merely copied the draft of his own Década XI in
compiling this account, is clear not only from the statement in the
preface, but from a perusal of the narrative itself, which abounds in
expressions such as «como na sexta Década escrevemos», and «do
qual jà temos dado conta da nona Década», and «como na Decima
Década fica dito». Couto’s description of the loss of the São Tomé
and the overland march of the survivors to Sofala, is virtually identical
in the printed versions of 1736 and 1765, both of which are taken from
his lost Década XI, which was, in its turn, based on the accounts of
the survivors. One of these was the sota-piloto, Gaspar Ferreira Reimão,
who wrote an account of this disaster which Nuno Velho Pereira read
at Goa before embarking on his own voyage in the Santo Alberto,
described below 1 2 3 *. It only remains to add that Diogo do Couto himself
was not on board the São Tomé as alleged by S.R. Welch and other
writers5. The man of that name who figures in the narrative, was
a young sailor who had been involved in the loss of the Santiago four
years previously, but he should not be confused with the old chronicler.

1 Dom Antonio de Ataide reached Goa on the 12 September 1611, with

the carracks N.a S.ra de Guadalupe, São Felipe and N.a S.ra da Piedade. He left
Goa on the 16 January 1612, and reached Lisbon on the 21 August. As Couto’s
preface is dated 10 November 1611, he obviously compiled the Vida in less than
two months. Cf. my articles in the Arquivo Historico da Marinha, I (1934), pp. 189-
-200, and the Harvard Library Bulletin, v (1951), pp. 24-50.
2 «...lembrado Nuno Velho da perdição da nao S'. Thomé na Terra dos
Fumos, anno de outenta e nove, cujos successos lera em Goa escritos por Gaspar
Ferreira Sota-Piloto delia» (HTM, ii, 238). This «Tratado» of Gaspar Ferreira
Reimão remains unpublished. Cf. Frazão de Vasconcelos, Pilotos das navegações
portuguesas dos séculos XVI e XVII (Lisboa, 1943), pp. 24-7.
3 Portuguese rule and Spanish Crown in South Africa, 1581-1640 (Cape Town,
1950), pp. 86, 90, 99, 103.
 V

67

10. Santo Alberto (1593).

(a) Naufragio da nao S. Alberto, e itinerário da gente, que del/e

se salvou. De Ioão Baptista Lavanha Cosniographo mòr de Sua
Magestade. Dedicado ao princepe Dom Philippe nosso senhor. Em
Lisboa. Em casa de Alexandre de Siqueira. Anno M.D.XCVII. Com
Licença, & Privilegio.
Small 8vo. Four preliminary leaves, including the title-page;
text on pp. 1-152.

(b) there are at least two counterfeit eighteenth-century editions

of this work. Both of them are quartos, but one edition has three
preliminary leaves (including the title-page) and sixty-five pages of
text, whereas the other comprises the title-page leaf and sixty-five pages
of text1.
This narrative presents no problems. João Baptista Lavanha
states explicitly that he had compiled it on the orders of the government,
to serve as a guide for voyagers who might in future be wrecked on
the shores of Natal, and he tells us whence he had derived his
information: «E para que de couzas tão importantes e novas se tenha
o necessário conhecimento, escrevo este breve tratado, resumindo
nelle hum largo cartapacio, que desta viagem fez o Piloto da dita Nao;
o qual emendey, e verifiquey com a informação, que depois me deo
Nuno Velho Pereira, Capitão Mor que foy dos Portuguezes nesta
jornada». The pilot was Rodrigo Migueis, who had been sota-piloto
on board the Santiago in 1585, and was apparently one of Diogo do
Couto’s informants concerning the loss of that ship.
Gomes de Brito has not taken any liberties with Lavanha’s text
of 1597, although he has made a change in the wording of the
original prologue. Where the 1597 text has: «E como a rellação
deste caminho seja de muita importância, pera aviso dos que
naquella Costa se perderê (o que Deos não permitta q succeda)
encarregarãome os Governadores deste Reyno que a fizesse», Gomes

1 Anselmo, Bibliographia das obras impressas em Portugal no século XVI,

n.° 1065, wrongly catalogues one of these counterfeit versions as the genuine 1597
edition.
V

68

de Brito has suppressed all reference to the governors of Portugal in the

corresponding passage in the História Trágico-Marítima, ii, 217-18.
João Baptista Lavanha was until recently one of the unduly
neglected Portuguese authors, but thanks to the studies of Dr. Armando
Cortesão and others he has recently come into his own '.

11. São Francisco (1596).

Relação da viagem E successo que teve a nao S. Francisco Em que

hi a por Capitão Vasco da Fonseca, Na Armada, que foy per a a India no
Anno de 1596. [woodcut of an India Fleet] Escrita pelo padre Gaspar
Affonso Hum dos oito da Companhia, que nella hião. (História Trágico-
-Marítima, ii, 315-436).
The original source of this narrative likewise presents no problem.
Padre Francisco Rodrigues informs us that it is a long letter written
by Padre Gaspar Affonso from Evora, dated the 21 June 1599, which
is still preserved in the Jesuit Archives at Rome (Lus. 106 ff. 251-270v) 1 2.
Not having seen the original, I cannot state what modifications, if
any, Bernardo Gomes de Brito introduced in the printed version.
Judging by the pagination, it looks as if the printed text had been
considerably expanded from the original manuscript; but on the other
hand, Padre Francisco Rodrigues’ brief reference would seem to
indicate that there is no substantial difference between the two. It is
most unlikely that Gomes de Brito had access to the original at Rome,
but he may have secured a copy from one of the Jesuit Colleges in
Portugal.

12. Santiago (1602) and Chagas (1594).

(a) Tratado das Batalhas, e sucessos do Galeão Sanctiago com os

Olandeses na Ilha de Sancta Elena. E da Náo Chagas com os Vngleses
ant re as Ilhas dos Açores: Ambas Capitainas da carreira da India. E da

1 A. Cortesão, Cartografia e cartógrafos portugueses, n, 294-361; F. P. Men¬

des da Luz, «Um parecer inédito do cosmógrapho João Baptista Lavanha sobre as
Molucas e o tratado de Tordesilhas», in Garcia de Orta. Revista da Junta das Mis¬
sões Geográficas e de investigações do Ultramar, m, 63-77.
F. Rodrigues S. J., História da Companhia de Jesus na Assistência de Por¬
tugal, Tomo ui, Vol. ii, p. 479 (Porto, 1938).
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Title-page of the first (? or second) edition of the Tra- Title-page of the 2nd (? 0r first) edition of the Tratado
tado das Batalhas (Lisboa, 1604). das Batalhas (Lisboa, 1604).

(British Museum, London) (Biblioteca da Ajuda, Lisboa)

V

70

causa, & desastres, porque em vinte annos se perderão trinta & oito
náos delia: com outras cousas curiosas. Escripto por Melchior Estacio
do Amaral, [woodcut of a dismasted and sinking ship with the Virgin
and Child above, identical with that in the 1592 edition of the Galeam
Sam Joam] Dirigido ao Excellentissimo Principe Dom Theodosio Duque
de Bragança. Impresso em Lisboa: Com licença da Sancta Inquisição:
Por Antonio Aluarez. Anno 1604.
4to. Two unnumbered preliminary leaves, including the title-page,
licences, prologo and list of errata; text on fls. 1-65, numbered on the
recto only, leaf 54 being misprinted 49; one unnumbered leaf with
four woodcuts of shipping scenes, two of which are identical with those
on the verso of the last leaf of the 1592 edition of the Galeam Sam Joam.
A large unfolding map of the island of St. Helena between leaves 22
and 23 in the British Museum copy (Pressmark 1434.i.24).

(b) Das Batalhas do galeaom Sanctiago com Olandeses. E da nâo

Chagas que ardeo entre as Ilhas, com Vngleses. Das causas porque em
20, anos se perderão 38. nãos da índia. De como a cõquista, &
nauegação do Oriète não pertèce a nação algüa senão á Portugueses,
& lhe foi dada por nosso Senhor IES V CHRISTO. Dos sitios das Ilhas da
Sancta Elena, & de Fernão de Loronha. E do que nellas à. Escripto
por Melchior Estacio do Amaral. Dirigido ao Excellentissimo Principe
Dom Theodosio Duque de Bragança. Impresso em Lisboa: Com licença
da Sancta Inquisição: Por Antonio Aluarez. Anno 1604.
4to. Two unnumbered preliminary leaves (including title-page
etc.,); text on fls. 1-65, numbered on the recto only; one unnumbered
leaf with four woodcuts. I have not seen a copy of this edition, and I
have taken the description from that in the Ajuda Library described
by Dr. Jordão de Freitas in the História da Literatura Portuguesa
Ilustrada, nr, 211. I cannot definitely state which of these two editions
is the first without examining both. Dr. Jordão de Freitas evidently
assumes that (b) is the earliest, but the question is not of paramount
importance, as they were presumably both published in the same year ’.

1 M. Rodrigues Lapa, Quadros da História Trágico-Marítima. Selecção,

prefácio e notas (2.a edição, Lisboa, 1951), pp. xx, 143-62, indicates some of the
differences between the wording of the 1604 texts and that of 1736. But he (like
Dr. Jordão de Freitas) thinks that there were three genuine editions published in
1604, whereas I consider that there were only two.
 V

71

There are at least two eighteenth-century counterfeit editions

of this Tratado, which are often mistaken for the much rarer originals,
but they can be distinguished by the paper, the arrangement of the
preliminary matter, and the absence of the map and of the woodcuts
at the end, besides differences in the wording of the title-page, as may
be seen hereunder.

(c) Tratado das batalhas, e sucessos do galeam Santiago com os

Olandezes na Ilha de Santa Elena, E da Nao Chagas com os Inglezes
entre as Ilhas dos Açores: ambas Capitanias da carreyra da índia, &
da causa, & desastres, porque em vinte annos se perdèrão trinta, &
oyto Naos delia. Escrito por Melchior Estado do Amaral, [woodcut
of a battered and sinking ship with the masts going by the board].
Na Officina de Antonio Alvares. No Anno de 1604.
4to. Four prelim, unnumbered leaves (including title-page);
text on pp. 1-64.

(d) There is another counterfeit edition in which the title-page

and the other three preliminary leaves are identical with (c), but the
text extends to 86 pages, being printed in a different setting up.
The licences and dedication in (a) have been transposed in (c)
and (d), while the list of errata in (a) has been suppressed in (c) and (d)
where the corrections are duly embodied in the text. The arrangement
by chapters has also been altered, «capitulo I» in (a) having become
«Do proposito deste Tratado» in (c) and (d), and «capitulo ii» of (a)
having become «capitulo I» of the counterfeit editions, and so on. The
woodcuts on the title-page are also totally dissimilar ’.
Gomes de Brito made still further alterations in his version for
the História Trágico-Marítima, ii, 437-538. The wording of the title-
-page follows the counterfeit version (c), but the woodcut is quite
different, depicting the galleon Santiago engaged with two Dutch ships

1 A reproduction of the title-page of the 18th-century counterfeit editions

of the Tratado, as described in (c) and (d) above, will be found in Maggs Bros., Cata¬
logue 452 (London 1924), Plate XXI, and items 102 and 102 A. These editions are
there listed as genuine, most bibliographers having recorded them as such. This
mistake is corrected in subsequent issues of that firm’s catalogues, though several
other booksellers persist in recording the counterfeit editions as genuine. Cf.
Duffy, Shipwreck and Empire, p. 179n (45).
 V

Woodcuts on the recto of the last leaf of the Tratado Woodcuts on the verso of the last leaf of the Tratado
das Batalhas (1604). (British Museum) das Batalhas {1604). (British Museum)
 V

73

off the island of St. Helena while a third remains aloof. The dedication
has been retained, but the licences have been dropped, the errata are
embodied in the text, and there are no woodcuts at the end, or map
of St. Helena in the middle. His text begins with «capitulo I» and
ends with «capitulo undécimo» (should be «duodecimo»), but the
wording of his text is basically the same as that of the genuine (a) edition
of 1604.
Dr. Melchior Estacio do Amaral was not an eyewitness of the
loss of the Santiago, but the Desembargador do Paço charged with
conducting the official enquiry into the responsibility for the disaster.
His Tratado is based on the judicial examination of the survivors,
contains extracts from relevant official correspondence, and is very
favourable to the courageous Captain-Major, Antonio de Mello de
Castro, who was honourably acquitted of all blame as a result. The
origin of this account of the loss of the Chagas is another matter. As
Mr. Duffy says, it was apparently included as an afterthought. It is
very graphically written, however, and in all probability follows closely
the evidence of the two distinguished survivors, Nuno Velho Pereira
and Braz Correia.
The map of the island of St. Helena is exceedingly rare, and 1
know of no other copy besides that in the British Museum. Dr. Melchior
do Amaral explicitly states that he had the map drawn specially for
his Tratado, but curiously enough the nomenclature is partly in Spanish,
ie., ribera instead of ribeira.
Since the Dutch names in the Tratado are badly mutilated, it may
be recorded, here that the two ships which took the Santiago were the
Zeelandia and the Langebercke. The third vessel, which took virtually
no part in the fighting, was the Witten Arent. Contrary to what
Mr. Duffy states \ the Santiago did not sink after her oaptuie, but
was carried by a prize-crew into Zeeland. The celebrated Florentine
traveller, Francesco Carletti, was on board the Santiago, and the Dutch
subsequently had a great deal of trouble over his claims for compensation.
The matter was eventually settled by a payment of 13,000 guilders to
him in April, 16051 2.

1 Shipwreck and Empire, p. 189/z (11).

2 For the relevant Dutch documents, see W. S. Unger, De oudste reizen van
de Zeeuwen naar Oost-Indie, 1598-1604 (The Hague, 1948), pp. 156-202.
V

74

The foregoing twelve narratives (counting the Santiago of 1602

and the Chagas of 1594 as one) are those from which were compiled
the corresponding accounts in the two volumes of the História Trágico-
-Maritima, published by Gomes de Brito in 1735-36. As noted above,
spurious or counterfeit editions of five of these disasters (São João,

Map of the island of Saint Helena in the first edition of

the Tratado das Batalhas (1604), in fls. 22 & 23.

(British Museum)
 V

75

Conceição, Santiago, Santo Alberto, and Santiago (1602), Chagas)

were published, or at least printed, at about the same time, although
it is not clear whether Gomes de Brito was in any way responsible for
them. The words «counterfeit» and «spurious» are used with some
hesitation, as although these 18th-century versions are not genuine
editions of 1554-1604, neither do they attempt to imitate very closely
the format, typography, and pagination of the originals. The same
remark applies to the 18th-century «counterfeit» editions of the six
shipwreck narratives listed below, which were originally published
between 1625 and 1651. Mr. Duffy states that these six 18th-century
counterfeit editions kept the original title-pages of their respective
first editions of 1625-1651, and varied only in their pagination ’. This
is quite wrong. As with the five counterfeit editions of 1554-1604,
so these six counterfeit editions of 1625-1651 differ completely in format
and layout as well as in pagination from their originals, although the
text has usually been followed very closely. As the original editions
of 1625-1651 are excessively rare and are not described in many standard
bibliographies, the counterfeit versions are often listed as the genuine
first editions in booksellers’ catalogues. Even so careful and
conscientious a bibliographer as José dos Santos fell into this error
more than once 1 2.
The responsibility for these eleven spurious editions which were
published about 1735-36 is uncertain. Several critics, including
Dr. Carlos dos Passos, Professor Damião Peres and Mr. Duffy, deny
that Gomes de Brito could have had anything to do with them, on the
grounds that: «De certo Gomes de Brito, dado o zelo com que se houve
na compilação que nos legou — não inseriria noutro volume da sua
obra narrativas que jà tivesse inserto em volume anterior»3. This
argument, of course, applies only to the five spurious editions of
1554-1604, and even as regards these it is not absolutely conclusive.
Gomes de Brito did not, as we have seen, display much «zelo» in the

1 Shipwreck and Empire, p. 39.

2 Catálogo da Livraria de Azevedo-Samodães, I, 395-400 (Porto, 1921), where
several of the counterfeit versions are erroneously described as being genuine first
editions. Cf. page 37 below.
3 Quoted approvingly by Damião Peres in the «Nota Final» to his edition
of the HTM, v, 251-3 (Porto, 1937).
V

76

editing of the accounts which he published in 1735-36, if by «zelo»

is meant that he carefully and accurately transcribed his original sources.
Moreover, a long interval elapsed between the date when his work
was ready for publication and when it was eventually published. The
preface to the first volume of the História Trágico-Marítima is dated
the 8 March 1729, the licences to print are dated July-August 1729,
but the licences to publish («pode correr») are dated May 1735. The
licences for the second volume do not display such a gap, but they
cover two years, ranging from August 1734 to June 1736. Since these
two volumes were seven years in the press, and Gomes de Brito (as
the Bibliotheca Lusitana informs us) had another three volumes ready
for the press, it seems possible that some at least of the eleven spurious
accounts which appeared about 1735-36 were originally collected and
prepared for publication by him.
In any event, whoever printed and published these eleven
counterfeit or spurious editions, did so clandestinely. None of them
have eighteenth-century ecclesiastical or civil licences (which were
of course obligatory) although some of them reproduce the original
licences as if they were still valid. The problem can only be solved
by a qualified bibliographer who is prepared to make a special study
of it. Meanwhile, Mr. Duffy’s tentative solution seems to be the most
reasonable h «The best assumption is that Gomes de Brito, for
unknown reasons, abandoned his interest in collecting shipwreck
narratives; shortly thereafter the original printer of the História, or
perhaps a rival, decided to continue the work himself, setting his type
from copies of the original editions. Such a printer might well have
used the earlier title-pages either to ensure anonymity for himself
or possibly to form counterfeit editions in the hope of greater personal
gain or artistic authenticity». To this it may be objected that the
title-pages and pagination of the counterfeit editions do not resemble
those of the originals. But it can be argued in reply that even by that
time the original editions were so excessively rare that the printer or
publisher was not running much risk in neglecting to copy them
slavishly.
I give below the original titles and (where possible) a brief
description of each of the six narratives published between 1625 and

1 Shipwreck and Empire, p. 119n (42).

 V

77

1651, which were reprinted clandestinely in the eighteenth-century

to form what is usually termed the third volume of the História
Trágico-Marítima. As with the preceeding twelve, I have listed them
chronologically, but, as noted at the beginning, they are not always
bound up in this order.

13. Nossa Senhora da Conceição (1621).

(a) Memorável Relaçam da perda da nao Conceicam que os Turcos

queimai ão à vista da barra de Lisboa, vários sucessos das pessoas que
nella catiuarão. E descripção noua da Cidade de Argel, de seu gouerno
E cousas mui notaueis acontesidas nestes vltimos annos de 621 até o
de 26. Por loam Carvalho Mascarenhas que foi cativo na mesma Nao.
Dedicada a Dom Pedro de Meneses Prior da Igreja de Santa Maria
de Obidos. Anno [printer’s device with motto vexat et illustrate
1627. Em Lisboa. Com todas as licenças necessárias. Por Antonio
Aluar ez.
4to. Four preliminary unnumbered leaves, including the title-
-page, author’s prologue «ao leitor», licences, and «Carta Dedicatória»
to D. Pedro de Menezes, dated Lisboa, 25 August 1627. Text on
leaves 1-48, numbered on the recto of each leaf. Colophon on the
verso of leaf 48: Laus Deo. Em Lisboa. Com todas as licenças neces¬
sárias. Por Antonio Aluarez 1627.

(b) The eighteenth-century counterfeit edition is easily distin¬

guished from the original, although the wording of the title-pages is
virtually identical.
4to. Three preliminary unnumbered leaves, including title-page,
«Carta Dedicatória», and author’s prologue «ao leytor». Text on
pp. 1-100. Unnumbered leaf at the end with three licences only, instead
of seven as in the original. There is a variant of this counterfeit edition,
in which the author’s name is erroneously printed on the title-page
as Joam Tavares Mascarenhas. Other differences between the genuine
and the counterfeit editions, include the omission in the latter of the
printer’s device on the title-page and the ornamented border which
distinguish the former. Whereas the Dominican licence is dated
27 July 1627, and the Jesuit licence 12 July 1624 (sic) in the genuine
V

78

edition, these dates are transposed (and 1624 corrected to 627) in the
counterfeit edition. The colophon in the latter is limited to the words
Lavs Deo, and the author’s prologue and dedication have been
transposed.

$* * $*«;*** $ df, "dp

dp OP dÇdp cf> <-£ dfjOpOpdL ificp 7b tfj
4s*
**
a*
memorável
RE LA CAM DA P-ERDA
it* DA NAO CONCEICAM Q_V E
** os Turcos queimaráo à vifla da barra de Lisboa, ❖te*
vários fucdfos das pellbas que nella camuraõ.E **
it*
dcfcripçáo noua da Cidade de Argel.de feu pouer 40*
a* no.E coufas mui notaucis aconreíidas ncftc*
4<* 4<*
vlcimos annos dc 6u. atè o dc a6,
it* 41*
Tir hdm Cdrntlbo M*fr*r(nbai qutfei SMÍU$
a*
>14 mtfmd D*».
a*
a* DEDICADA a DOM PEDRO
dc Menefcs Prior da Igreja dc Santa ü*
Maria de Óbidos. . **
a*
■k>$- 4<*
is*
** O*
4C*
m
&* Anno \6i? ■K*
&* **
it* a*
n* a*
n*
EM LISBOA.
**
** Cem todas licenças ntccíhrLS,
Por Antonio Alumz, 4\*
n*

Title-page of the first edition of João Carvalho Masca-

renhas, Memorável Relação (Lisboa, 1627).

(C. R. Boxer)
 V

79

(c) As if confusion between these two editions was not enough,

the Visconde de Azevedo struck off another counterfeit edition on his
private press at Porto in 1865. This was limited to four copies and

MEMORÁVEL
relaçam da perda
Da NAO CONCEIÇAM
Que os Turcos queytmraõ à vifta da
barra de Lisboa, 6c vários fucceíTos
das pefíoas, que nella cativàraõ.
Com a nova dtfcripçaõ da Cidade de Argel, de feu
governo , & coufas muy notáveis acontecidas nefr
te suit imos annos de \6n.ate o de 616.
POR JOAM TAVARES MASCA RENHAS,
quefoy Cacivo na inefma Nao.
dedicada
A DOM PEDRO DE MENEZES
Prior da Igreja deSantaMaria
de Óbidos.
EM LISBOA.
Com todas as licenças mcejfarias.
NaOfficim de Antonio Alvares.
Anno de 1627.
Title-page of one of the eighteenth century counter¬
feit editions of João Carvalho Mascarenhas, Memorável
Relação.
(C. R. Boxer)
V

80

was a reproduction of (b) above, which the Visconde erroneously

supposed to be the genuine original edition of 1627, a mistaken
assumption in which he has been followed by many bibliographers and
booksellers h
I have not been able to ascertain anything about João Carvalho
Mascarenhas, beyond what he tells us incidentally of himself in the
Memorável Relaçam1 2 3 *. He states that he was thirty-eight years old
in 1627; that he had travelled on foot along the coast of Brazil from
Rio Grande do Norte to Bahia; that he had served on the coast of
East Africa, in the Persian Gulf, and on the West Coast of India from
Diu to Cape Comorim. He had personally handed dispatches from
King Philip to the Shah of Persia and he had drunk «das agoas do
Rio Ganges, & do Tigris, & Eufrates», besides visiting Arabia Felix
and Arabia Deserta. It is just possible that he is identical with the
João Carvalho Mascarenhas who was excluded from the captaincy
of Massangano during the time that Dom Manuel Pereira Coutinho
was Governor of of Angola (1630-34). If so, he was still alive in 1656 5.

14. São João Baptista (1622).

(a) Tratado do svccesso que teve a nao Sam loam Baptista, e

iornada, que fez a gente, que della escapou, desde trinta & tres graos
no Cabo da Boa Esperança, onde fez naufragio, até Zofala, vindo sempre
marchando por terra. A Diogo Soares Secretario do conselho da fazenda
de sua Magestade, &c. Auzente. Ao padre Manoel Gomez da Silueira.
[vignette] Com licença da S. Inquisiçam, Ordinário, & Paço. Em Lisboa.
Por Pedro Craesbeeck Impressor del Rei, anno 1625.
4to. Two unnumbered leaves, comprising [1] title-page, with
taxation assessment «em meyo tostam» on the verso; [2] dedication
to Diogo Soares on the recto, and the first page of the text on the verso.
Leaves 3-41, containing the rest of the text, numbered on the recto.

1 For instance by José dos Santos, Catálogo da Livraria de Azevedo-Samo-

dães, i, p. 399, where a fuller collation will be found.
2 Part II, ch. xxi, fls. 24-5 of the genuine 1627 edition.
3 Inventario dos Livros das Portarias do Reino, Vol. i (Lisboa, 1909), p. 429;
Ibidem, Vol. ii (1912), p. 116; Inventario dos Livros da Matricula dos moradores da
Casa Real, Vol. n (1917), p. 170.
 V

81

At the end is an unnumbered leaf with colophon: Em Lisboa. Por

Pecbo Craesbeeck Impressor del Rey anno Domini 1625.

(b) The title-page of the 18th-century counterfeit edition has

copied the original more closely in this instance than in any of the
other narratives. Nevertheless, it is readily distinguishable by
differences m the type and in the arrangement of the lines, while the
pagination of the text is completely different.
4to. Two unnumbered leaves comprising the title-page [lr] and
dedication^ [2r]. The text, with a separate heading, «Naufragio Da
nao S. João Baptista no Cabo de Boa Esperança no anno de 1622»,
on pp. 5-96. The taxation assessment has been omitted from the
verso of the title-page, and there is no leaf at the end with a colophon.
Francisco Vaz d’Almada, the author of this account, was another
soldier-author of the type of João Carvalho Mascarenhas. He had
served a good number of years in India, apparently mostly on the
coasts of Gujerat and Malabar ’. In addition to writing this narrative
of the loss of the São João Baptista, Francisco Vaz d’Almada also wrote
a^ brief Relación de la fortaleza de Çofala, y de la grande importance
Leila, y advertencia del descuido y desamparo en que está ha muchos
anos; que vide viniendo á ella del naufragio de la nave San Juan en el aho
de 623, in the form of a four-page memorial which was submitted to
one of the government councils at Madrid1 2.
Francisco Vaz d’Almada returned to the East as captain of the
ship Nossa Senhora dos Remedios which left the Tagus on the 23
November 1631, arriving at Goa nearly a year later (4 September 1632)
after wintering at Muscat3. Despite the length of this voyage, it seems
to have been an unusually healthy one for this period. At any rate,
Gaspar Rôiz, a contemporary piloto da carreira da India, has the
following marginal note on an unpublished parecer of about 1635:
«Eu em hum navio de Zuecia, Cabo de dous Francisco Vas Dalmada

1 Antonio Bocarro, Década XIII (Lisboa, 1876), pp. 14, 222, 307, 310, 313.
Mr. Duffy has effected a weird transformation of Malabar into «Southern Malacca»
(Shipwreck and Empire, p. 40).
Domingo Garcia Peres, Catalogo razonado de los autores Portugueses que
escribieron en Castellano (Madrid, 1890), p. 25.
3 Simão Ferreira Paes, Recopilação das famosas Armadas Portuguezas 1496-
-1650 (Rio de Janeiro, 1937), p. 126; O Oriente Português, xiii (Goa, 1916), p. 328.
V

82

e não nos morreo pessoa» 1. I have not come across any further
reference to Francisco Vaz d’Almada; but in July 1644, a certain D. Ines
Imperial was granted «seis moios de trigo de tença de cada anno, pelos
serviços de seu irmão Francisco Vaz d’Almeida na índia», which implies
that he was dead by that date, assuming that Almeida is a misprint
for Almada2.

15. Nossa Senhora do Bom Despacho (1630).

(a) Relaçam do qve passov a gente da Nao Nossa S. do bom Des¬

pacho, na viagem da India, o ano 1630. Feita por ordem do Pad/e
Fr. Nuno da Conceição, Capelão da mesma nao. Em Lisboa. Con
licença da S. Inquisição, Ordinário, & Paço. Por Pedro Craesbeeck
[71631?]
12mo. Eight preliminary leaves and 32 leaves of text. No date
of publication is given on the title-page, but it was probably printed
in 1631.
This exceedingly rare edition, which is obviously the first, is not
recorded by any Portuguese or foreign bibliographer. The only copy
which I have been able to trace is that offered for sale in Maggs Bros.,
Catalogue 519 (London, 1929), item no: 359, and again in Catalogue 727
(1943), item no: 413, whence the present description is taken. It was
subsequently sold to the South African Library, Cape Town, South
Africa. There are two 18th-century counterfeit editions of this Relaçam,
which have hitherto been mistaken for the genuine first edition, and
which are enumerated below.

(b) Relaçam da viagem, e sucesso que teve a nao capitania Nossa

Senhora do Bom Despacho. De que era Capitão Francisco de Mello,
vindo da India No anno de 1630. Escrita pelo padre Fr. Nuno da Con-
ceiçam. Da Terceyra Ordem de São Francisco, [printer’s device of a
basket of fruit]. Lisboa. Na Officina de Pedro Crasbeeck Anno de 1631.

1 Gaspar Rõiz, «Resposta em hüa proposta que se poem em conselho sobre

que sera melhor navegasão para ajmdia se embarquasois pequenas se naus de quatro
cubertas», in the writer’s collection.
2 Inventario dos Livros das Portarias do Reino, I, 108.
 V

83

4to. Four preliminary leaves including the title-page, and 47

numbered pages of text, with woodcut of ship in a heavy sea at the
foot of the last page.

RELAGAM
DO Q,V£ PASSOV
a gente da Nao Nofla S.
do bomDcfpacho,na
viagemdaIndia>o
ano i6$o.

mrATOHOTVDEM
do Padre Fr. T^uno da
ConceiÇaõ , Capelao
da mejma
nao.
em Lisboa.

Son licença da S. Inguifuao , Ordiná¬

rio, & Paço, Por Pedro
Craesbeeek,
Title-page of the first edition of Padre Fr. Nuno da
Conceição, Relaçam da nau N.a S.ra do Bom Despacho
(Lisboa, 1631?). Only known copy.

(Maggs Bros. Catalogue)

V

84

(c) 4to. Wording of title as in (b) above, but with the substitution
of a bowl of fruit for the basket on the title page. The top line of
the text on p. 47 of (b) has been transferred to the bottom line of p. 46
in (c), and the woodcut of the ship has been replaced by one of a jar
with flowers and fruit1 2.
In the text of (b) and (c), Fr. Nuno da Conceição states «me vali
do livro do piloto Luis Alvares Mocarra, no qual asi por curiosidade,
como por obrigação se escreve, o que passa todos os dias». I cannot
add anything to Barbosa Machado’s brief biography of Fr. Nuno da
Conceição, but Luis Alvares Mocarro (or Bocarro) was an experienced
pilot of the carreira da India. He went out to the East again as
Piloto-Mór with the Viceroy, Pedro da Silva, in 1635 and once more
in the same capacity with Sancho de Faria in the Nossa Senhora da
Quietação in 1641. This vessel was intercepted by the Dutch squadron
blockading Goa in September, and taken after a desperate resistance
in which the Captain-Major was killed. Luis Alvares Mocarro was
later released by the Dutch and sent ashore with Sancho de Faria’s
body

16. Nossa Senhora de Belem (1635),

(a) Naufragio da nao Nossa Senhora de Bethlem, feita na terra

do Natal no Cabo de Boa Esperança. Svccessos que teve o capitão
Joseph de Cabreira, que nelle passou a India o anno de 1635 fazendo o
officio de Almirante daquella frota até chegar a este Reyno. Escritos
pelo mesmo Ioseph de Cabreyra; offrecidos a Diogo Soares do Conselho
de Sua Magestade, & seu Secretario do Estado em Madrid, [small
ornamental vignette] Com todas as licenças necessárias. Em Lisboa,
Por Lourenço Craesbeeck Impressor del Rey. Anno D.M.DC.XXXVI.
4to. Two preliminary leaves, including the title-page, licences,
dedication and prologue, followed by the text on 32 leaves numbered
on the recto only.

1 Dr. Jordão de Freitas erroneously lists one of these counterfeit editions

as the genuine original in the História da Literatura Portuguesa Ilustrada, hi, 213.
2 Frazão de Vasconcelos, Pilotos das navegações portuguesas dos séculos XVI
e XVII (Lisboa, 1942), pp. 48, 80; P. Pissurlencar, Assentos do Conselho de Estado,
1634-1643 (Goa, 1954), p. 326.
 V

85

1 have not seen a copy of this first edition, and the description
is taken from the Catálogo da Livraria de Azevedo-Samodães, I,
p. 399, and the História da Literatura Portuguesa Ilustrada, ui, 213.
There are also two 18th-century counterfeit editions which may be
distinguished as follows:

(b) Same wording on the title-page as in (a) except that the name
of the ship is spelt N. Senhora de Belem, and the date of the outward
voyage is correctly given as 1633, while the ornamental vignette has
been omitted.
4to. Two preliminary leaves (signature, A2) with the title,
dedication and prologue. Text on pp. 5-69, with an unnumbered
blank leaf at the end containing the licences.

(c) There is a variant of this edition, in which the original but

erroneous date of 1635 for the outward voyage has been retained in
the title-page.
Joseph de Cabreira went out to India in 1633 as Almirante in the
Nossa Senhora de Belem, and the return voyage on which the ship
was lost, only started on the 24 February 1635. He explains in his
«prologo ao leitor» that the celebrated missionary to Abyssinia, Padre
Jeronimo Lobo, S. J., who was a homeward-bound passenger on board
the N.a S.ra de Belem, had written a longer account of the loss of the
ship and the odessy of the survivors. This account still remains
unpublished, as does Padre Jeronimo Lobo’s «Itinerário» in his native
tongue, although extracts therefrom have appeared in English, French,
Dutch, German and Italian translations'.

17. Sacramento and Nossa Senhora de Atalaia (1647).

(a) Relação do naufragio, que fizeram as naos: Sacramento, &

nossa Senhora da Atalaia, vindo da India para o Reyno, no Cabo de Boa
Esperança; offereçe-a a Magestade del Rey Dom Joam o IV nosso Senhor
Bento Teyxeyra Feyo. Em Lisboa. Com todas as licenças necessárias.
Na Officina Crasbeeckiana. Anno 1650.

1 Streit-Dindinger, Bibliotheca Missionam xvi (1952), p. 254.

V

86

4to. Two preliminary leaves followed by 52 numbered pages of

text. I have never seen a copy of this first edition, and have taken
the description from the História da Literatura Portuguesa Ilustrada,
in, 214.

(b) The 18th-century counterfeit edition has a very similarly

worded title-page, but the last lines read: Impressa na Officina de Paulo
Craesbeeck. No anno de 1650.
4to. Two unnumbered leaves, including the title-page, author’s
dedicatory preface to Dom João IV, and the licences. Text on pp. 5-87.

(c) The Visconde de Azevedo, again mistaking the counterfeit

edition for the original, reprinted the former on his private press in a
limited edition of four copies at Porto in 1865 '.
The news of the loss of the Sacramento and the Atalaia on the coast
of Natal in July 1647, took a long time to reach Lisbon. In a consulta
to the King by the Conselho Ultramarino exactly two years later, the
Councillors stressed that one of the reasons for urgently sending help
to India was that «das duas naos da armada de Luis de Miranda, não
ha novas alguas». The first news apparently reached Lisbon on the
12 August 1649, and further details were brought by Bento Teixeira
Feio who arrived a few weeks later. The Overseas Councillors
interviewed him on the 21 October, and he told them that he had already
been received by the King and ordered to write a report on his
experiences1 2 3. As he explains in the preface to his Relaçam of 1650,
it was thus at the royal command that he wrote this moving narrative
of the dual disaster.
Bento Teixeira Feio was a native of Pombal, and was suitably
rewarded for his services by a knighthood in the Order of Christ and
the post of «caçador de açor» \ I can find no confirmation of
Inocencio’s highly improbable statement that he was «Vedor da Fazenda
na India, e Tesoureiro-Mor do Reino de Portugal».

1 Catálogo da Livraria de Azevedo-Samodães, I, 400.

2 Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisboa. «Consultas Mixtas» do Con¬
selho Ultramarino, d. 13 July, 9 September, 21 October 1649 (Cod. 14 fls 176v
1901-1, 199).
3 Inventario dos livros das Portarias do Reino, I, 367; Ibidem, ii, 110, 165;
Inventario dos livros da matricula, o, 262.
 V

87

18. São Lourenço (1649).

(a) The original edition has no separate title-page, but is headed

on the first page: Relaçam da viagem do galeam Sam Lourenço, e sva

RELAC.AM
DA VIAGEM DOGA
LE AM SAM LOVRENC.O, ESVA
pcrdiçam nos baixos de Moxincale
cm j. de Septembro de 1649.
Ptilo P. Antonio Fraucifco Car dim da Companhia dt
lESpS Procurador geral da Prouittcia dolapaó,

A Manoel Seuerim de Faria.

GALEAM S. Loureúço feito Da Ribeira das
naos de Goa corn grande coidado,& a ffiftcncia
do Goueruador do eltado da India Antonio Te
lies de Menefes boyc Conde de Villapouca Ge
neral da armadaReal de Portugal,fit Gouernador do efta
do do Barfihfby o primeiro baixel feito em Goa,que nef
tes 40.annos chegou a falaatnento a Pottogal,perdeudofe
janto da barra de Lisboa o Galeam Sam loam Baotifta
queimado pelles Mouros no anuo deiéio.ícnode 611.
o Galeam Conceiçatr.depois de pelejar com duas nao»
Holandefaj jauto do Cabò deBoa efprrooaça,deQ à cofta.
Só o Galeam Saõ Lourenço entrou pella barra de Lifboa
a primeira ve"z no anno de 164$. indo nelle por Capitam
mor Ioíe' Pinto Pereira,que fjrà Vé lor da Faxeoda Real
doeftado da Iodiajvoltou nelle por Capitam mor Luts de
Miranda Henriques 00 anno de 164^. oVifoRey Dom
Phihpoe Maícarenhaso mindou forrar etn Goa,& voltar
n Portugal no anno de 1648.indo nelle poc Capitam Mòr
Dom Pedro de Almeida que com fe liei ffi ma viagem an-
corouaariodcLisboaaosqaioze.de Agoftp do mes-
A mo
First page of the original edition of Padre Antonio Fran¬
cisco Cardim, S. J., Relaçam do galeam Sam Lourenço
(Lisboa, 1651).

(C. R. Boxer)
V

88

perdiçam nos baixos de Moxincale em 3 de Septembro de 1649. Pello

P. Antonio Francisco Cardim da Companhia de IESVS Procurador geral
da Prouincia do Iapão. A Manoel Seuerim de Faria.

R E L A Ç A M
DA VIAGEM DO GALE AM

SAÕ LOVRENÇO
E fua perdição nos bayxos de Moxin¬
cale em 3. de Setembro de 1649.
Efcritapelo Padre
ANTONIO FRANCISCO CARDIM
1f)a Companhia de fESVS, 'Procurador
geral da ProYmcia do fapao•
& MANOEL SEVERIM DE FARIA

EM LISBOA,
POR DOMINGOS LOPES ROZAi
No annodc 1651.

Title-page of the eighteenth century counterfeit edition

of Padre Antonio Francisco Cardim, S. J., Relaçam do
galeam São Lourenço.
(C. R. Boxer)
 V

89

4to. Fourteen unnumbered leaves (signature A-D). Colophon:

Com todas as licenças necessárias. Por Domingos Lopes Rosa. Anno
1651. The only copy which I have ever seen of this edition is the one
in my own library, which was formerly in that of Annibal Fernandes
Thomaz, but Figanière states that there is another in the Biblioteca
Nacional1. It is easily distinguished from (b) the 18th-century
counterfeit edition which has a separate title-page, with a printer’s
device imitating one used by the Plantins of Antwerp, with the motto
Labore et Constantia.
4to. One unnumbered leaf with the title-page. Text on pp. 3-43.
The text of (b) closely follows that of (a) save for insignificant changes
in the spelling.
Padre Antonio Francisco Cardim evidently wrote his account
after his arrival at Goa at the end of May 1650, for he mentions the
trial and punishment there of some of the officers of the São Lourenço
for their misbehaviour after the wreck. This Relaçam was obviously
published through the initiative of Manuel Severim de Faria, to whom
we owe the publication of several other interesting narratives sent
him by his correspondents in India2 3.

B. THE VALUE OF THE «HISTÓRIA TRÁGICO-MARÍTIMA».

The eighteen shipwreck narratives listed above have a threefold

value: literary, historical and ethnographical.
Although these narratives were eagerly read when they were first
published individually, and although Gomes de Brito’s collected edition
likewise met with a popular reception, it was a long time before these
tragic tales of the sea were recognised as literary masterpieces.
Inocencio drew attention to their merits in 1858; and Ramalho Ortigão
waxed even more eloquent on the subject in 1870, but the latter’s
fulsome praise seems to have overreached itself5. Not until 1904-07,
was a second edition of the História Trágico-Marítima published, and
even then general recognition came slowly. These tales received barely
a passing mention in Mendes dos Remedios’ standard História da

' Figanière, Bibliographia Histórica Portugueza, n.° 1053.

2 Such as the Vitorias do Governador da India Nuno Aluarez Botelho por o
Padre Manuel Xavier S. J., (Lisboa, 1633).
3 As Praias de Portugal, (Lisboa, 1870).
V

90

Literatura Portuguesa 1 and in other works of the first decade of the

twentieth century. Fidelino de Figueiredo in his História da Lite¬
ratura Clássica is more detailed and enthusiastic'1 2; but 1 suspect that
it was really Dr. Jordão de Freitas who put them on the literary map
with his articles on the «literatura de viagens» in the História da Lite¬
ratura Portuguesa Ilustrada, edited by Albino Forjaz de Sampayo3.
Be this as it may, the História Trágico-Marítima is nowadays
universally recognized as one of the masterpieces of Portuguese prose,
but it is often praised for the wrong reasons. No discrimination is
made by the critics (with the notable exception of M. Rodrigues Lapa)4
between the language and style of the original narratives, and those
of the various versions published by Gomes de Brito. As is evident
from the above comparison of the original editions with the collected
História Trágico-Marítima, Gomes de Brito sometimes took considerable
liberties with his sources, such as grafting lengthy sections from Diogo
do Couto’s Decadas on to the basic narratives without indicating that
he had done so. On the whole it must, I think, be admitted that he
did this part of his work pretty well, as the História Trágico-Marítima
reads very smoothly. But it is obviously desirable that the texts of the
first editions should be reprinted as their writers wrote them, so that we
can see exactly what liberties Gomes de Brito took with his originals.
Writers whose patriotism is greater than their critical acumen
have also extolled the História Trágico-Marítima for its alleged
portrayal of almost superhuman qualities in the Portuguese race5.
But as other and more discerning critics have pointed out, the real
value of the tales collected in this work lies rather in the stark realism
with which the frequently unedifying struggles for survival are
described6. Instances of heroic and unselfish conduct are indeed

1 3.a edição (Coimbra, 1908), p. 170.

2 2.a edição (Coimbra, 1922), Vol. i, pp. 333-36.
3 Tomo in, pp. 50-64, 211-19, 351-53.
4 M. Rodrigues Lapa, Quadros da História Trágico-Marítima, pp. xviii-xx,
(2.a ed.).
5 King Manuel, Livros Antigos Portuguezes, 1489-1600, ii, 749, for a typical
example.
6 H. Cidade, A Literatura Portuguesa e a expansão ultramarina (Lisboa, 1943),
pp. 244-57; M. Rodrigues Lapa, Quadros, pp. xi-xv; J. Duffy, Shipwreck and Empire,
pp. 45-7.
 V

91

to be found in the pages of the História Trágico-Marítima, but they

are the exception rather than the rule. As Mr. Duffy rightly observes,
the outstanding characteristic of nearly all these narratives is «the
picaresque morality of survival at any cost». It is precisely because
they conceal and extenuate nothing, but show us the workings of
human nature under intolerable stress and strain, that these narratives
are so moving and so convincing.
From the purely literary point of view, there can be no doubt
that the narrative which was the most popular was that of the loss of
the great galleon São João in 1552, with the subsequent wanderings
and tragic death of Manuel de Sousa de Sepulveda and his truly heroic
wife, Leonor de Sá. As Mr. Duffy observes, Manuel de Sousa himself
does not come at all well out of this narrative, since his own actions
are throughout selfish, arrogant, and in the end pathetic and futile.
Nevertheless, there can be no doubt of the great popularity of this
story far beyond the borders of Portugal and the limits of the sixteenth
century. In addition to the Portuguese editions of 1555 (?), 1564,
1592, 1614, 1633 etc., etc., there are Jeronimo Corte-Real’s epic poem
of 1594, an Italian version in 1643, German Jesuit tragedies of 1700
and 1728; to say nothing of the treatment of the theme by Luis de
Camões, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Calderon de la Barca,
and its appearance in French and English shipwreck anthologies in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries '. The next most popular
narratives, judging by the number of editions, seem to have been those
of the loss of the Santiago in 1585, and Melchior do Amaral’s combined
account of the loss of the Santiago (1602) and the Chagas.
Mr. Duffy states pontifically that Manuel de Mesquita Perestrello’s
narrative of the loss of the São Bento in 1554 «is the most effective»
in all the História Trágico-Marítima, and Professor Rodrigues Lapa
seems inclined to agree with him * 2. This is a personal opinion, and
there is plenty of scope for argument. Those students at London
University King’s College who have been reading these narratives
during the last two years are nearly unanimous in selecting as their
first choice the unlucky voyage of the São Francisco by the Jesuit

t There are doubtless other versions, but I have limited myself to those in
the British Museum Library.
2 Shipwreck and Empire, pp. 27-8; M. Rodrigues Lapa, Quadros, p. xvii.
V

92

Padre Gaspar Affonso, although Mr. Duffy has a low opinion of this
particular narrative. My own favourite is João Carvalho Mascarenhas’
account of the loss of the Conceição in 1621 —■ another narrative which
is scornfully treated by Mr. Duffy. I consider that the epic battle
of the Conceição against overwhelming odds is worthy to rank with
the last fight of the Revenge; and I find Carvalho Mascarenhas’
description of his captivity at Algiers more convincing and enthralling
than Cervantes’ treatment of this theme in El Trato de Argel, Los Baiios
de Argel and chapters xxxix and xl of Don Quijote de la Mancha. But
whatever the views of modern readers, it remains true that the story
which appealed most to those of bygone ages was the tragic end of
Leonor de Sá in the sands of Kaffraria.
Regarding the historical value of the História Trágico-Marítima,
there can be no two opinions about this. Written almost invariably
with the utmost frankness, and with an almost complete absence of
literary artificiality and conceits, these narratives bring vividly before
us the dangers and discomforts of life aboard the overcrowded and
overloaded East-India carracks. The reasons for the loss of so many
of these unwieldy monsters when homeward-bound off the Natal
coast, are clearly and unanimously stated by all the writers. Wrecks
on the outward voyage to Goa, when the great carracks were relatively
lightly laden (soldiers and silver specie being the chief exports from
Lisbon) were much less frequent. The numerous losses on the return
voyage were mainly due to wilfull overloading, and to the superficial
and inadequate careening carried out at Goa. Contributory causes
were inefficient stowage of the cargo, the crankiness of the top-heavy
4-deck carracks, the shortage of trained pilots and seamen, and the
stubborn pride of gentleman commanders. The Crown repeatedly
legislated against these and other abuses (such as leaving Goa or Lisbon
too late in the season), but this eminently sensible legislation was only
spasmodically enforced. Everyone from Captain-Major to cabin-boy
was interested in cramming the ship with as many spices, silks, and
other Asian goods as she could possibly hold, for the system of
liberdades (the equivalent of the Dutch and English «private trade»)
inevitably encouraged overloading. All these abuses are faithfully
and honestly exposed in the História Trágico-Marítima, which thus,
like Diogo do Couto’s Dialogo do Soldado Pratico and Francisco
Rodrigues de Silveira’s Reformação da milicia e governo do Estado
 V

93

da India \ shows us the seamy side of the «conquista, navegação e

comercio» so majestically perpetuated in the Decadas and the Lusíadas.
As might be expected, the original narratives were read not merely
by armchair travellers in Portugal, but by those who were actively
engaged in the carreira da India, for whom indeed some of the accounts
were specifically compiled'2 3. Thus, in Joseph Cabreira’s narrative
of the loss of the N.a S.ra de Belem near the Cape of Good Hope in
1635, we read that a copy of the Tratado dos successos que teve a nao
São João Baptista (Lisboa, 1625), was found among the castaways
and passed eagerly from hand to hand Unfortunately, however,
the survivors seldom profited from the experiences of their forerunners,
and the model march of Nuno Velho Pereira’s column from the Santo
Alberto in 1593 was never repeated on a similar scale.
The third outstanding feature of most of the narratives printed
in the História Trágico-Marítima is their great value for the historical
ethnography of the tribes of South East Africa. Their importance
in this respect has long been recognized by South African historians
and ethnographers, for these early Portuguese narratives describe the
South African Bantu at a time when they were still unaffected by close
contact with white men, or at any rate by white rule. It will be
sufficient to recall in this connection the use made of these accounts
by G. McCall Theal4 5 6, Henri Junod °, and S. R. Welch*1; although

1 British Museum, Add. Mss. 25419, extracts from which will be found in
A. de S. S. Costa Lobo, Memórias de um soldado da India (Lisboa, 1877), and C. R.
Boxer & Frazão de Vasconcelos, André Furtado de Mendonça, 1558-1610 (Lisboa,
1955).
2 For instance those of the Santiago (1585) and the Santo Alberto.
3 «...aparecer a caso entre elles o Tratado da Nao S. João que trazião de
rancho em rancho», p. 37 of the counterfeit edition. Cf. ibidem, pp. 43, 45.
4 Records of South-Eastern Africa, II (1898), pp. vii-xxxi; Ibidem, vn (1910),
p. 387; The beginnings of South African history (1902), pp. 277-301; The Portuguese
in South Africa (London, 1927); History and ethnography of Africa south of the Zam¬
besi, 1505-1795 (3 vols., London, 1907-10).
5 «The condition of the natives of South-East Africa in the XVIth century
according to Portuguese documents», in the South African Journal of Science, 1914;
«Os indígenas de Moçambique no século xvi e começo do xvii», in Moçambique
(Jan-Março 1939), pp. 5-35.
6 South Africa under King John 111, 1521-1557 (Cape Town ,1949), pp. 325-69;
South Africa under King Sebastian and the Cardinal, 1557-1580 (1949), pp. 260-80;
Portuguese rule and Spanish crown in South Africa, 1581-1640 (1950), pp. 86-105.
V

94

the highly controversial works of the last-named writer must be used

with great caution, owing to the way in which he is prone to twist the
facts to suit his prejudices. One typical example of his peculiar
methods will suffice here. João Baptista Lavanha relates how some
of the survivors of the Santo Alberto after reaching Delagoa Bay,
became tired of waiting for the pangaio to sail for Moçambique, and
despite the remonstrances of Nuno Velho Pereira, they resolved to
push on to Sofala overland. «Foy por Capitão destes Portuguezes,
que erão vinte e oito, hum soldado chamado Baltazar Pereira, de alcunha
o Reynol das forças, os quaes desembarcados aprestarão duas
embarcações (que o navio trouxe, para fazer o resgate pelos rios) em
que passarão à outra banda da Bahia, ao rio de Manhiça, e fazendo
seo caminho por aquella terra, fizerão tantas desordens que sendo
a estrada seguida, pela qual forão muitos Portuguezes da Nao S. Thomé,
e as jornadas contadas, forão todos mortos dos Cafres, e só dous homens
desta companhia chegarão a Sofála» '. Blandly ignoring the fact
that only Portuguese were concerned in this incident, S. R. Welch
writes: «But when Pereira left [s/c], these Arabs and slaves changed
their minds, and started out for Sofala by land instead of waiting to
work as sailors. But lacking the wise guidance of their old leader,
they behaved so badly, that most of them were killed by the Kafirs
on the way» Not a word about any Portuguese being involved!
Could misrepresentation go further?

C. A LITERATURE SUI GENERIS?

It is often stated that the Portuguese shipwreck narratives which

are typified by the História Trágico-Marítima constitute a form of
literature sui generis. This statement is not quite correct, although
the Portuguese were certainly the pioneers in this literary sea as well
as in the actual «mares nunca d’antes navegados». Similar individual
accounts of maritime disasters occur in the popular literature of other

1 HTM, ii, 312-3. The facts are the same in the original edition, 1597. For
an effective exposure of S. R. Welch’s crude distortions see C. R. Fuller’s review
in African Studies (March, 1953), pp. 31-7.
- Portuguese rule and Spanish crown in South Africa, p. 149.
 V

95

nations, and there are shipwreck anthologies in French and English

editions which are comparable to (althrough later in date than) the
História Trágico-Marítima ’.
As might be expected, it was the Dutch who came closest to
emulating their Portuguese predecessors. Several short narratives
of their maritime disasters in the Indian Ocean were published in the
Northern Netherlands during the seventeenth century, and they clearly
met with a popular reception1 2. But if the Hollanders of Rembrandt’s
Golden Century deprived their Portuguese forerunners of the material
prizes of the gorgeous East, they left the Lusitanians with their literary
laurels unchallenged. Even the absorbing narrative of Willem
Bontekoe’s misadventures by sea, which achieved over seventy editions
between 1646 and 1800 and was translated into several languages,
does not rise to the literary level of his Portuguese precursors3. In
English literature, the classic narrative of this kind is probably the
account of the wreck of the Grosvenor on the coast of Kaffraria in

1 Histoire des naufrages on Receuil des Relations les plus intéressantes des
Naufrages, Hivernemens, Délaissemens, lncendies, Famines, & autres Evèneinens
Funestes sur Mer; qui ont été publiées depuis le quinzième sièele jusq'ud present. Par
M. D., Avocat (3 vols., Paris 1789). The compiler was J. L. H. S. Deperthes, and
the work was issued as a supplement to the collected Voyages Imaginaires, previously
published in 9 volumes. The earliest English equivalent of the FITM has no separate
title-page in the British Museum copy. It comprises nine major narratives, all of
them of the same format and pagination (small 8vo, unfolding plate of the disaster,
titlepage, text on pp. 7-28), and all published separately by Thomas Tregg, of 111
Chaepside, London, «price only sixpence». There is no date of publication on any
of the title-pages, but they all seem to have been printed about 1811. Cf. also,
Shipwrecks and disasters at Sea; or Historical Narratives of the most noted calamities,
and providential deliveries, which have resulted from maritime Enterprise: with a sketch
of various expedients for preserving the lives of mariners (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1812)
The British Museum Catalogue gives the compiler as Sir G. J. Dalyell. Cf. also
the anonymous Great Shipwrecks. A record of perils and disasters at Sea, 1544-1877
(London, 1877).
2 Apart from Bontekoe’s classic narrative quoted in the next note, popular
tracts were published narrating the loss of the East-Indiamen Batavia (1629), Sper-
wer (1653), Terschelling (1661), Arnhem (1662) etcetera, all of which ran through
several editions.
3 Iournael ofte Gedenkwaerdige Beschrijvinghe vande Oost-Indische Reyse
van Ysbrantsz Bontekoe van Hoorn, 1618-1625 (Hoorn, 1646). The latest and best
edition of Bontekoe’s misadventures is G. J. Hoogenwerff, Journalen van de geden-
ckwaerdige reijsen van Willem Ijsbrantsz. Bontekoe, 1618-1625 (The Hague, 1952).
V

96

1782 '. This has indeed many affinities with the accounts of similar
Portuguese disasters, particularly with the loss of the great galleon
São João in 1552; so much so, that a small tract containing the two
together was published at London in 1811. But although very popular,
and several times reprinted, this narrative does not (I think) attain
the standard achieved by most of the writers collected in the História
Trágico-Marítima.
In one respect, however. Gomes de Brito’s work is unique, if 1 am
not mistaken. The later French and English shipwreck anthologies
to which I have alluded, are not confined to recording the disasters
suffered by their own countrymen, but include translations from those
previously printed in other languages. Indeed, one of the best accounts
which appears in at least two of these collections, originated with a
Siamese envoy to the King of Portugal who survived the wreck of the
Nossa Senhora dos Milagres near the Cabo das Agulhas in April 1686,
and the hardships of the subsequent march to the Cape of Good Hope -.
This narrative is worthy of inclusion in the História Trágico-Marítima,
which, being a purely Portuguese affair, forms a more harmonious
and artistic whole than does its more variegated and disjointed French
and English counterparts.
Comparisons, we are told, are odious and should be avoided.
Nevertheless, 1 will conclude this essay by suggesting a few between
the Portuguese shipwreck accounts and those of other nations. One
of the most frequently cited extracts from the História Trágico-Marí¬
tima, is Henrique Dias’ comparison between the behaviour of sailors
in a storm and women in the pains of childbirth. «Mas são os homens
no mar muy semelhantes às mulheres no tempo dos seos partos, em
suas muy estranhas e grandíssimas dores, que jurão se daquella escapão,
não terem mais copula, nem ajuntamento nunca com varão. Assim
nestes perigos tão evidentes, e de tanto temor, e espanto, qual hà ahi
que não jure, e promete de nunca outra tal lhe acontecer, nem em outra

* C. Graham Botha, The Wreck of the Grosvenor (1927), and P. R. Kirby,

A source hook on the wreck of the Grosvenor (1953), being vols. 8 and 33 of the publi¬
cations of the Van Riebeeck Society of Cape Town.
2 Narrative of «Occum Chamnan», as told to the Jesuit Padre Tachard, in
the Second Voyage du Père Tachard an Royaume de Siam (Paris, 1689), pp. 309-75,
whence the versions in Deperthes, Histoire des Naufrages, hi, 1-50, and G. Dalyell,
Shipwrecks and disasters at Sea, in, 330 ff.
 V

97

tal se achar. O qual passado, passousse, e acabou-se a memória dc

tudo; e tudo são folias, pandeiros e zombarias»1 * 3. There is a similar
if less eloquent passage in the account of the celebrated Italian traveller.
Dr. Gamelli Careri, of his voyage from Manila to Mexico in 1697:
«Notwithstanding the dreadful sufferings in this prodigious voyage,
yet the desire of gain prevails with many to venture through it. four,
six, and some ten times. The very sailors, though they forswear the
voyage out at sea, yet when they come to Acapulco, for the lucre of
275 pieces of eight, the king allows them for the return, never remember
past sufferings, like women after their labour»-.
The scenes of confusion, panic, selfishness, brutality and greed.,
which often marked the struggles for survival so candidly recorded
in the pages of the História Trágico-Marítima, can be paralleled in
the shipwreck literature of other maritime nations. For example,
the scene on board the Grosvenor when she struck a rock on the 4 August
1782, was recalled by a survivor in words which might have come
straight from the Portuguese classic: «It is not», he wrote, «in the power
of language to describe the state of distraction to which everyone on
board, particularly the passengers, were at this time reduced. Despair
was painted on every countenance, and the utmost anarchy and
confusion prevailed»0. The pratice of throwing overboard some
unfortunate occupants of the lifeboat in order to give the remainder
a better chance of survival, was not confined to the survivors from the
Santiago in 1585, or the São Tomé in 1589. When the Dutch East-
-Indiaman Arnhem foundered, in the Indian Ocean in 1662, the sailors
in the ship’s boat formed a kangaroo court and flung overboard
thirteen hapless individuals, despite the protests of their predikant 4.
Scenes often occur in the História Trágico-Marítima, where the occupants
of a lifeboat forcibly repel the attempts of swimmers to catch hold

1 HTM, i, 405. This passage does not occur in the first edition of the Nau-
fragio da nao São Paulo (1565). Cf. page 15 above.
- A Voyage round the world by Dr. John Francis Gemelli Careri (reprinted
from Churchill’s collected Voyages, London, 1744), p. 468. The original Italian
edition was published at Naples in 1701.
3 Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea, in, 5; The Wreck oj the Grosvenor
(1927), p. 4.
t J. H. Glazenteker (ed.), Verhaal van ilrie voorname reizen naar Oostindien
(Amsterdam, 1671), p. 100.
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98

of their boat and clamber aboard. Such a scene also occurred after
the wreck of the Gloucester in May 1682, when many of those who
were struggling in the sea «caught firm hold of the boat, and held up
their heads above water, crying for help. This hindrance we kept
off, and loosed their hands, telling them, they would be our destruction
and their own. This, however, would not always force them off, until
several joined together against them» \
The practice of the captain leaving the sinking ship in the only
available boat, which occurs more than once in the História Trágico-
-Maritima, was likewise not confined to Portuguese officers. Captain
Inglefield of HMS Centaur, which foundered off the Azores in September
1782, got into the pinnace with the master and ten of the crew, and
rowed away leaving several hundred of their comrades to drown. The
captain wrote frankly of his decision that «love of life prevailed» over
the alternative of remaining to perish with his ship’s company, «with
whom I had been so well satisfied on a variety of occasions, that I
thought I could give my life to preserve them»-. The subsequent
court-martial evidently took the same view, since he was honourably
acquitted of all blame. The tradition of the captain being the last
to leave the sinking ship is of comparatively modern origin. In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was usually a case of «officers
and. gentlemen first», rather than women and children. It may be
added that the worst cases of selfishness and savagery in the História
Trágico-Marítima do not equal the horrors which were enacted upon
the raft from the French frigate Medusa in July 1816, when mutiny,
mayhem, murder and cannibalism reduced, the number of the survivors
from one hundred and. fifty to fifteen 5.
If human nature often appears at its worst in the revealing pages
of the História Trágico-Marítima, there are likewise some examples
of outstanding heroism, leadership, and self-sacrifice. The fight of
the Chagas against three English ships off the Azores in 1594, and that

1 Letter from Sir James Dick Bart., d. Edinburgh, 9 May 1682, in Shipwrecks
and Disasters at Sea, 317-21.
2 Captain Inglefield’s own narrative of the loss of HMS Centaur, printed
in Tegg’s shipwreck series, and in Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea, in.
3 Anon., The shipwreck of the Alceste... also the shipwreck of the Medusa
(Dublin, 1822), pp. 99-157. The Medusa was wrecked off Senegal.
 V

99

of the Conceição against fourteen sail of Algerine pirates in 1621, are

among the most heroic battles recorded in maritime history. Captain
Joseph Cabreira s leadership of his two makeshift life-boats in beating
round the Cape of Good Hope in 1636, after struggling against contrary
winds and tides (and hostile criticism from his companions) for twenty-
-two successive days was an astonishing feat of courageous endurance.
The same may be said of the way in which the Captain-Major
Francisco de Mello e Castro brought the shattered hulk of the Nossa
Senhora do Bom Despacho into the Tagus after her unprecedented
voyage in 1630-31. Even the most hostile critics of Portuguese
behaviour have been constrained to admit that Nuno Velho Pereira’s
leadership in 1593-4 could not have been surpassed, and the march
of the survivors from the Scmto Alberto through the hinterland of Natal
is generally admitted to have been the outstanding feat of its kind.
When these and other instances of Portuguese courage and endurance
are encountered in the pages of the História Trágico-Marítima, we
can understand how Bento Teixeira Feio was moved to write after his
own experiences: «Digão os Autores estrangeiros, o que lhe parecer,
que os segredos do mar, e terra só a nação Portugueza naceo no mundo
para os saber descobrir» h

1 Relaçam do naufragio que fizeram as naos Sacramento e Nossa Senhora

da Atalaya no anno de 1647, p. 87 of the second edition.
 VI

An Introduction to the « História Trágico-Marítima »

(1957): some corrections and clarifications*

This paper is limited to making some corrections and

clarifications to the article which I contributed to the
Miscelânea de Estudos em honra do Professor Hernâni
Cidade (Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 1957), pp. 48-99.
I will not list here minor misprints and the like, taking
refuge behind the oft-quoted excuse of Dom Francisco
Manuel de Mello: « Da infelicidade da composição, erros
da escritura, e outras imperfeições da estampa, não há que
dizer-vos; vós os vedes, vós os castigais ». My object is
to give some additional bio-bibliographical information
in the light of material which has become available since
1957, or which I then inadvertently overlooked. For
the convenience of readers who wish to refer to my
article of 1957, I have retained my original numeration
of the narratives, but give them in short-title form below.
VI

1. São João {1552).

Historia da muy nótavel perda do Galeão grande sam João (n.d.n.p.,
but c 1555-1564).
No copy of the lost first edition has yet come to light, so far as I
know; but for the literary history of this popular narrative and its
subsequent diffusion, see the important article of Roberto Barchiesi,
« Un Tema Portoghese: II Naufragio di Sepulveda e la sua diffusio-
ne » (Annali dell’Istituto Universitário Orientate, Sezione Romania,
XVIII, 2 luglio 1976, pp. 193-231), and his earlier note « II nau¬
fragio di Manuel de Sepulveda. Note su di un tema letterario » (Home¬
nagem■. Estudos de Filologia e história literária, ecc., Publicações do
Instituto de Estudos hispânicos, portugueses e ibero-americanos da
Universidade de Utrecht, A Haia, 1966, pp. 61-70). These are es¬
sential reading for anyone seriously interested in the subject.
The collation given on p. 52 of my 1957 article for the 1592 edi¬
tion (Galeam Sam loam) should be corrected to read as follows:
«The text is divided into a prologo and twenty-eight chapters,
chapter xii being wrongly numbered xi, and chapter xxiv being
wrongly numbered xxiii ». The woodcuts used to illustrate this edi¬
tion are taken from the Naufrágio of Jorge d’Albuquerque Coelho,
which is further discussed under nr. 7 below.

2. São Bento (1554).

Naufragio da Nao sam Beto (Coymbra por Ioão de Barreyra. Anno
de M.D.LXIIII).

Down to 1968, the only recorded copy was the imperfect one,
lacking two leaves, which is described in King Manuel, Livros
Antigos Portugueses, 1489-1600, II, pp. 692-99. In that year, how¬
ever, A. Rosenthal of Oxford, offered another copy for sale, priced
at £ 315, and described in that firm’s Catalogue 74, item 233. This
copy likewise lacked two leaves, which were supplied in photo-
-facsimile. They were not the same as those missing in King Manuel’s
copy. I do not know the present whereabouts of this second copy
which was sold in 1968.

3. Conceição (1555).
Relação do naufragio da nao Conceyção, de que era capi¬
tão Francisco Nobre (HTM, I, 169-217, Lisboa, 1735).

The names of the three Jesuits among the castaways who perished

ioo
 VI

An Introduction to the «História Trágico-Marítima»

m the aftermath of this shipwreck were: P. Andres González (Ca¬

stilian), P. Gonzalo Pascual (Catalan), and the lay-brother Alonso
López (Castilian), as can be seen from the short account of this
shipwreck in Josef Wicki, S.J.’s edition of Alessandro Valignano,
S.J., Historia del principio y progreso de la Companía de Jesús en
las Indias Orientates, 1542-1564 (Roma, IHSI, 1944), pp. 311-13**.

4. Aguia and Garça (1559).

Relação da Viagem e successo que tiverão as naos Aguia e Garça
Vindo da India pera este Reyno no Anno de 1559 (HTM, I, 219-
307, Lisboa 1735).

An annotated English translation of this narrative was included

in my Further Selections from the Tragic History of the Sea, 1559-
1565 (Cambridge University Press for the Hakluyt Society, 1968),
pp. 1-4, 25-54.

5. Santa Maria da Barca (1559).

Naufragio Da viagem que fez a Nao Sancta Maria da barca, deste
Reyno para a India (Lisboa, M.D.L.XVI).

The title is badly worded, as the wreck occurred on the return

voyage in 1559, and not on the outward voyage in 1557.
King Manuel’s copy, which he described in his Livros Antigos
Portugueses, II, pp. 746-49, as being the only one in existence, is still
the only recorded copy so far as I know. But it is identical with
that previously offered for sale in Maggs Bros., Catalogue No. 479
(1924), item 4008, when it was priced at £ 250, and from whom
King Manuel bought it.

6. São Paulo (1561).

Nao Sam Paulo. Viagem & naufragio da Nao Sam Paulo, que
foy pera a India o anno de mil e quinhentos e sesenta ([Lisboa]
Anno de M.D.LXV).

An annotated English translation of this narrative is included

in my Further Selections from the Tragic History of the Sea, 1559-
1565 (Cambridge University Press for the Hakluyt Society, 1968),
pp. 4-12, 57-107. So far as I am aware, the only recorded copy is
that in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, which was the
one used for this edition.

IOI
VI

7. Santo Antonio (1565).

Naufragio, que passou Iorge Dalbuquerque Coelho, Capitão, &
Governador de Paranambuco (Lisboa, Antonio Alvarez, Anno
MCCCCCCI).
An annotated English translation of the 1601 Naufragio is inclu¬
ded in my Further Selections from the Tragic History of the Sea, 1559-
1565 (Cambridge University Press for the Hakluyt Society, 1968),
pp. 12-21, 108-161, where, unfortunately the surname of Fr. Anto¬
nio de Santa Maria Jaboatão O.F.M., is misprinted ‘ Jabotão ’
passim.
Further bibliographical details of this work and its complex hi¬
story will be found in the erudite article by Fr. Francisco Leite de
Faria O.F.M. Cap., Os impressos quinhentistas Portugueses referen¬
tes esclusivamente ao Brasil, (52-page reprint from the Revista de
ciências do Homen, vol. IV, Serie A, Lourenço Marques, 1972),
pp. 34-42.
From the works of Fr. Leite de Faria and myself, it can be seen
that the first edition of this Naufragio must have been published
between 1584 and 1592, in an edition of 1,000 copies, although no
extant copy has yet come to light. Fr. Leite de Faria and myself
have also shown that the engravings relating to this shipwreck,
which are reproduced in the second edition of 1601, were also
utilised to illustrate other works with which they had nothing
whatever to do, including the Historia da muy notável Perda do
Galeam grande Sam loam (1592), the Tratado das Batalhas (1604),
and the Regimento Náutico of João Baptista Lavanha (1606).
Another point of interest is the relatively large number of copies
which were printed of the first two editions, c 1590 (?), and 1601.
On fl. [7] v of the 1601 edition it is stated: E porque na primeira
impressão, se não fizerão mais que mil Livrinhos, q ja são gastados,
se quer fazer agora mais outra impressão de outros mil Livrinhos,
[para] que cada volumen declare, & conte na verdade tudo o que se
conthê neste Livrinho: acrescentandolhe mais estes quadernos q andão
a elle unidos [The Prosopopea of Bento Teixeira] que se não puserão
na primeira impressão, por esquecerem.
This statement is especially interesting in the light of the fact
that most authorities on the history of printing and publication con¬
sider that the average number of copies printed in a given edition
during the 16th century in Europe was only 300 or thereabouts.
C. F. António José Saraiva, História da Cultura em Portugal, II

102
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An Introduction to the «História Trágico-Marítima»

(Lisboa 1955), pp. 135-136. For additional information on Jorge

d’Albuquerque Coelho, see my articles «Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho:
Duas cartas inéditas e uma rectificação à História Trágico-Marítima »,
{Anais da Academia Portuguesa de História), II serie, vol. 15’
pp. 135-47, Lisboa 1965; «Jorge d’Albuquerque Coelho: a Luso-
Brazilian hero of the sea » (Luso-Brazilian Review, vol. VI, pp. 3-17,
Madison, Wisconsin, 1969); and Francis A. Dutra, « Notas sobre a
vida e morte de Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho e a tutela de seus
filhos » (Studia. Revista Semestral, No. 37 (Lisboa 1973), pp. 261-86.

8. Santiago (1585).
Relaçam do naufragio da nao Santiago & Itinerário da gente que
delle se salvou (Pedro Crasbeeck, Lisboa 1602).

I have nothing to add to what I wrote about this shipwreck in

1957, op. cit., pp. 18-21.

9. São Tomé (1589).

Relação do naufragio da nao S. Thomé na Terra dos Fumos, no
anno de 1589 (HTM, II, 153-213).

An annotated English translation of this narrative was included

in my The Tragic History of the Sea, 1589-1622 (Cambridge Uni¬
versity Press for the Hakluyt Society, 1959), pp. 30-42, 53-104.
In the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisboa, is another narrative of this
shipwreck by the famous pilot of the carreira da India, Gaspar
Ferreira Reimão (BNL, Fundo Geral 7360):
Trattado dos grandes trabalhos que passarão os portuguesses que
se salvarão do espantoso naufragio que fez a nnaão [sic] São Thomé
que vinha pera o Reino ho anno de 1589, a qual abrindo muita agoa
querendo-se hir ao fundo perto da terra do natal se meterão no
batel e nelle navegarão <até> hiren dar em terra de cafres, pella qual
caminharão 200 legoas, passando muitos trabalhos, fomes, perigos e
necessidades ate nosso senhor ser servido traser alguns delles a ter-
</>
ras de xpaos, e os mais ficarão as vidas por terras de cafres com
muito desemparo como neste tratado se verá. Feito por Gaspar Fer¬
reira sota piloto da mesma Naao Anno de 1590.
Manuscript of 57 folio leaves, dedicated to the Archduke Cardinal
Alberto, and signed by Gaspar Ferreira Reimão. This ms. could not
be located in the BNL when I asked for it twenty-five years ago;
but I was able to examine it in September 1960. It has some mar-

103
VI

ginal notes and observations in the holograph of Dom António de

Ataide (1567-1647), and is more extensive than Couto’s account;
but I have the impression that the latter used it, as he knew per¬
sonally both Ataide and Reimão.
Two other points concerning Diogo do Couto, which have come
to light since I wrote my biographical sketch of him for the Di¬
cionário de História de Portugal (ed. Joel Serrão, vol. I, p. 740) may
be mentioned here. Luís Rebelo has shown in a most stimulating
and innovative article that Diogo do Couto was strongly influenced
by Erasmian ideals; which is something that all of Couto’s previous
biographers (Bell, Baião, Boxer, et al.) have missed (« Armas e Le¬
tras », in J. L Cochofel, ed., Grande Dicionário da Piteratura Por¬
tuguesa e de Teoria Literaria, vol. I, Lisboa 1973, pp. 443-445). The
late Georg Schurhammer S. J., has shown that Couto’s Década V
(Lisboa 1617) contains lengthy sections on Ormuz, Ceylon, and
Hindu religion, which have been taken without the slightest acknow¬
ledgment from a manuscript account, «Estado da India e aomde
tem o seu principio », compiled by Fr. Agostinho de Azevedo
O.E.S.A., at Lisbon in 1603. Couto has retained the Augustinian
friar’s wording, but has substituted his own name as the author.
Or was this done by his brother-in-law, Fr. Adeodato da Trindade
O.E.S.A., who was a colleague of Fr. Agostinho in the Graça
monastery at Lisbon, and who saw Couto’s Décadas IV, V, VI, and
VII, through the press? This is a complex problem, which, as Fr.
G. Schurhammer has stated, is very difficult to explain. G. Schur¬
hammer S. J., Francis Xavier. His life, his times, vol. II, India
1541-1545, Rome 1977, pp. 612-620, of the English translation by
M. Joseph Costello S. J. Incidentally, Padre Schurhammer makes one
of his very rare errors when he states (misled by the relevant entry
in Barbosa Machado’s Bibliotheca Lusitana) that Fr. Adeodato died
in 1605. On the contrary, he was still alive in 1615-16, seeing Cou¬
to’s Decadas through the press, as is clear from Severim de Faria
and other sources.
Finally, I may add that another item concerning Couto which has
escaped his biographers hitherto, is that he explicity states in Decada
VIII, ch. 30, that he had at one time been captain of Tarapor:
« Com isto feito se foram os nossos recolhendo pera Baçaim, pas¬
sando por entre caminhos muito estreitos, por meio dos quaes era
necessário irem a pé, e levarem os cavallos pelas redeas, como eu
fiz algumas vezes, sendo Capitão de Tarapor, que entrei por estas
terras, e por entre matos, donde sahimos todos escalavrados pelas

104
 An Introduction to the «História Trágico-Marítima»

mãos, rostos, e pernas dos bambuaes, que cortan como navalhas ».

Unfortunately, he does not give the date for this, and a prelimi¬
nary search I made in the Torre do Tombo in 1977, failed to turn
up any confirmation.

10. Santo Alberto (1593).

Naufragio da nao S. Alberto, e itinerário da gente, que delle se
salvou. De Ioão Baptista Lavanha Cosmographo mor de Sua
Magestade ([Lisboa], Anno M.D.XCVII).

An annotated English translation of this narrative was included in

my The Tragic History of the Sea, 1589-1622 (Cambridge University
Press for the Hakluyt Society, 1959), pp. 42-46, 107-186.
A South African diver, Mr. D. R. Wratten, has recently disco¬
vered what he believes to be the site of the wreck of the Santo
Alberto. He has salvaged some iron cannon and sherds of Chinese
porcelain of the Wan Li (1572-1620) period. The bio-bibliography
of the many-sided João Baptista Lavanha has been enriched by a
study of Dr. João de Gama Pimentel Barata, « O Livro Primeiro da
Architecture Naval de João Baptista Lavanha », in Ethnos, vol. IV
(Lisboa 1965), pp. 221-298.

11. São Francisco (1596).

Relação da viagem e successo que teve a nao S. Francisco em
que hia por Capitão Vasco da Fonseca, Na Armada, que joy
pera a India no Anno de 1596 (HTM, II, 315-436).

Nothing to add to what I wrote in 1957.

12. Santiago (1602) and Chagas (1594).

Tratado das Batalhas, e successos do Galeão Sanctiago com os
Olandeses na Ilha de Sancta Elena. E da Nao Chagas com os
Ungleses [sic] antre as Ilhas dos Açores... Escripto por Mel¬
chior Estado do Amaral (Antonio Alvarez, Lisboa, Anno 1604).

As noted above, the shipwreck engravings which illustrate this

first edition, have nothing whatever to do with the last fight of either
the Santiago or the Chagas, but were taken from the first (and hither-
ro unlocated) edition of the Naufrágio of Jorge d’Albuquerque Coelho,
published at an unascertained date between 1584 and 1592.
It is also worth repeating (as I wrote in 1957) that Dr. Melchior
VI

Estacio do Amaral was not a navegante, as Antonio Sergio and other

writers have called him, nor was he an eyewitness of either of these
disasters. He was a Crown lawyer (Desembargador), and the Corre¬
gedor da Corte who was one of the fidalgos who identified the
corpse of Dom Sebastião the day after the disastrous battle of Alcácer
Quibir in August 1578 (Miguel Leitão de Andrada, Miscellanea,
Lisboa, 1629, p. 141 of the 1867 edition). Oddly enough, Barbosa
Machado does not list the Tratado das Batalhas among the works by
Melchior do Amaral in the Bibliotheca Lusitana, although the Tratado
was popular enough to have had two seventeenth-century editions,
and two eighteenth-century counterfeit editions before its inclusion
in the História Trágico Marítima. In addition to my reference to
Francisco Carletti on p. 73 of the 1957 article, see also Roberto
Barchiesi: Francesco Carletti. Nota alTHistória Trágico-Marítima, 11-
page reprint from Estudos Italianos em Portugal, 14-15 (Lisboa 1955-
1956).

13. Conceição (1621).

Memorável Relacam da perda da nao Conceicam que os turcos
queimarão à vista da barra de Lisboa . . . por Joam Carvalho Mas-
carenhas (Lisboa, Antonio Alvarez, 1627).

There is a graphic account of the loss of this ship, due to a series

of unfortunate accidents (after a heroic resistance which bears com¬
parison with the last fight of the Revenge in 1591) in the Memorial
de Pero Rõiz Soares, 1565-1628 (Coimbra 1953), pp. 446-448.

14. São João Baptista (1622).

Tratado do successo que teve a nao Sam loam Baptista, e ior-
nada, que fez a gente, que della escapou, desde trinta e tres
graos no Cabo da Boa Esperança onde fez naufragio, até Zofala,
vindo sempre marchando por terra (Lisboa, Pedro Craesbeeck,
anno 1625).

An annotated English translation of this narrative will be found in

my The Tragic History of the Sea, 1589-1622 (Cambridge Univer¬
sity Press for the Hakluyt Society, 1959), pp. 46-50, 189-271.

15. Bom Despacho (1630).

Relaçam do que passou a gente da Nao Nossa S. do bom Des¬
pacho, na viagem da India, o ano 1630. Feita por ordem do

io6
 VI

An Introduction to the «História Trágico-Marítima»

Padre Fr. Nuno da Conceição Capelão da mesma nao (Lisboa,

Pedro Craesbeeck [1631]).

In addition to the two eighteenth-century counterfeit variant edi¬

tions listed in my 1957 article, a third variant was offered for sale
by A. Rosenthal, Catalogue 65 (1962), item no. 1454.

16. Belem (1635).

Naufragio da nao Nossa Senhora de Bethlem, feito na terra do
Natal no Cabo de Boa Esperança. Successos que teve a capitão
Joseph de Cabreira — Escritos pelo mesmo Ioseph de Cabreyra
(Lisboa, Lourenço Craesbeeck. Anno D.M.DC.XXXVI).

The longer narrative of this shipwreck and the odessy of the sur¬
vivors by Jeronimo Lobo S. J., which was still unpublished in 1957,
has since been published by Padre M. Gonçalves da Costa, Pe Jero¬
nimo Lobo. Itinerário e outros escritos inéditos. Edição Crítica (Bar¬
celos, 1971), pp. 526-634. This should, however, be read in the
light of the critical review by J. Pereira Gomes S. J., in Archivo
Historico Societatis lesu, XLIII (Roma, 1974), pp. 192-95, where
the editorial deficiencies are severely criticised.

17. Sacramento and Atalaia {1647).

Relação do naufragio que fizeram as Naos Sacramento, & Nossa
Senhora de Atalaya vindo da India para o Reyno no Cabo de
Boa Esperança — no anno de 1647 (Lisboa, Na Officina Craes-
beeckiana, Anno 1650).

4to - 2 preliminary unnumbered leaves, including title-page and

licences, etc.; 52 numbered pp. of text. The licences are dated 22
Feb. - 29 Nov. 1650, and the dedication to King John IV by the
author, Bento Teixeira Feio, Belem, 3 January 1650.
The above collation is taken from the copy in the Library of the
ANTT, « Relações da India, Tomo I, 1604-1650 »: Cota: 1626, 1-48
pp., which was examined by me in November 1977. I had not seen
a copy of this first (and excessively rare) edition in 1957; but this
one is listed in Jorge César de Figanière, Bibliographia Histórica
Portugueza (Lisboa 1850), p. 197, nr. 1056.
The site of the wreck of the Sacramento was located by the South
African diver, David Allen, who salvaged a number of artefacts in
1976-77, including some of the magnificent bronze cannon cast by

107
VI

Manuel Tavares Bocarro at Macao in 1640, and sherds of Chinese

blue-and-white porcelain of the Ming-Manchu transition period.

18. São Lourenço (1649).

Relaçam da viagem do Galeam Sam Lourenço, e sua perdi-
çam nos baixos de Moxincale em 3 de Septembro de 1649, Pello
P. Antonio Francisco Cardim S. J. (Lisboa, Domingos Lopes
Rosa, 1651).

There is another shorter but valuable account of this shipwreck by

one of the survivors, Dom Manuel Lobo da Silveira, in the Biblio¬
teca da Academia de Ciências de Lisboa, M.S.-58 Azul, «Noticias
da India, 1649-1658 ». He tells how the castaways «por entre a
Cafraria marchamos dezoito dias com assas de enfadamento e desco-
modidades athê chegamos a Moçambique, o que nasceo de sermos todos
ignorantes naquella paragem, porque havendo de tomar o caminho
de praya nos mettemos nos mattos; e se acaso nelles não acharamos
por ventura hum negro que tinha jà vindo a Moçambique, que nos
guiou, ainda là andaríamos . . . ».

When Bento Texeira Feio finished his moving account of

the Relaçam do naufragio que ftzeram as naos Sacra¬
mento e Nossa Senhora de Atalaya at the end of 1650,
he concluded by observing, half-proudly and half-resi-
gnedly: « Digão os autores estrangeiros, o que lhe pa¬
recer, que os segredos do mar e terra, só o nação Por-
tugueza naceo no mundo para os saber descobrir ».
Exactly the same boast had been made by Fr. Gaspar
de São Bernardino O.F.M., in his classic Itinerário da
India por terra (Lisboa 1611), fl. 31 verso, in which he
described his abortive voyage in the náo São Jacinto in
1606.
What foreign authors Bento Teixeira had in mind, I
cannot say; but in the same year that he made this obser¬
vation, Richard Flecknoe, the English Roman Catholic
priest and poet who was patronised by King John IV,
was offered a passage to India in the fleet of the Viceroy
Conde de Aveiras. After slight hesitation, Flecknoe de-
108
 VI

An Introduction to the «Historia Trágico-Marítima»

dined this offer, on the grounds that: « not one Portu¬

gal ship of three returns safe from that voyage, whilst
not one in ten of the Hollanders ever miscarries, the
doubling of the Cape of Bonna Esperanza being only
dangerous at some seasons of the year, which season they
never avoid (by their own confession) so unwise men,
or so ill mariners are they, not better to know to time
their voyage or trim their ship » b Flecknoe’s caution
was throughly justified; for of the five sail with which
the Viceroy Conde de Aveiras left Lisbon on the 21
April 1650, none reached India that year, and the Vi¬
ceroy died of fever near Quelimane on the coast of Mo¬
çambique in November.
Foreign criticisms of the descuido and desleixo which
seem to have been so marked in Portuguese maritime
affairs during the period covered by the História Trágico-
Marítima is evidenced in several of these narratives. The
Naufrágio que passou Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho vindo
do Brasil para este reino no ano de 1565, relates how
the captain of the French Huguenot warship which
captured the ill-found and ill-manned Santo António after
a three-day fight, said to Albuquerque: « Que coração
tão temerário é o teu, que quiseste provar a defender
esta nau, com tão poucos petrechos de guerra, contra a
nossa tão armada, e que traz sessenta arcabuzeiros —
espanta me quereres defender uma nau tão desapercebida
como esta, com tão poucos aparelhos e menos compa¬
nheiros » 2.
Similarly, the Dutch corsairs from Zeeland who captu¬
red the homeward-bound galleon Santiago after a fight
off St. Helena in March 1602, said reproachfully to their
Portuguese captives: « Dizei, gente portuguesa, que na¬
ção haverá no mundo tão barbara e cobiçosa que cometa
passar o Cabo de Boa Esperança na forma que todos
passais, metidos no profundo do mar com carga, pondo
109
VI

as vidas a tão provável risco de perder, só por cobiça;

e por isso não é maravilha que percais tantas naus e tantas
vidas; e o que mais nos espanta é ver que não vindo este
navio, nem para navegar, nem para pelejar, vos ponhais
muito de siso a quererdes batalha comnosco » 3.
A contributory cause of these disasters was the low
esteem in which mariners were held in Spain and Por¬
tugal, and the fact that ship were often commanded by
landsmen with little or no experience of the sea. The
Golden Age literature of Spain and Portugal is full of
abusive and denigrating references to sailors as a class.
This applies not merely to land-bound humanists such as
Luis Vives, who described seamen as Fex Maris, but to
those like Diogo do Couto, who were experienced voya¬
gers. Sailors were commonly regarded as the lowest form
of the working class, ranking beneath sapateiros, and
often coupled in royal edicts with mestiços, mulatos,
or even slaves. I have given some instances of this dee-
prooted and long-lasting Iberian prejudice against seamen
elsewhere 4; and Professor James Lockhart has done the
same for 16th-century Spanish-America. He points out,
incidentally, that one of Columbus’ main troubles was
that no self-respecting Castilian hidalgo would take or¬
ders from an upstart Italian sailor, even if transmogrified
with the high-sounding title of Almirante5. Similarly,
King Dom João IV’s well-meant effort to improve the
standards of seamanship in the carreira da India by ap¬
pointing seamen to command náos and galeões, instead
of land-based hidalgos in 1644-48, had to be abando¬
ned in the face of well-nigh universal opposition. A whole
book deserves to be written on this curious aspect of the
two great Iberian seaborne empires; but I will conclude
this paper on another and a lighter note.
Padre Alexandro Valignano S. J., who spoke from
experience of the dangers and hardships of the carreira
no
 An Introduction to the «História Trágico-Marítima»

da India, commented: « Mas con todos estos y otros

peligros que se ofrecen, es cosa de maravilla ver la fa-
cilidad y frequencia, con que se embarcan para la India
los portugueses: porque, como está dicho, parten cada
ano de Portugal quatro o cinco naos cargadas de ellos;
y muchos se embarcan, como si uviessen de yr de allí a
una legoa, con una camisa, y dos panes en la mano, y con
un queso y una caxa de mermelada, sin otra alguna manera
de provision » 6.
This descuido was not confined to the Portuguese pro¬
letariat, but was shared, on occasion, by their social su¬
periors, « gente que veste camisa lavada ». Filippo Sas-
setti, writing from Cochin to a friend in Italy, 17 Ja¬
nuary 1585, assured him: « Dettemi molta maraviglia
quello che hammé raccontato un uome da bene, che
sta in queste parti, il quale avendo moglio e figlivoli in
Lisbona, e vivendosi acconciamente, si trovava una ma¬
tina su la riva del mare a veder partire le navi, che ven-
gono quà, alio sciorre delle vele delle quali tutti i ma-
rinai, passegieri, soldati, e tutta la terra finalmente grida
a voei altissime: Buon viaggio; al qual grido sentitosi quel
buon uomo toccare il cuore, aperta la borsa, e trovatosi
drento 6 Portoghesi, che sono circa a 90 ducati, mando
a dire a casa, che non l’asprettassero a desinare, e montato
sopra una di quelle navi, qua se ne venue, e stáccisi;
che s’egli aveva a fare la dispartenza con la moglie e co’
figlivoli, e darne conto agli amici, o che pure e’ si fusse
preso tempo a considerare quello a ch’e’ si metteva, mi
raccomando: egli informava domane. Non parra forse
bene addiorre per cagione di si fatta cosa un semplice
movimento, e una cotai temerezza; porché se il fine è
bueno, il mezzo non ha da parere travaglioso; se è de¬
bole, perché mettervisi? Basta » 7.
Basta, indeed! . . . Se non è vero, è ben trovato.
VI

Note

(*) Dato il carattere del presente studio, concepito come integrativo

del saggio del 1957, deroghiamo eccezionalmente dal nostro costume
di tradurre tutto in italiano, e pubblichiamo questo testo nell’ori-
ginale inglese [N.d. Redazione].
(**) At the moment of the revision of the present article I came
to know that M.H. de Portugal Barchiesi, in another article in this
number (pp. 165-182) considers that the account intitled Relaçam
do lastimozo naufragio da nao Conceiçam, etc., being an 18th-
century counterfeit edition (not included in the HTM) is derived
from Balthasar Telles S.J., Chronica da Companhia de lesu da Pro¬
vinda de Portugal. Segunda Parte, Lisboa 1647, pp. 550-561.
1. Richard Flecknoe, A Relation of Ten Years Travels in Europe,
Asia, Affrique and America (London, 1656), p. 101.
2. História Trágico-Marítima (ed. António Sergio, 3 vols., Lisboa,
1956-1957), Vol. II, p. 126.
3. História Trágico-Maríma (ed. Antonio Sergio), Vol. Ill, pp.
192-95.
4. C. R. Boxer (ed and Trans.), The Tragic History of the Sea,
1589-1622 (Cambridge, 1959), pp. 9-11, 19, 23, 63, 84, 194, 196,
210-11, 225; Ibidem, Further Selections from the Tragic History of
the Sea, 1559-1565 (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 9, 72-73, 121-23; Ibidem,
The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825 (London, 1969, 1977),
pp. 13-14, 211-217.
5. James Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1532-1560: A Colonial Society
(University of Wisconsin Press, 1968), pp. 114-134; Ibidem, article
in the Latin-American Research Review, Nr. 7 (Austin, Texas, 1972),
pp. 6-45.
6. Josef Wicki, S. J. (ed.), Alessandro Valignani S. I., Historia
del principio y progresso de la Compahia de Jesus en las Indias
Orientales, 1542-64 (Roma, 1944), pp. 15-16.
7. Lettere di Filippo Sassetti sopra i suoi viaggi nelle Indie
Orientale dal 1578 al 1588 (ed. Reggio, 1844), letter XX à Piero
Vettori, «Di questa citta di Santa Croce di Coccino, à 17 di ge-
najo, 1585 », pp. 116-117.

112
.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK’S BILL

OF LADING IN 1625

O WING to the progress made by the English and Dutch East-India

Companies in Asiatic waters, the maritime strength of the Por¬
tuguese in India had been reduced to a parlous plight by 1620.
The English had followed up their early successes off Swally
by establishing themselves firmly at Surat, and at Jask in the
Persian Gulf ; whilst the Hollander's roving squadrons made prize of
virtually every Portuguese vessel that sailed unprotected by convoys
between Cape Cormorin and Japan. Add to these losses the want of
capital ships (or armada do alto bordo, as the Portuguese termed their high
seas fleet) in India, and the main reason why the Lusitanian Asiatic Empire
crumbled before the onslaughts of the English and Dutch « corsairs »
becomes clearly apparent.
Contrary to the assertions of most historians, the Iberian authorities
at Lisbon and Madrid were fully alive to the dangers which menaced their
Colonial Empire in the East, and within their means they did their best to
cope with a very difficult situation ('). Strong fleets were fitted out in the
Tagus for the annual voyages to India, and if all these ships had reached
Goa in safety, then the Portuguese would have been able to challenge, with
some prospect of success, the English and Dutch fleets which made such
havoc of their commerce. It would seem however that, in the words of a
contemporary writer, the very stars in their courses fought against them, and
few of the « tall ships » which left Lisbon for the Indies ever reached
their goal.
This succession of disastrous voyages may be said to have fairly
begun in 1620, when, of the eight sail fitted out in the Tagus for India
during the spring of that year, more than half were either wrecked or lost
their voyage, as may be seen from the list in Appendix II.

0) It should be remembered that Spain and Portugal formed a dual monarchy under
the same king during the period 1580-1640.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK’S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 177

The full extent of these disasters was still unknown to the authorities
at Lisbon when they came to equip the annual India fleet for the following
year. A new Viceroy, Dom Afonso de Noronha, who had previously made
the voyage as Captain-Major of three sail in 1597, was selected to com¬
mand the exceptionally strong fleet of four carracks and six galleons which
left the Tagus in two squadrons during March and April of 1621. The
galleons had barely cleared the bar, when they were driven back by a
fierce storm which so severely damaged them that all save one gave over
the voyage. The carracks, after one false start, left again and got as far
as the Guinea coast, but here they were becalmed and eventually forced
to return to the Tagus. This was the first occasion since the discovery of
India by Vasco da Gama that a Portuguese Viceroy or Governor had
ever lost his voyage, and this inauspicious omen did indeed foreshadow
dire disasters to follow (2).
Nothing daunted by the fact that only one out of the fleet of ten
sail had passed the Cape in 1621, the government at Madrid contrived to
fit out another respectable squadron in the spring of the following year.
A special effort was indeed necessary, as news had reached Portugal of
the critical state of affairs in the Persian Gulf, where the Captain-Major,
Ruy Freyre de Andrade, was closely besieged in Kishm fort by a large
Persian army ; whilst a powerful English squadron was daily expected to
join with the Persians in attacking either this stronghold or the Portuguese
headquarters at Ormuz (3).
Dom Afonso de Noronha had fallen into disgrace as a result of his
abortive voyage in the previous year, and a new Viceroy was selected in
the person of Dom Francisco da Gama, fourth Conde da Vidigueira, and
a lineal descendant of the discoverer of India. Dom Francisco had been
Viceroy of India from 1596 to 1600 whilst still a young man; but his
administration had been far from popular, and he had been hung in effigy
from the yardarm of his own flagship when leaving Goa at the end of his
period of office He had never forgotten this insult, and thereafter was
imbued with the idea of returning as Viceroy, in order to convince the
people of Goa that they had been mistaken in their estimate of him.
The squadron fitted out in the Tagus for the voyage of the Conde
da Vidigueira in March 1622 consisted of four carracks, two galleons and (*)

(*) Antonio Bocarro, Livro do Estado da India Oriental (Brit. Museum, Sloane
Mss. 297) fl. 61-61 v ; Faria y Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, III, p. 367 (Lisboa, 1675) ; Costa-
Quintella, Annaes da Marinha Portugueza, II, p. 19i.
(3) For an account of the operations in the Persian Gulf and the fall of Kishm and
Ormuz, see the present writer's edition of the Commentaries of Ruy Freyre de Andrade,
London, 1929, and his article on Anglo-Portuguese Rivalry in the Persian Gulf, 1615-1635
(Chapters in Anglo-Portuguese Relations, London, 1935).
VII

178

two pinnaces. At first it seemed as if the run of ill-luck had been broken
by the Count’s appointment, as the squadron made an exceptionally pros¬
perous voyage as far as the Cape of Good Hope. In this latitude, however,
it was separated by a storm. Three of the vessels reached Goa safely in
August, but the Viceroy, with three carracks and a galleon, was inter¬
cepted off Moçambique on the 23rd July, by six sail of the Anglo-Dutch
« fleet of defence », which had been fitted out at Batavia for the express
purpose of waylaying the Lusitanian outward-bound shipping. After a
running fight lasting nearly forty hours, the carrack São Joseph was taken
and plundered by the allies, whilst two of her consorts ran ashore when
trying to enter the dangerous harbour of Moçambique at night without
pilots ; only the galleon São Salvador, cleverly handled by her captain,
Gonçalo de Siqueira de Sousa, escaping into Moçambique (4).
Despite the heavy losses in shipping caused by a succession of such
disastrous voyages, another fleet, consisting of three carracks, three galleons
and two pinnaces, was prepared in the Tagus for the India voyage in the
spring of 1623, under the command of Captain-Major Dom Antonio Tello.
Included in this squadron was the Nau, or Carrack, Nossa Senhora da
Conceição (Our Lady of the Conception), under the command of Fran¬
cisco Correa. The Conceição had already sailed in the India fleets of the
years 1620 and 1621, on the last occasion as the flagshisp of the unlucky
Viceroy Dom Afonso de Noronha, but had twice lost her voyage. She had
therefore an unenviable reputation when she left the Tagus with her
consorts on the 24th March 1623, nor did subsequent events belie it (5).
Starting as it did so late in the season, Dom Antonio Tello’s fleet was
almost foredoomed to disaster. The fleet passed the Line on the 1st June
and rounded the Cape on the 25th July ; but only Dom Felippe Masca-
renhas in the galleon Santo André reached Goa this year, and the remainder
were forced on the 22nd September to put in to winter at Moçambique,
where the carrack Santa Isabel, the galleon São Simão and the pinnace
São tíraz were lost in a sudden squall during the night of the 24th

(4) For a detailed account of this action, see my article Dom Francisco da Gama,
Conde da Vidigueira, c a sua viagem para a India no ano dc 1622, in the Anais do Club
Militar Naval, N.u 5-6, (Lisboa, 1930), and the sources there quoted. Padre Jeronimo
Lobo, who was on board the flagship, also gives a good acccamt in his Voyage, printed
in French at the Hague in 1728. Gonçalo de Siqueira de Sousa was destined to become
in later years (1644-7) the first duly accredited European Ambassador to Japan.
( ') This carrack, Nossa Senhora da Conceição, must not be confused with the India-
built carrack of the same name, launched at Panjim in 1620, and burnt by an Algerine
squadron off the bar of Lisbon in October of the following year, when in sight of home
at the end of her maiden voyage. Cf. João Carvalho Mascarenhas, Memorável Relação
da perda da Náo Conceição ôc., Lisboa, 1627 ; later reprinted in Vol. in of Gomes de
Brito’s well-known Historia Tragico-Maritima, Lisboa, 1735.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK'S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 179

January, 1624. Meanwhile, the pinnace Nossa Senhora da Guia had been
taken by the outward-bound English East-Indiaman Coaster off the Cape
of Good Hope, after a twelve-hour « doubtful » action, but was later
turned off by her captors as being « so spoiled in the fight», and thus
enabled to join her consorts at Moçambique. When Dom Antonio Tello
resumed his voyage on the 27th March, the luckless Nossa Senhora da
Guia again parted company and was wrecked on the coast of Arabia. It
was thus with only three sail (São Francisco Xavier, Nossa Senhora da
Conceição, Misericórdia) left out of his original eight, that the Captain-
-Major reached Goa on the 28th May, 1624 (6).
For three years in succession, therefore, the annual Lusitanian India
fleet had miscarried either altogether or in part, but now at the eleventh
hour there came a welcome turn in the tide of misfortune for the unhappy
« Portugalls of Goa ». The celebrated Italian traveller, Pietro della Valle,
was at this time on a visit to Goa, and his description of the arrival of
the 1624 fleet is worth reproducing here (7).
September the second, a little before daylight, the safe arrival of the
annual Portugal Fleet was congratulated by all the Bells of Goa. It con¬
sisted of two Merchant’s ships, lesser and lighter then the Carracks which
use to come other years (8); one Galeon laden also with merchandize, and
ordr’d to return with the same Ships, in case it should not be necessary
at Goa for the war (9); and five other Galeons equip’d for war which
were to remain at Goa (10) with all the Soldiery which was numerous
and good, to be imploy’d as occasion should require. The General of this
Armada was Sig. Nuno Alvares Botelho ; the Admiral Sig. João Pereira
Cortereal, to whose diligence the happy and speedy arrivel of this Fleet
is attributed ; the like not having come to pass in many years, and that
through the fault and greediness of both the Pilots and Merchants : for

(«) Livro do Estado da India Oriental, fl. 66 v. British Museum. Additional

Mss 20902 fl 129 An account of the fight between the Coaster and the Guia will be
found in Cal. S. P. East Indies (1622-1624), p. 196-7. The Captain and nine men were
taken to Batavia. There is also a good account of the voyage of this fleet by D Aftonso
Mendes, Patriarch of Ethiopia, written at Fremona, Abyssinia, 9.vu. 1625, and printed
by Beccari in his Rerum Scriptores Aethiopicum, Vol. xii, pp. 127-133.
L) The Travels o) Pietro Della Valle into the East Indies, London 1665, p. 219.
(s) Cinco Chagas (flagship) and Nossa Senhora da Quietação. These were three-
-drck carracks in contradistinction to the usual type of Portuguese Indiamen, which were
four-deckers. Contemporary documents concerning them, when on the stocks at the Lisbon
yard in 1622-3, are printed on pp. 46-53 of Senna Barcellos article Construções de Naus
cm Lisboa e Goa para a carreira da India no começo do século XVII (Bot. Soc. Geog. de
Lisboa, 1899),
C) São João.
(10) São Francisco, Santo Antonio, São Pedro, Santiago and Conceição>.
VII

180

before, without keeping order or rule in the voyage or obedience to the

General, every one endeavor’d to have his Ship arrive first and alone.
But this Sig. João Pereira Cortereal having written and presented a printed
discourse about this matter to the King, his Majesty approv’d the same
and gave strict charge that his Prescription should be observ d with all
exactness; and hence proceeded the good success of this Voyage» (“).
Della Valle's account is perfectly correct. Five of the galleons were
retained in India to serve in the Armada do Alto bordo, or « Fleet of Tall
ships », which was being fitted out in the river of Goa and at Bassein,
to sail for the Persian Gulf, to reinforce the Captain General, Ruy Freire
de Andrade, in his blockade of Ormuz and to engage the Anglo-Dutch
squadrons which were expected to leave Swally for Gombrun in Decem¬
ber. Meanwhile, Botelhos flagship, the Cinco Chagas (Five Wounds of
Christ), with the Quietação and the São João of the same fleet, came
under the orders of João Pereira Corte-Real as Captain-Major for the
return voyage in the spring of 1625. These three vessels wintered in the
bar of Goa, together with the three survivors of Dom Antonio Tello’s
ill-fated fleet of 1623 — the two carracks São Francisco Xavier and Nossa
Senhora da Conceição and the galleon Misericórdia — taking in their
cargoes of pepper and other commodities under the protection of the for¬
tresses of Mormugão and Nossa Senhora do Cabo.
This brings us to the raison d'etre of this article, namely the Conhe¬
cimento, or Bill of Lading, from the Carrack Conceição, which is repro-

(;l) The highly interesting discourse of the Admiral João Pereira Corte Real referred
to by Della Valle — which deals however not so much with the navigation as with the
building of the India Carracks — was entitled Discursos sobre la Nauegacion de las naos
de la India; de Portugal, Por Juan Pereyra Corte Real, Cavallero Português, para que
V. Magestad sea servido de mandar ver. (No place or date of imprint but) Madrid, 1622,
4°. Exhaustive researches have failed to disclose more than two existing copies of this
invaluable treatise one of which was the author s own, with numerous autograph notes
and additions. Still rarer however is the second edition of this treatise unrecorded by any
bibliographer, and of which the British Museum is the fortunate possessor of the only
known copy — Discursos, y advertências de luan Pereyra Corte-Real, del Consejo de
V. Magestad, Encomendador de Santa Maria del Prado, de la Orden de Christo, y nom-
brado por V. Magestad para Almirante Real del Armada grande de la restauracion del
Brasil, en este ano de 1635 (no place nor date but probably), Madrid, 1635.
João Pereira Corte Real was one of the most accomplished seamen of his age, and
author of several nautical and navigational treatises, most of which have remianed Mss.
He was successively Captain, Admiral, and Captain-Major of four India fleets, Admiral
and Commander in chief of the Home Fleet, Mestre do Campo or Colonel of the Terço
da Armada or Marine Regiment in 1618-1623, Governor of Cape Verde in 1628-31, and
member of the Council of War of King D. João IV from 1641 until his death in 1642,
He was also a writer of note, and in his youth a friend of the great historian of India,
Diogo do Couto.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK’S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 181

duced in facsimile herewith. The translation of this remarkable document

may be read as follows (The italicised portions are in Ms. in the original.):

DIgõ
»gv,eu ' quê ora com ãiudadcDcos vou pera o
Rcynopor
R f \i ■—' daNao quc Deos r.iiuc,
que he vcidadc que f êcebrSí tenho carregado dentro na dita Naqde vòs ÇÇ&L,faDu'
<Sh/uÇlJ í°7Yt/L
C&Jly ynxjLyXXfrxÁD-Yt. ° cXÍcAC'vuXXez ' ^XXznDeu.
zXX . 'YUsnM*- X(yX>-^xji ---— ---^ 1
tudo enxufo 81 bem acondicionado, & marcado da marca defòra, & por eflepor mim
afsinado meobrigo,queleuandomcDeosa faluamentocom a dita Naodc tudo dar,&
entregar aíii & da maneira que o recebi,na caía da índia ao íenhor^t
<^a/vF’X.'Xy^t ou a feu certo recado/em por iffo me darem coufa algúa^or quan¬
to do frete fuy pago ao afsinar deíleJ& porafsipaíTar na verdade Ilicpaficy^i-^'Y7
conhecimentos dcftetheor por mim afsinados ,que hum comprido os outros nso va-
Iháojôt para o aífy cumprir obrigo minha peíToa & bés, auidos Sc por aucr- Tcífcmur
nhasque forãoprezentes. cy.aOiaCoc<r&£cHYXX

Conhecimento or Bill of Lading signed by Bento Gonçalvez sota-piloto of the carr?ck

N.a S.a da Conceição in Goa 15-n- • 625

« I, Bento Gonçalvez who now with the help of Ood, am going for the Kingdom as
■Second Pilot of the Carrack which God preserve, N." Sr." da Conceição, state that it is true
that I have received and laden within the said Carrack, from you Bermeu Sanches Correa
a desk with legs with a label addressed to the Conde de Olivares and an Oratorio with a
label addressed to the confessor of His Majesty, all covered with leather, the which I am
taking in my cabin all well wrapped up & in good condition, & clearly marked on the outside,
& I bind myself by these presents duly signed, that, God bringing me in safety with the said
Carrack, I will give and deliver it thus and in the condition in which I received it, in the
India House to senhor Ant.0 Saches or in his absence to snr. Jeronimo frz Aires or to his
true assignees, without my being paid anything for this, since I was paid the freight thereof
at the time of signing this, 6 to certify the truth thereof I have signed six bills bills (sic)
to this effect, one of which being fulfilled renders the others null and void, & for the per¬
formance where of I pledge my person and goods, both present & future. Witnesses who
were present, those who have signed below in Goa the 15 of February of 1625 a.

(Autograph signatures:)

Diogo Dias Bemd0 giz Symão da Costa, »

VII

182

The document is endorsed on the back, Conceição N. 1625. Conhe¬

cimento de Bento giz sota piloto de hü Contador e hü oratorio q leua a
entregar ao snr. Ant° Sanches. (Conceição N. 1625. Bill of Bento Con-
çalvez, second pilot, for a desk and an Oratorio which he is taking to'
deliver to Snr. Antonio Sanches). It is well printed on good paper bearing
a contemporary watermark.
It is obvious that this document is a bill of lading, though the Por¬
tuguese word Conhecimento, by which the original itself is entitled, may
be rendered into English by « acknowledgment », « bill », « bond » or
« receipt ». A bill of lading has been defined in its esssence as a shipmaster’s
receipt for goods entrusted to him to carry in his vessel », which is exactly
what this Conhecimento is. It is equally clear that here we have a bill
of lading in its very early form, since the shipowner — or in this case
the pilot — accepts full liability for delivering the goods in perfect con¬
dition to the consignees, provided only that the ship reaches the port of
destination. This is indeed a very different state of affairs from that which
prevails today, when a shipowner is so elaborately safeguarded by the
comprehensive exception clause of his bill of lading, that he is practically
speaking, liable for nothing at all (12).
It is not the purpose of this article to discuss the origin and devel¬
opment of the bill of lading, but a few words may perhaps be devoted
to similar Portuguese documents of the same period, which have come to
light in recent years. A few other conhecimentos have been preserved in
Japan from the time when the Portuguese of Macau drove a flourishing
trade with Nagasaki in the first quarter of the XVIIth century. These
conhecimentos, are however Respondencia Bonds rather than Bills of
Lading, as may be seen from the terms of the following typical
example : (13).

('") With the important exception of seaworthiness. For an interesting discussion

of the Bill of Lading and its terms, see pp. 81-85 of Douglas Owen's Ocean Trade and
Shipping. Cambridge, 1914. The Bill of Lading is there referred to as a document of very
great antiquity, but unfortunately no xviith century specimens are reproduced to enable a
comparison to be made with the Portuguese conhecimento here described. None of the
authorities whom I consulted had ever seen or heard of an eartier Bill of Lading in
printed form.
(13) For a discussion of these Luso-Japanese Respondencia Bonds and facsimile
reproductions of some of the most interesting of them, see the two following articles by
the present writer — Notes on the Portuguese Trade in Japan during the Kwanei period
(1624-1643). (Shigaku, Tokyo, 1933), pp. 7-27; and Portuguese Commercial Voyages to
Japan three hundred years ago (1630-1639), (Japan Society, Vol. 31), pp. 65-75, wherein
will be found a facsimile cf the 1638 bond translated above. For those who can read
Japanese, a very full paper on the subject by Mr. K. Shiba in Keizai-shino kenkyü, Vol xvii,
Nos 1 & 2.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK'S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 183

« I, Pero Fernandez de Carvalho, Factor of the City of Macau, hereby declare that
I have borrowed four thousand taels of bar silver from Suyetsugu Socotu ( — Sotoku),
merchant of Hakata, at twenty-five per cent, on behalf of the said City of Macau. And
the said Suyetsugu Socotu declared that this sum of four thousand taels is to go from
here to Macau divided in equal amounts on board the two ships Nossa Senhora da Con¬
ceição, which is the flagship, and Nossa Senhora do Rozario e São Gonçalo. From Macau
to this city (next year) the amount is to be returned (in goods) equally divided amongst
the ships of the voyage which sail first ; and in case only one is sent, it will take only
one third of the whole ; in the event of the voyage being cancelled, another 10 % must
be paid. 3 his silver bullion with the profits earned thereon will be repaid by the Factor
who succeeds me, for and on behalf of the City of Macau, forasmuch as the money is
borrowed for the said city. Nangassaque (Nagasaki), sixth of October of sixteen hundred
and thirty-eight.
(Signed) Pero Fernandez de Carvalho.»

This document is endorsed on the back in Japanese for forty kwan

of bar silver, and the Portuguese word Conhecimento is used in its Japa¬
nese form of Kunishimento, written in the native kana syllabic script —
another striking instance of Portuguese commercial influence in the Far
East at the time (14). Although this document is, as stated above, a Res-
pondencia Bond that is to say, a receipt for money borrowed upon the
security of a vessel’s cargo, or even on the vessel itself, — rather than a
Bill of Lading in the modern sense of the term, yet the Portuguese used
the same word Conhecimento for both kinds of receipt. It seems probable
that at this period there was no very hard and fast distinction between
the two, but in the case of the 1638 Respondencia Bond, the Japanese
shipper is afforded more protection against certain risks, than is the shipper
of the goods in the 1625 Bill of Lading. Another point of difference is
that the latter document is a printed one and signed by several witnesses,
whereas the surviving Luso-Japanese Respondencia Bonds, though drawn
up in the same phraseology, are all in manuscript, and the majority have
the signature of the borrower or ship-owner only.
As the 1625 Conhecimento is a printed form, it seems clear that there
must have been thousands of them in common use at the time (15).

(") Although the word is not to be found in the works of Yule, Burnell, Dalgado
and other Indo-European lexicographers, its use was widespread in the Far East as may
be seen from the following extract from Hagenaer’s voyage in Japan in 1637, printed in
Vol. II of the Begin ende Voortgangh, (Amsterdam 1646), under the date of i.x.1637,—
« ...is der Opper Coopman Van Sanen... naer Meaco gesonden, om aldaer 200 kisten
silvers yder van 1000 teyl ofte 2700 guide, op deposito, tot 1 Y2 % a 2 %, onder
behoorliicke hantschrift (hier cognossementen genaempt ; te lichten 6c. ». Cognossementen
is of course the Portuguese Conhecimento.
(I5) It would be interesting to know whether the forms were printed in Lisboa or
at Goa. If the latter, then we have here a hitherto unrecorded specimen of early Indo-
European typography. The former alternative, however, seems to be the most likely of
VII

184

Nevertheless, in the course of fairly extensive researches amongst the

Portuguese Archives for details of the Indo-Portuguese maritime trade,
I have never come across another such one. Even though this Bill of
Lading can scarcely be unique, the number of such forms that have sur¬
vived the vicissitudes awaiting such ephemeral scraps of paper for over
three hundred years, must be extremely small. An additional interest is
lent to this remarkable document by the romantic circumstances in which
were involved the goods and the carrier mentioned therein, as will be seen
from the story of the fate of the carrack Nossa Senhora da Conceição.
Before resuming the thread of this tale, a few words may be devoted to
the personages named in the Bill of Lading, or to such of them as can be
identified.
About the Sota-Piloto, or second pilot, Bento Gonçalves, almost
nothing has been ascertained hitherto. The name Gonçalves is a very
common one in Portuguese, and numerous seafarers with the same patro-
nvmic, can be traced in contemporary documents. A Sota-Piloto, Bartho-
lomeu Gonçalves, appears as second pilot of the carrack São Thomé, one
of the consorts of the Nossa Senhora da Conceição in 1621, but it seems
he sailed for India in the 1622 fleet, so there can hardly be a confusion
in the Christian names (1(i). My friend, Snr. Frazão de Vasconcellos, has
however unearthed an interesting reference to Bento Gonçalves in the
archives of the Torre do Tombo at Lisbon. This is contained in an Aluara,
or royal decree, dated the 13th March 1623, granting him permission,
in his capacity as Sota-Piloto of the Nossa Senhora da Conceição, to bring
home from India two slaves and a chest full of goods (other than those
declared contraband), freight and duty free. It was obviously under the
terms of this Alvara that Bento Gonçalves was enabled to take with him
the desk and oratory of Antonio Sanches. Such perquisites were at that
tjmç and for a long time after — the privilege of all of the ship’s officers
in varying degrees. The original document is printed in full in Appendix I,
infra.
The two witnesses defy identification, at any rate for the nonce.
In all probability, they were merely Customs House officials, or some of
the ship’s officers.
With the remaining personages, we are on firmer ground. Bartolomeu
Sanches Correa, the shipper of the goods, was a wealthy Christão Novo

the two, judging by its relative clearness and neatness compared with contemporary pro¬
ductions of the Goa press.
Nomeação de officiais da naueyaçaõ das naos que este ano (1622) haõde ir
pern a India. Contemp. Ms. printed on pp. 15-22 of my article in the Anaes do Club Mili¬
tar Naval, Lisboa, 1930.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK'S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 185

or converted Jew, who was a prominent trader in Goa. In later years,

during the Viceroyalty of the Conde de Linhares (1630-1636), who was
a noted protector of this class, he was farmer of the Customs at Goa, in
which his enemies accused him of introducing illicit practices to the detri¬
ment of the Royal Exchequer. It was likewise alleged that he was con¬
cerned with the Viceroy in shipping forbidden goods to Pegu ; but these
and other stories are probably mainly inspired by the malicious Jew-baiting
which was one of the chief occupations of both secular and ecclesiastical
dignitaries at the time (1'). The persons to whom the goods were con¬
signed are easily identifiable. The contador or desk (writing bureau?)
was destined as a present for the Conde de Olivares, the famous Minister
and favourite of King Phillip IV of Spain ; whilst the oratory (or praying-
stool ?) was sent to the Royal Confessor, the Dominican Fray Antonio
de Soutomayor (,s). Obviously the wretched Israelite—who, like most
others of his class, was doubtless a Christian only « from the teeth out »
— felt it politic to keep in the good graces of the all-powerful Minister
and Confessor, who shared between them the complete confidence of the
King. This was the more necessary since about this time there were
repeated orders issued from Madrid and Lisbon, that no persons of Hebrew
extraction were to be appointed to any positions of authority in the Por¬
tuguese Indies — though these orders, like most Iberian Royal decrees,
remained a dead letter in so far as the authorities at Goa were concer¬
ned (19). Antonio Sanches and Jeronimo Fernandez Aires, to whom the
goods were to be delivered at the India House in Lisbon for transmission
to Madrid, were presumably relatives or friends of Bartholomeu Sanches •—■
the first-named being perhaps his brother, and probably identical with the
cartographer, Antonio Sanches, who flourished at Lisbon circa 1621-1641.
To return to the homeward-bound ships, which we left taking in their
cargo in the river of Goa, these weighed anchor on the 4th March 1625,
being six sail as under :

1. São Francisco Xavier (Carrack). Flagship of the Captain-Major,

Dom Antonio Tello.

(I7) Relação dos serviços q fez o Conde de Linhares sendo Viso-rey &c. Ms. of
the University Library at Coimbra, a copy of which was kindly lent me by Professor Pres¬
tage. It is an anonymous, and for the most part highly scurrilous, production.
(1S) A large number of documents signed by him, and dealing with the appointments
of various ecclesiastical dignitaries in the years 1622-1626, are preserved in the British
Museum (Egerton Mss. 1134.
(ia) For an excellent account of the attitude of the secular and ecclesiastical autho¬
rities towards the despised and hated Christãos Novos, see Dr. A. de Silva Carvalho's
study Garcia d'Orta. Coimbra, 1934, especially, pp. 70-79 and 151-180.
VII

186

2. N& Sra da Conceição (Carrack). Captain Dom Francisco de Sa (2")-

3. Cinco Chagas (Carrack). Flagship of the Captain-Major, João
Pereira Corte-Real.
4. A/a Sra da Quietação (Carrack). Captain João de Sequeira Vare-
jão (-1)-
5. São João (Galleon). Captain João da Costa Valente.
6. Mizericordia (Galleon). Captain ??

Dom Antonio Tello, as the senior Captain-Major, was in command

of the whole fleet ; but João Pereira Corte-Real, as Captain-Major of the
three homeward-bound ships of the previous year’s squadron, seems to
have had a semi-independent jurisdiction over his own three vessels.
The voyage progressed without incident at first, but shortly after
rounding the Cape (probably some time in May), the fleet ran into a
heavy storm, which all the vessels weathered well enough, except the
unlucky carrack Conceição. So severely buffetted was this ship that she was
kept afloat only by constant pumping, and by throwing overboard many
of the goods which, in accordance with the time-honoured practice of
hcmeward-bound Portuguese Indiamen, encumbered and pestered her decks.
Even so, it speedily became apparent that she had no chance of reaching
Portugal, so it was decided to make the best of a bad business and make
for St. Helena, with the idea of beaching her there, although Portuguese
ships were strictly forbidden to touch at this island, in consequence of the
risk of their being taken by the Dutch and English Indiamen who fre¬
quented it. By the terms of a Royal Decree of March 1624, the homeward-
bound Indiamen were forbidden in the most categorical terms from touching
at St. Helena, the Azores, or elsewhere, under any pretext whatever, but
were told to direct their course to the latitude of 40u-41° off the coast of
Portugal, where they would find an Armada cruising ready to convoy
them into the Tagus (22).
Necessity, however, knows no law, and as it was clearly impossible
for the Conceição to navigate any further, she put in to the island of
St. Helena, accompanied by her five consorts. Here the carrack was
warped close inshore off Chapel Valley on the north-west side of the

(20) In place of her original Captain, Francisco Correa, who had died on the
outward voyage in 1623 at Moçambique, and of João Serrão da Cunha, who had brought
the ship thence to Goa.
(21) Commander of the combined Portuguese-French-Royalist squadron which
attacked Blake off the Tagus in July 1650, after which action he was superseded for
gross incompetence.
O British Museum, Add. Mss. 20870, fl. 67 vo. no. 124.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK'S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 187

island (23), and some of the cargo was unloaded and distributed in the
other vessels. These in their turn left her crew an additional supply of
munitions and stores, after which they resumed their voyage, leaving
Dom Francisco de Sa and his men to continue the work of unlading the
vessel.
They had not been more than a few days at this task when on the
14th June a Dutch ship hove in sight of the anchorage. This was the
Hollandia, which had left Batavia on the 6th of February, bound for
Holland, in company with the Gouda and Middelburgh (24). The Gouda
was lost in a storm in the Indian Ocean, whilst her two consorts were
likewise so badly damaged that they were both of them — unbeknown to
each other forced to put into two different anchorages in Madagascar to
refit. The Hollandia had resumed her voyage at the end of April, and,
after a stormy passage round the Cape, steered for St. Helena with the
intention of taking in fresh water and provisions.
The Dutchmen found the Nossa Senhora da Conceição hauled in
close to the shore, and immediately endeavoured to work their own ship
close inshore and clap the carrack aboard. In this they were unsuccessful,
owing to the squally gusts of wind which blew seaward from off the steep
ravines in the island. They then launched their longboat with a flag of
truce to summon the carrack to surrender, but met with nothing but abu¬
sive answers from the Portuguese for their pains. Meanwhile the Portu¬
guese carried ashore several guns from the carrack, which they planted
in a hurriedly extemporised battery on the beach. The Hollanders, seeing
that they could not gain their ends by peaceable means, were compelled
to resort to force, and opened fire on the carrack with every gun they
could bring to bear.
Bontekoe assures us that the Nossa Senhora da Conceição was so
large that the Hollandia s forefop was barely on a level with the carrack s
forecastle, and consequently the Dutchmen's cannon soon riddled the
unwieldy Portuguese vessel through and through. Nevertheless, although
the carrack could not make a very effective reply, she kept up a continuous
fire, whilst every shot from the Portuguese battery took effect on the
Hollandia's hull. The ship’s officers perceived that if the combat conti-

(*>) So called from the small chapel built there by the Portuguese in the xvith cen¬
tury. It was later renamed James Valley in honour of James II of England.
(24) A full account of the voyage of the Hollandia is given by skipper Willem
Isbrantsz Bontekoe of Hoorn, in the celebrated narrative of his voyages in the East Indies
during the years 1618-1625, in all of which he had more than his share of disasters. Not
having the original Dutch edition of 1646 by me, I have used the French translation in the
Recueil des Voyages, Tome vni, p. 383, (Rouen, 1725).
VII

188

nued much longer on these terms, the Dutch vessel would be the first to
sink. Accordingly, they assembled their crew, and asked the men whether
they would prefer to risk almost certain destruction by prolonging the
action in the hope of ultimate success, or whether they would choose to
go on a greatly reduced daily allowance of water for the remainder of
their voyage. The sailors unanimously decided for the last alternative,
and the Hollandia therefore broke off the action and resumed her voyage ;
though this was not effected without difficulty, since the Dutch had
worked their ship so close inshore during the fight, that they could only
warp her out again against wind and tide with the greatest difficulty (2o).
The Portuguese, though left victorious, had not escaped scot-free,
since the carrack was badly hulled, and, leaky as she was from the
disastrous voyage, rendered utterly unseaworthy for good and all. The
remainder of her guns and cargo were thereupon taken out and brought
ashore, the ship’s hull being allowed to sink, or being deliberately scuttled
by the Portuguese themselves. Tents and barricades were erected on the
beach from the silk and cotton goods with which the illfated vessel had
been laden, whilst the guns were mounted in a battery defended by packs
of Indian clothing and piece-goods. The castaways fitted up a forge under
the ship’s blacksmith, Domingos Dias Cativo, and were able to construct
a small sloop which they sent to Bahia to ask for aid (-u). This was not
long in coming, but before its arrival, they had to repel another attack,
this time from a combined Anglo-Dutch squadron of four sail.
These were the English Star (27), and the Dutch vessels Maagd
van Dort (24), Leeuwin (?) and Weesp (24), which, homeward bound
from Surat with two Persian Ambassadors on board (2T), touched at the
island to renew their supply of fresh water, like the Hollandia six months
earlier. An extensive account of what followed the arrival of the Anglo-
Dutch ships is printed from the narrative of the Star’s chaplain in

(■■') Recueil dcs Voyages, Tome vm, pp. 404-409. There is an interesting description
of St. Helena in this very year by the Icelander Ion Olafsson who visited the island in
February in a Danish ship. See his account in the Hak. Soc. edition of his travels, edited
by Sir Richard Temple. (Hak. Soc. Series II. Vbl. 68, pp. 206-7). Another valuable
account is that by Peter Munday who records his first visit there in 1634 with a wealth
of interesting detail. (Hak. Soc. Vol. 35, pp. 329-33).
(2li) Domingos Dias who rendered such yeoman service on this occasion was also
the means of saving the carrack N.'‘ Sr." do Bom Despacho, which put in at Angola on
her homeward voyage in 1630-31, in a very distressed condition. See the account of this
voyage by Frei Nuno da Conceição, printed at Lisbon in 1631, and reprinted in the third
volume of Gomes de Brito s Historia Tragicc-Maritima. Lisbon, 1735.
(21) Naqd Ali Beg on board the Star as Ambassador to James I from Shah Abbas,
and Musa Beg in the Maagd van Dort as envoy to Prince Maurice and the States.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK'S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 189

Appendix III, to which the reader is referred for details. Here it need
only be mentioned that after the allies had unsuccessfully attempted to
bluff the Portuguese into surrendering themselves and their goods, they
vainly tried to beat them from their barricades by bombardment. An inten¬
ded landing between Chapel Valley and Lemon (or Lime) Valley proved
abortive, owing to the difficult nature of the terrains, where it had been
planned to take place. Finally, after a fruitless bombardment of the Por¬
tuguese position for some six hours, the allied vessels drew off and resumed
their voyage. They had been roughly handled by the Portuguese cannon,
and some of the ships were only able to get away by slipping their cables.
T hus for the second time the Lusitanians were left victorious. But their
troubles were by no means over yet.
The sloop which the castaways had sent to Brazil for assistance had
reached Bahia in safety, and there she found the Hispano-Portuguese
Armada under Don Fadrique de Toledo, which had just recaptured Bahia
from the Dutch in May. On hearing of the predicament of the crew of the
Conceição, at St. Helena, Don Fadrique sent two galleons, Nossa Senhora
da Atalaya and San Miguel, in the company of four smaller vessels, under
the command of Juan Martins de Arteaga, to rescue the stranded crew
and to salve their goods.
The Spanish galleons reached the island at the end of December 1625,
and a fortnight later, a Dutch vessel hove in sight. This was the Middel-
burgh, which, separated from the Hollandia and Gouda in the great storm
of March 1625, had been compelled to winter in the bay of Anton Gil in
Madagascar, where several of her crew died, including Bontekoe’s friend
and fellow-townsman, the circumnavigator, Willem Schouten. The galleons
at once weighed anchor and made after the Middelburgh, which they
eventually succeeded in boarding, one on either quarter. The Hollanders
put up a desperate defence, and fought with such fury that the Spanish
commander and most of his officers were, killed. Their loss so disheartened
the Spaniards that they eventually cast off, and let the Middelburgh escape
in the gathering darkness. The Dutch vessel had been equally roughly
handled, however, and nothing was ever seen of her again. There can be
no doubt that she foundered as a result of the action. The Atalaya and
San Miguel limped back to St. Helena, where, together with their consorts,
they continued their work of taking on board the goods and crew of the
Conceição (2S).

(-s) The account of the action off St. Helena is related at length in D. Gonçalo
de Cespedes y Menezes Chronica del Rey D. Felipe IV, Barcelona, 1634. For the Por¬
tuguese version, see Brito Freire, Nova Lusitania, Lisbon, 1675, p. 145-6. Bontekoe gives
the Dutch side.
VII

190

This done, the six vessels sailed for Pernambuco, whence they took
their departure for Lisbon at the end of February, 1626, in the company
of another half dozen merchant vessels. Even now their troubles were not
ended, for the squadron was scattered by a violent storm off the Azores
on the 11th April, and several of the ships foundered. The remainder,
including the two galleons, finally straggled into the Tagus during the
early part of May, and thus at last the cargo of the Conceição, or such
of it as had not been lost in all these vicissitudes, came safely home.
Whether the desk and oratorio mentioned in the conhecimento of the
Sota-Piloto, Bento Gonçalves, were amongst the goods which reached the
persons to whom they were addressed, we shall never know, but it is per¬
missible to hope that they were. It is something to be thankful for that
this historic bill of lading itself has come down to us. This particular
conhecimento was presumably not on board the Conceição, but in one of
her consorts, which had reached Lisbon in October 1625. Incidentally,
these vessels had had a narrow escape from destruction, for just then the
combined Anglo-Dutch fleet of over one hundred sail, under Winbledon
and Haultain was off the Portuguese coast on its way to attack Cadiz.
Great anxiety as to the fate of the Indiamen prevailed in Lisbon, and
great was the rejoicing when these vessels slipped into the Tagus in the
nick of time. Even so, the .São Francisco Xavier, flagship of Dom Antonio
Tello, struck on the dangerous Cachopos shoals at the entrance to the bar,
and foundered on the 23°rd October. Part of the cargo was saved, but over
thirty persons were drowned. Her three consorts, Chagas, Quietação and
the galleon São João, were brought safely in by João Pereira Corte-Real,
who was at once placed in charge of the organisation of the maritime
defence of Lisbon, which it was feared the English would attack after their
fiasco at Cadiz.
To round off the story of the fate of the Conceição and her crew,
it might be mentioned that some of the latter were left on the island —
whether voluntarily or otherwise — when the goods and men were taken
to Brazil early in 1626. On the 21st February that year, the homeward-
bound English East-Indiaman Scout touched at. St. Helena to water. Some
of the crew, on going ashore, saw «a musteezo (Port. Mestiço or half-
caste) with a white flagge, who toulde us that there were three more upon
the ilande, who all had ranne from the Portingales, and that there was a
carricke caste away ; which was true, for they landed all thire goods and
six peeces of ordinaunce, makeinge good the ilande sixe monethes ». Next
day William Minors went ashore «with the musteezo to Chappie Bay,
where wee founde the three other musteezos. Alsoe wee sawe the carricke,
broken in 1000 peeces ; and sawe all the places which they had fortified,
and a greate number of pumpians (pumpkins) which they had planted
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK'S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 191

wee broughte aboarde » (2fl). Many of these relics were still there when
Peter Munday visited the island eight years later ; for he notes in his
journal that besides the ruins of forty or fifty dwellings erected by the
castaways, « Many of the Ribbs of the Carrick were yett to bee seene
and aboundance of Iron worke all over the Strond » V ). Such was the
end of the Nossa Senhora da Conceição.

APPENDIX I.

ROYAL LICENCE TO THE SOTA-PILOTO, BENTO

GONÇALVES, IN 1623

Eeu el Rej faso saber aos que este aluara virem que Eeu ej per bem que bento glz
que este prezente anno vaj a india per sotta piloto da nao nosa S.ra da concepção possa
r,Cia raiva c\p mprradnrias aue não seião defezas e dous escrauos sem pagar

Diogo Doares o fez escreuer.

Torre do Tombo — Chan, de
D. Felipe III, Liv. xi, FI. 72 v.°.

APPENDIX II.

THE PORTUGLIESE INDIA FLEETS FROM 1620 TO 1624

made to achieve finality, and the r

complete, are believed to be the most t
two contemporary Mss. in the British Museum
Reliance has been placed chiefly on

(*“) travels Of eeier iviunu.ay, ucwv.

dates the wreck of the carrack to before 1588.
VII

192

namely, Antonio Bocarro 6 P.u Barreto de Rezendes Livro do Estado da India

Oriental (31) (Sloane 197), written originally in 1635. of which the British Museum copy
is one made by Pedro Barreto de Rezende in 1646, and a Relação das Naos e Armadas
da India com os successos deties 6c. (Add. Mss. 20902), originally compiled by Dom
Antonio de Attayde about the same time. Antonio Bocarro was the official Chronicler
and keeper (Chronista-Mor da India) of the Archives at Goa 1631-1643 ; Rezende was
Secretary to the Viceroy Conde de Linhares, 1629-1631 ; whilst Dom Antonio de Attayde
had been to India as Captain-Major in 1611-1612, and was one of the Governors of
Portugal under the joint Iberian regime in 1631-1635 (32). Hence these authors had full
access to contemporary official documents and were in the best possible position to
ascertain the correct facts. Unfortunately, they do not always agree, and in the event
of their disagreement, preference has usually been given to the last-named, as the/ Lisbon
archives were more likelv to be correct about the names and number of the ships which
left the Tagus in the India fleets, many of which did not get as far as Goa.
In the third place, use has been made of the Jesuit Father Manoel Xavier’s Com¬
pendio Universal de todos os Visoreys... Capitães Mores, Capitães de Naos, vrcas, e
carauellas que partirão de Lisboa para a India Oriental 6c., written between 1640
and 1660, which was first printed in the Oriente Portuguez, Nova Goa, 1917 — a valuable
compilation, though marred by numerous copyist's and printer’s errors (33). Later works,
such as those of Faria y Sousa (3‘), Ignacio da Costa Quintella (31), and Quirino da
Fonseca ( ), are only compiled from these or similar contemporary sources, too often
with inadeguate attempts at a thorough co-ordination.

1620
8 Sail.

22.11 . N V S.ra de Na¬ Diogo Barradas lo Quilimane, Moçambique.

zaré (P) Ormuz and Goa.
22.11 . N.a S.ra da Concei¬ Phelippe de Cruz Wrecked off Malacca.
ção (P)
20.ui. São João Bap¬ Jacome de .Moraes Sar¬ To Moçambique and Goa.
tist a (U) mento
20.111. São João Evange¬ Joseph Pinto Pereira V recked off the Rio de Lu abo.
lista (U)
31.111. N. a S-ra de Pa¬ Nuno Alvares Botelho Fo Goa, 30.1.1622 (37).
raizo (N)

^ ) The Llvro do Estado da India Oriental is usually ascribed to Barreto de

Rezende. That Antonio Bocarro was the author of the text, however, is specifically stated
in the preiace, and in the Viceroy's covering letter to the King, when remitting the
work to Europe. Piobably Rezende was responsible for much of it nevertheless.
(3J) The reasons for ascribing this compilation to the initiative of D. Antonio de
Attayde are explained in my article on this nobleman in the Arquivo Historico da Ma-
rinha, 1934.
(J3) Father Manoel Xavier had resided in India since 1618, so was also in position
to be well informed. After his death in 1661, the work was continued by another hand
till the year 1683.
(3J) Asia Portugueza. Vol. ill. Lisboa, 1675.
(J’) Annaes da Marinha Portugueza, Vol. n. Lisboa, 1840.
L") Os Portugueses no Mar, Lisboa, 1926.
. ,T.he Paraiz° had a very unfortunate voyage, being forced to winter at Moçam¬
bique in 1620 and at Bombay in 1621, before reaching Goa the following year.

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK’S BILL OF LADING IN 1625
3t.n1. N.a S.ra da Concei¬
ção (N)
31.ill. N.a S.ra da Penha
de França (N)
3i.ni. Santo Amato (N)
1621
11.III. Trindade (G)
11.111. Misericórdia (G)
11.111.São Salvador (G)
11.111.Santo André (G)
I i .111.
São Simão (G)
II in. São João (G)
29.1V. N.a S.ra da Concei¬
ção (N)
29.iv. São Thomé (N)
29.IV. São Carlos (N)
29.iv. São José (N)
1622
18.in. Santa Tereza de
Jesus (N)
18.in. São Carlos (N)
18.in. São José (N)
18.in. São Thomé (N)
19.in. Trindade (G)
19.111. São Salvador (G)
19.in. São Pedro (P)
19.III. N.a S.ra do Rosa¬
rio (P)
1623
24.in. São Francisco Xa¬
vier (N)
24.hi. Santa Isabel (N)
24.hi. N.a S.ra da Concei¬
ção (N)
24.ill. Santo André (G)
24.in. Mizericordia (G)
VII
193
Dom Francisco Lobo Put back to Lisbon. 17.ix.1620.
Diogo de Mello de Castro To Goa, 15.xii. 1620.
Pedro de Moraes Wrecked in Mombassa,
10.xii.1620.
/0 Sail.
Antonio Tellcs Put back to Lisbon \
Gonçalo de Siqueira de Put back to Lisbon I areh
Sousa ) .(32t
Domingos da Camara Put back to Lisbon V
Francisco Sodre Pereira Put back to Lisbon /
João Roiz da Cunha Put back to Lisbon, 6.x. 1621.
Luis de Moura Rolim To Goa, 27.ix.1621.
Dom Affonso de Noronha Put back to Lisbon, 6.x.21.
(Viceroy)
Dom Francisco Henriques Put back to Lisbon, 6.x.21.
Dom Rodrigo Lobo Put back to Lisbon, 6.x.21.
Nuno Pereira Freire Put back to Lisbon, 6,x.2i.
8 Sail.
Dom Francisco da Gama Wrecked off Moçambique,
(Viceroy) 25.VII.
Dom Francisco Lobo Wrecked off Moç a m b i q u e ,
25.VII.
Dom Francisco Mascare- Wrecked off Mongicale,
nhas 24. VII.
Nuno Pereira Freire To Goa, 22.viu.
Sancho de Thovar To Goa, 24.viii.
Gonçalo de Siqueira de To Muscat, August, 1622.
Sousa To Goa, August, 1623.
Francisco Sodre Pereira To Goa, 24.viii.
Francisco Cardoso de Al¬ Put back to Brazil; taken by
meida Turks off Cadiz and carried
into Algiers.
8 Sail.
Dom Antonio Tello To Goa, May, 1624.
Dom Diogo de Castello Lost in Moçambique, Jan.
Branco • 1624.
Francisco Correa da Costa To Goa, May, 1624.
Dom Felippe de Mascare- To Goa, October, 1623.
nhas
Francisco Borges de Cas- To Goa, May, 1624.
tello-Branco
VII

194

24.n1. São Simão (G) Bento de Freitas Masca- To Goa, May, 1624 (38).
renhas
24.111. São Braz (P) Cosmo Cassão de Brito Wrecked in Moçambique,
28.1.1624.

24.111. N.a S.ra daGuia(P) Manoel Pessoa de Carva¬ Taken by the English ship
lho Coaster off the Cape.

8 Sail.
1624

2 =5.111. Cinco Chagas (N) Nuno Alvarez Botelho To Goa

2 5 .111. São Francisco (G) João Pereira Corte Real To Goa
25.111. N.a S.ra da Quieta¬ João de Siqueira Varejão To Goa
ção (N)
25.111. São João (G) João da Costa Valente To Goa
25.111. Santo Antonio (G) Dom Sebastião de Mene¬ To Goa
zes
25.HI. São Pedro (G) Fernão da Costa To Goa
25.111. São Thiago (G) Simão de Quintal To Goa
25.in. N,a S.ra da Concei¬ Francisco de Thovar Ca¬ To Goa
ção (G) minha

N. B. N. = Nau (Naú), « Tall Ship », or Carrack, as the English and Dutch termed
this type of vessel ; G. = Galleon ; U. = Urea or « Hulk ; and P. = Pataxo, Pinnace or
Flvboat.

APPENDIX III.

The true relation of a battery made by one

english ship, and three dutch ships, against
a plantation of portugalls in chappell valley
at the island of St Helena as followeth viz.

November 20 1625.

Betweene 6 and 7 of the clock night with three Dutch ships came to an anchor
in chappel bay at St Helena where we espied ashore in chappie valley a plantation of
portugalls, who by misfortune (their ship being extraordinary leake, and not able to
indure the seas, much less to finish her voyage for Spaine) were forced of necessity
to put in here, for safeguard of their lives and goods, there ship being haled close
aboard the shore ; they saluted and welcomed our ship with 2 peces of ordnance, which
they discharged at our anchoring, the dutch having moored their shipps p2 an houre
before we came into the road ; hereupon a consultation was held aboard the maid van
dort admirall for the Dutch, at which our commanders were likewise present, to this
or the like effect.

(“) So say Bocarro and Rezende (Livro do Hstado da India Oriental), but Dom
Affonso Mendes, Patriarch of Ethiopia, who has left us an account of the voyage, says
she was wrecked at Moçambique.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK'S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 195

The next morning a boat with a white flag of peace displayed, and in her one
merchant english with one merchant dutch, both which could speak the Portugall tongue,
with 6 small shot to guard them, should goe ashore to parley with the enemie (presup¬
posing by this pollity to know the enemies forces, where and how their ordnance where
planted, and against what place it should be best to make battery if occasion required)
for to know what they were, whether they would, and wherefore they had made such
fortifications, giving them withall to understand that we put in hether for to get
refreshing and refreshing we must and would have, either by way of consent or else
by force of armes.
21. This day by 8 in the morning, the above mentioned parties went towards
the shore in our skif, their white flag being displayed and every ship having her white
ensigne out on her poupe ; the boat making towards the shore, a small cannow with
3 men in her came off the shore and made towards our boat, being come within hale
one of another, those in the cannow ceased rowing, then a portugall standing up, called
to those in our boat, and told them, that to seeke to goe ashore, it would be labor lost,
bidding them to disist from rowing any further nerer to the shore ; if they required a
parley he told them that their generall would send a boat of for the same purpose
within an houre after ; having ended their speech without any more words the cannow
departed and our boat returned aboard the dort. Within one houres space after, according
to promise and expectation, the Portugall cannow came of, having her white flag abroad,
she made towards our ship, hereupon the Admirall of the Dort, with a white flag in his
hand, went forward on, and displayed the colours on his forecastle, as giving hereby
those which were in the boat to understand, that hether they might come peaceably, and
that there the parley was expected to be heard and answered ; nevertheless the portugalls
distrusting the fidelity of the Dutch, as also having sure order from their generall, made
towarde our ship, whereupon our merchant came aboard, being aboard the cannow came
to the ships side, being by the ships side our merchant intreated her Nuntio to come
in (swearing by his body which is a great oath amongst them that he should, return as
safe back as he came hether) ; being entered after many bejolas mannos i3") each to
other our merchant led him into the round house, and entertained him there ; he was
a man of middle stature, the lineaments of his body proportionable, his complexion faire,
of a setled and austere countenance, bold spirited ; his apparrell meane and worne,
meane as the condition of his estate, worne but not soe far worne, but it would endure
a little more wearing, his bandalero’s hanging about his neck, in regard he was a soldier,
his Japan weapon by his side (4"), as giving us thereby to understand that was the key
of his honour, which nothing but death should make him surrender up to the proudest
enemy he had. Within as little time as you have read his description, our commanders
repaired aboard, together with the dutch, who did stomack it much, because the boat
did come aboard us and not them, they likewise were had into the roundhouse, where
being set altogether, the nuntio told them, that he was sent hether by his commander
to speake on his behalf, and desired leave to utter his mind freely, accordingly as he
was committed to doe, and as any of them in the like case would be willing to doe1;
they all promised he should, bidding him speake on. Then he sat himself downe, having
the brime of his hat turned up. & laying his right hand on his cuttan ('“), with his left

(»>) port. Beijo as mãos — « I kiss your hands » A common form of salutation.
(10) i. e. his Katana or Japanese sword (cf. infra). The word Katana was taken
ovei by the Portuguese, and is often found in their Asiatic Histories. Compare catanada.
« a blow with a sword». , ,
(41) Japanese Katana. Compare previous note, The envoys soldierly bearing evi¬
dently made a very favourable impression on the writer, who was clearly no friend
VII

196

hand leaning on his waist, he said, that the English were welcome, and if it pleased
them to come ashore, they should have water and any other refreshing whatsoever the
Island did afford, and should go to and fro as peaceably as their owne men, as for the
dutch they most goe away as they come, for here they should neither have water, nor
ought else, these words were scarce ended before the dutch, who were not able bridle
their inveterate rage, told him, that they would have water and ought else, adding
therewithall, that they were minded to make surprisall of their goodes ; wishing them
to yeeld by faire means, and without farther delaye, which if they would doe, every
man should have his life and goods, and be safely set ashore in any place where they
should think fittest, intending only to make purchase of the merchants goods. Our com¬
manders did confirme by a corporall oath, in clapping thier hands to their brests, what
the dutch had spoken, to which the nuntio replied that of the two, he had rather yeeld
to the english, who require not else besides their goods whereas the Dutch doe alwaies
make havock as well of their owne perticulars, as of their imployers commodities, and
as if that were not sufficient, they doe either make slaues of them all, or put them to
the sword ; moreover he said, that they had builded a forte there in the name of their
king, on the behalfe of their contry, and for the safegard of their lives, and protection
of their goods, having sufficient store of munition to defend themselves against all opposers
which 3 carracks which were in their companie and bound for Spane had left them,
and that as yet they were not minded to yeeld to either, but they had as willing a mind
to part with their lives as their goods, which they would keepe in despite of us all ;
then directing his speech to the english he said, that if we tooke part with the dutch,
we should expect to be used accordingly, as they were like to be, if they persisted in
their determination ; to conclude he said, that his generall with all his companie, were
minded to try the event by fight, for they had 150 portugalls with as many blacks,
and 16 peeces of ordnance mounted, willing us to expect no other answer. Having ended
his message, without any further procrastination of time, he said he must depart, desiring
to know what answer he should carry to his generall, answer was made, that sithens
they would not come to composition and yeeld by faire means, they should be forced
by compulsion, with this answer he departed, our merchant according to his promise
and the law of armes, did see him safely returned, wheieas the dutch vowed that if
he had come aboard of them they would have made him sing another note and tune
his music to their dance, ere he had departed. After his departure, in regard they had
an absolute denial a generall consultation was held, to determine what was fittest to
be done, after a long debating of the matter, with many ifs and ands, in regard it was
very dangerous and contrary to our imployers commands for laden ships to make batteries
against a place we knew not how well fortified, yet at the last it was generally approved
and concluded on (although one of our merchants Mr. Heynes would not at the first
condescent unto it ; because of the eminent danger that might ensue to ship and goods,
to which the Dutch replied, that if he would not yeeld to hall in the ship to make battery,
yet to discountenance the enemie, by riding on the off side them ; yet after mature deli¬
beration he did alter his mind) to hall in the ships, for these reasons in generall.
First they thought that the enemies forces were but weake, they hauing but small

to the Hollanders. The preference shown by the Portuguese for the English was largely
due no doubt to ignorance of the fact that their respective countries were at war in
Europe. The 1624 Carracks had brought news that Prince Charles was in Madrid
courting the Infanta ; and the rupture with Spain which followed on his return to England
after this foolish escapade, was not .known in India at the time of the departure of the
Conceição from Goa in March 1625.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK'S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 197

store of pouder and shot, being all of one opinion, that the nuntios speeches were but
words of course, and that he did seeke to cover a bad face under a good vizard.
Secondly, the wealth that might be taken by overcomming them, which might
redound to the profit of the employers and imployed.
Thirdly, the inconveniencies that might happen to ships in distress, who by not
putting in at the cape bona Esperanza, should direct their course hether, whether being
come they should be disappointed of their expectation by being forced to put to sea,
without any refreshing, or water, which is the maine stay and cause of the success of
their voyage.
Fourthly, in regard of our commanders are jointly tyed by their commission to
aide and assist the dutch in anie action for the welfare of them ; and the subversion of
the enemie.
For these reasons in particular,, it was thought fitting to hall in our ship.
First the disgrace that we should reape, if the dutch alone should make battery
against the enemie (which to doe they were fully resolved and determined) and overcome
him make purchas of all his goods.
Secondly, the bruit of the saylers speches who were determined, if our commanders
would not haue consented to hall in our ship with the Dutch, to haue gone aboard the
Dutch and to haue assisted them ; the reasons moving them to doe soe were these :
First they certainly knew, that they were not alwaies to trust to one and the
selfesame imployers.
2dly, that Mrs and honors or owners, hearing of this their falling back in time
of necessitie, (for every man would be a blab of his owne tongue, or else by ascribing
the fault to their commanders, think to hide it in themselves) would scorn to imploy such
men in their service either at home or abroad, all men being given to think the worst.
Thirdly and lastly, they were assured, by not adventuring soe far forth as the
dutch they should be accounted cowards at home, and be a byword to the dutch where
soe ever they came, and not only they but for their sake all English besides.
The day appointed for their designed was the 23 day, every ship was to be had
in before day, therefor to make battery, and either to dismount or else to beat the enimies
from their ordnance, having appointed 130 men English and Dutch, well furnished with
all sorts of munition to goe nere the shore in our long boats, and to lie close under the
rock (?) that, when the signal was given from the ships (which was the sound of a
noise of trumpets) they might sally presently ashore, and overrun the enimie , in each
longboat were 4 murderers, with one gunner, and 6 men to assist him, with the chirurgeons
mate of each ship there to receive and take in any that should happen to be wounded,
and if they should be forced to retire to stand redy to take them in, before the enimie
could have time to cut them of.
22. This day each longboat of english and dutch, being well provided with men
and munition in a bravado rowed nere to the shore, within les then the shot of a caliuer,
before the enimies forts, discharging of their muskets, the enimy scorning to discharge
any peece either great or small againe. Then they rowed towards lime valley, which
lieth y2 mile to the N West of chappie valley, rowing cjlose aboard the shore, thinking
to find a convenient place where to land their men, who should enter combat and come
upon the enimie by land, while the rest made battery by sea, but this storme was quickly
over, and their pretents (?) were ended before they were begun, for being come to lime
valley (soe called from the lime trees that grow' in it) it was found that that unfitting
place was the fittest of all other to land their men, bu|t hauing considered, that the hills
were most dangerous and wearisome to climb, being soe rochey that 2 men cannot march
abreast to the top of them, fearing alsoe that the enimie would rowle downe stones upon
their heads (which they might easily doe) and soe annoy them, if not braine them, 2 men
aloft being sufficient to suppress 200 men from ascending againe ; admit they did get
VII

198

up, they must be forced to lodge the first night upon the bare ground, (by which ineanes
their pouder would become moist, their matches would not keepe fire, because of the
concinuall falling of the raines ; but peradventure you may say, that for the preservation
of their pouder and match, each man might carry his coate with him, 1 answer — that
the rockcs were so steepie, that one man could hardly carry his owne munition), for
they had 2 or 3 leagues (?) to march up hill and downe hill before they cotuld come to
annoy the enimie, this marching itself being able to breake the hart of the strongest man
in all our fleet ; grant they did lodge, and keepe their pouder and shot dry, and march
and enter combat, they knew not wether to convey any hurt men (as in such an action
the effusion of some blood is to be expected), to leave them there it would be a most
miserable case, and carry them away they could not ; say, they did not enter combat,
and maintaine the fight for a while without any blowd shedding, yet it was to be doubted,
that being in fight, the enimie in politic should haue retired and fled, our men being eager
in pursuit, regarding and obeying noe command, would haue followed them to their owne
home, whether being come, or nere come, the enimie hauing planted 2 or 3 peeces of
ordnance, for ought we knew, which being laden with case shot and stones, and discharged
might have cut of every man and mothers child. These things premeditated, nothing for
that time was performed, all our boats returning back againe.
23. The 2 of the clock in the morning they put in practise former determinations
in haling in the ships aboard the shore, each ship riding two ships length ahead one
another with a small warp laid out to the shore ward, to bring their broadside to, the
better to bring all their ordnance to beare ; our ship and the dort riding in the middle
betwixt the other two ; our ship had 3 hasers and one streame cable laid out to seaboard,
wherby we might hall of our ship upon 3ny occasion.
To welcome our nere approsch, the enimie discharged 3 peeces of ordnance one
after anothe, two of which shot the dort through and through. Then the fight began, and
soone after was very hot, continuing soe from breake of day to 11 at noone, the enimie
having a great advantage of us, in regard our ships did soe rowle, heaue and set, that we
did seldome make a good and true shot. You should haue one while a shot fly so high
into the element that you would think it were sent to thrust Jupiter of heaven ; presently
another soe low and short withall, that it would be drowned before it came nere the shore,
to conclude the most part of the shot we made, were as far distant from the marke, as we
were from the successe of our expectations, by reason of the unsteadiness of our ships.
We continued thus plying our ordnance untill 11 of the clock, at which time we
saw ourselves to be as far from the end of our purpose as when we began the fight. First
because the enemies barracades were not made of earth, as we deemed them to be, but
of great packs of course stuffs, arseclouts ('*■), shasges (7) £jC,: our ordnance being not
able to peirce through them, they were soe great, and soe strongly compacted together, as
we well perceived by one or 2 packs, which came driving from the shore aboard the
dort (l3)r the shot being found in the middle of them. Secondly, because our ships were
greatly hurt, and were like to be worse if we still persisted ; 31y, we were to expect more
enimies at sea, and if we had spent all our munition here (as it was most likely we should
if we had continued the fight) we know not where to get more to defend ourselves if
necessity required ; 4thly, and lastly, to adventure our men, ship and yards, hazard our
voyadge, for the obtaining of an uncertainty, and of that of which we had nor saw any

I ) i. c.. Loincloth, though these articles were usually exported to and not from
India. The word is used by Alexander-Hamilton in his New Account of the East-Indies.
a century later, but does not appear in Hobson-Jobson and other authorities.
(43) Maagd nan Dort.
 VII

ON A PORTUGUESE CARRACK'S BILL OF LADING IN 1625 199

likelyhood of to obtaine, it would be accounted a most rediculous, rash-headed and despe¬

rate enterprise.
This things premeditated and ruminated it was thought fittest to hall of our ships,
without any further losse of men and time, and of indamiging the ships and goods, which
presently we put in execution ; having hailed of we wayed ancher and departed, the
Leuin (44) a ship of 500 tuns was forced to let slip two cables, and was glad she escaped
soe, after she was a/s of a mile from the shore, the portugalls in a boat came of and cut
their boys away to the end they should way those anckers noe more ; thus ended the fight.
In this fight, the dort lest 2 men, she had 13 hurt, one of whom had the top of his
hare shot away without any further hurt she received into her hull 17 or 18 shot, 2 through
her mainemast. one through here foremast, and both her pumps shot in sunder.
The Leuin had only one boy hurt in the eye with a splinter, she received 2 dangerous
shot in her mainemast soe that she could beare noe sayle for the space of 24 houres after.
The Weesop had not one man hurt, she received but two shot which were betweene
wind and water, but were presently stopped and amended.
In our ship the Star of 15 barrells of pouder which we had we spent 5 in this fight ;
we received 3 shot, the first in the mast which shot our rufftree without any further,
harme, the 2nd betweene a luff and our chase, through our chirurgions cabbin staving a
whole case of strong waters, and entered into one of our mens breches, (s)hot his thigh
only bruising the flesh ; the third in warping out, which went through and through the
round house, noe hurt else done. We lost 2 men each of them hauing one leg shot away,
as they came from our boy in our longboat, repairing aboard, if the shot had bin a
langreene (?) shot as it was a round one, it had sunk our boat and hazarded the life of
our marchant and 17 cr IS men more which were in her.
One of them whose name was Anthony Hippon, was almost dead before he was
handed into the ship, by reasson of the excessive flux of bloud which issued from his
wound, his leg was shot in the calfe, he would not consent that a chirurgion should
dismember him, which might well have done 2 or 3 inches below the knee ; he said
moreover that if the chirurgion did doe it, he should be accessary to his death, for he
had rather part with his life, then his leg. Hereupon in regard he had noe motion in his
pulses, and all his vitall faculties began to faile in their office, the wound was only bound
up, he died the next morning (4").
The other whose name was Humphrye Hamble was hauled downe likewise, it
was found that the os was shattered (?) a hands bredth (?) below- the juncture of the
knee, then our chirurgion did cut the shattered (?) muscles even with the os, and dressed
the wound with egs, tow, &c with restringent pouder, for the retaining of the flux of
bloud ; in regard he had a fever, there was given unto him to drink tamarine cassia
extract with sugar in manner of a potion, which caused him to haue 3 stoles a day ; the
24th day our chirurgion opened the wound againe, and finding it inclining to mortification
did wish the patient to suffer it to be amputated above the knee to which after many
perswasions he did agree, Against the 25 day in the morne, all things were had in a
reddiness, then there was a defensative plaster laid upon his thigh, with rowlers wet in
a fomentation, the member was rowled neither to hard nor to soft for feare of suffocating
the spirits, then a ligature was laid one inch above the place, where the incision was to
be made, for stopping in the spirits, because the veines and arteiries are more wide in

(■“) Leeuwin.
(45) Now follows a long but very interesting account of a major medical operation
at sea. It is the most detailed contemporary account of a XVIIth century amputation which
I have seen. It is small wonder the unhappy patient died after the amazing « cordials»
given him to drink.
VII

200

those places, then in other, least their should be to much effusion of bloud. The patient
did lie along upon a chest with a pillow under his head, one striding over him, the better
to hold the member, then I did read a prayer or two unto him (4,i), which being ended,
upon an instant with the dismembering knife the incision was made round about the os,
which done, the partie that hold the member, drew up the flesh towards the body,
wherby, the ham might be placed soe close, that when the os was sawed in sunder,
there might be flesh enough to cover the orifice of the os which was done with speed.
The patient felt little or noe paine in the amputation, for when it was quite of, he demanded
of the chirurgion when he would execute his office, thinking verily that as yet incision
had not bin made; then there was a pledgative (?) dipped in oyle of roses laid upon the
head of the os, and unto the wound restringent powder, white of egs, with a bladder to
cover the wound, boulsters, rowlers 6c which were bound up to stay the flux of bloud,
he was reasonable hearty and merry all the day after ; there was given unto him for a
cordiall methridate, diascordium, confectio al harmis (?), in which he found a great
comfort.
The 27 day the wound was againe opened, and every thing was found to be faire
and handsome, the patient was dressed with a disgethine (?), the pledigeth (?) whereof
were dipt in spirit of wine and mel, then the wound was bound up againe, and after he
had bin 2 houres in his cabbin, upon a sudden he felt an extraordinary heat over his
whole body, when the chirurgion caused a supposity of mel and sal (4‘), to be made, in
the getting whereof he stmed so hot as fire, he had not retained it above one minute of
an houre but he was forced to goe to stole, the excrement was shere bloud, being in
quantity 3 pints and upwards. He noe sooner had this stole, but his pulses left of beating
his colour changed, and his voice altered, being all apparent signs of death, of which he
was certified, he continued languishing with cold sweats untill the 28 day and then he
deceased.
In all the fight, for ought we could perceive to the contrary, the enimy plied but
5 peces of ordnance ; he was not over hasty in the discharging of them, but tooke delibe¬
ration. and when he made a shot, it was to the purpose.

(Hong-Kong).

() This passage seems to prove that the writer must have been the ships chaplain.
(4I) Honey and salt.
s

-
 VIII

ADMIRAL JOÃO PEREIRA CORTE-REAL

AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF PORTU¬
GUESE EAST-INDIAMEN IN THE EARLY
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

I t is an accepted commonplace of history that the period of

Spanish domination in Portugal which formed the “Sixty
years’ Captivity” of 1580-1640, was one of general de¬
cadence in all forms of national life, and marked the end of
Portugal as a maritime power. As compared with the golden
days of the dynasty of Aviz, this is no doubt largely true; but
the decline was only relative and the country still remained a
sea power of great importance, even if somewhat overshadowed
by the rapid rise of England and Holland as such. Those who
have studied the maritime and colonial history of this period at
all deeply, will perforce agree with David Hannay’s remark
that the early seventeenth century produced as good pilots and
mariners in Portugal as elsewhere; but their merits and abilities
were not always as wisely utilized by their own government as
was the case with their English and Dutch rivals.
Nor was it in this sphere alone that Portugal’s efforts could
still bear comparison with her achievements in the classic era of
“Discovery and Conquest” which preceded the Spanish in¬
vasion of 1580. The hand of the Portuguese shipwright had not
lost its cunning with the loss of national independence in 1580;
and the yards at Lisbon, Oporto, and Goa continued to build
ships which aroused the envy and admiration of foreigners
throughout the seventeenth century. Numerous instances of
this fact could be quoted, but the following random references
will suffice.
The 1200 ton galleon Santa Tereza which was destroyed in
the Battle of the Downs (21 October 1639) bore comparison
 VIII

CONSTRUCTION OF PORTUGUESE EAST-INDIAMEN 389

with her more famous contemporaries, the English Sovereign

of the Seas and the French La Couronne, and in sea-going quali¬
ties probably surpassed both of them. All contemporary ac¬
counts of the battle emphasize her strength and beauty; and her
destruction by a Dutch fireship forms the central theme of all
contemporary paintings, prints and drawings relating to this
famous action. She was built at Oporto, on the same stocks
whence was launched another galleon of equal size two years
later, called Bom Jesus de Portugal, which served as the Capi¬
tanea,, or flagship, of the Portuguese Atlantic Fleet for over
fifteen years and was a celebrated vessel in its time. Shorter-
lived but equally famous in its day, was her namesake Bom
Jesus, whose launching at Goa in 1636 was witnessed by the
Cornish traveller Peter Mundy . This magnificent 1200 ton
galleon mounted seventy brass guns, and was described by the
German Mandelslo “as one of the noblest vessels I ever saw”.1
The Goa yard kept its reputation for building exceptionally fine
ships throughout this period. The Spanish prelate, Fernandez
Domingo Navarrete, urged his countrymen at Manila “to buy
ships of the English or Portugueses of those countries [i.e. of
Asia] who build good ones, and so strong that they sail them
into Europe.. .the ship, which in the year 1665 was forced from
Macao to Manila, and so much commended by all men at the
port of Cavite because of its goodness, was taken by the
Governor D. Juan de Salcedo to sail to Acapulco, had been built
at Goa, and cost not seven thousand pieces of eight, I sailed in
it four months which is enough to know whether it was
good”.2
In addition to India-built vessels, those constructed in Brazil
likewise achieved an enviable reputation amongst foreigners,
one of the most famous being the great galleon Padre Eterno,
launched by Salvador Correa de Sa e Benavides at Rio de
Janeiro with the help of some English sailors in 1663 “on our

1 Mandelslo’s Travels (London, 1662), p. 97. Cf. also Peter Munday’s

Travels, hi, pt. 1, p. 59.
2 Supplement to Navarette's Account of China (Churchill s Collection of
Voyages), pp. 752-3.
VIII

390 CONSTRUCTION OF PORTUGUESE EAST-INDIAMEN

Christmas Eve, betimes in morning.. .she being a very large and

good ship, having been above three years a building”.1
To return however to our subject. The exact year of Corte-
Real’s birth is uncertain but judging from the terminology of
an Alvara or Royal Decree of 1613, it must have been about the
year 1580. His parents were Mathias do Carvalhal and D.
Isabel de Perada, the former of whom was descended from a
branch family of the famous navigators Cortes-Reales, but whose
surname João Pereira Corte-Real was not genealogically en¬
titled to use, since he was not a direct descendant of the original
branch.2
Nothing is recorded of his place of birth and early education,
but his later writings prove that he must have had a good
schooling, perhaps at the Jesuit College of Santo Antão in
Lisbon, though this is pure guesswork. From several allusions
in his manuscript and printed works, it is clear that he began his
service in 1603, in which year he presumably embarked for
India. At any rate we find him active there in 1609, the first re¬
corded mention of his services being as a participant in the
expedition to Coulão on the Malabar coast in the same year.
The ostensible purpose of this expedition was to relieve the
Portuguese fortress which was closely besieged by the Nairs;
but Dom Jorge de Castello-Branco, who commanded the re¬
lieving forces, allowed himself to be enticed into a foolhardy
attack on the entrenched camp of the besiegers, from which,
after some preliminary success, he only extricated his men with
great difficulty and loss. João Pereira who fought as an alferes,
or ensign, in this battle, distinguished himself by cutting down
an opponent who tried to seize his standard; and probably as a
result of this feat, he was left in charge of the fortwhen Dom
Jorge de Castello-Branco left.3
His movements during the next tew years are uncertain, but

1 Barlow's Journal (edited by Basil Lubbock), 1, 84-5.

2 Cf. Frazão de Vasconcellos; João Pereira Corte-Real, conselheiro de guerra del
Rei D. João IF, e as Naus da Carreira da India (Lisboa, 1921, pp. 9-10).
3 P. Fernão de Queiroz, Vida do Venerável Irmão Pedro de Basto (Lisboa,
1689), fol. 267. Cf. also Historia de Varoens illustres do appellido Tavora (Paris.
1648), p.338. ^ V
 VIII

IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 39 I

we catch an interesting glimpse of him in 1611, as a friend of

the aged chronicler Diogo do Couto, the famous historian of
Portuguese India. In an appendix to an unpublished version
of his Life of Dom Paulo de Lima which is preserved in the
British Museum, the historian alludes to “his friend João
Pereira Corte-Real frequenting his house, and composing a
sonnet inspired by a painting of Dom Paulo de Lima in chain-
mail which was one of Couto’s most prized possessions. From
the lips of the aged but still active chronicler, Corte-Real must
have heard many tales of Luiz de Camões, Garcia d’Orta and
others of the historian’s friends; and they must often have dis¬
cussed together the causes of the decadence of Portuguese India
and the best means of combating the ever-growing menace of
the heretic English and Dutch intruders.1
It would seem that João Pereira Corte-Real returned to
Portugal in 1612 or in the following year, as he was appointed
Captain of an Indiaman on 12 November 1614, and sailed as
such in the galleon Santo Antonio which left the Tagus with three
carracks on 5 April 1615, the whole fleet carrying about 2500
men. As was frequently the case in those days, the ships were
becalmed for some time off the Guinea coast, and the resultant
disease amongst the tightly packed crews turned the vessels into
virtually floating pest-houses, the mortality in one carrack alone
being over 300 men. Corte-Real’s galleon was the first ship to
reach Goa, which she did on 11 August, after a relatively quick
passage of four months, whilst the remainder arrived in
September and October.
The squadron set sail on its return voyage on 26 January
1616, with the exception of the flagship which remained in
India, and the Santo Antonio reached Lisbon in safety on 16
October. The homeward voyage was even more eventful than
the outward one had been, owing to a series of mutinies which
broke out amongst the crew. João Pereira dealt with these dis¬
turbances in a most drastic manner, for he stabbed one of the
ringleaders to death with his own hand and hanged two others
I Summario de todas as cousas que socederão a Dom Paulo de Lima Pereira. . .
Por Diogo do Couto Ckronista e Guarda-mor da Torre do Tombo da India (British
Museum, Add. MSS. 28487).
VIII

392 CONSTRUCTION OF PORTUGUESE EAST-INDIAMEN

—an example of rough and ready justice which was particularly

commended and rewarded by the King.1 It may be added that
the 8th and 9th Decadas of Diogo do Couto were sent to
Portugal in this fleet, and in all probability in the galleon of
João Pereira Corte-Real who, as we have seen, was a personal
friend of their author. The pilot of the Santo Antonio was
Manuel Afonso and the Sota-Piloto, or second pilot, João
Alvarez Bretão, who in later years served under Nuno Alvarez
Botelho in the relief of Malacca in 1629, and was killed at the
siege of Negumbo in Ceylon in 1644.
A bare six months after his return from India, Corte-Real
left again for Goa, as captain of the same galleon Santo Antonio,
in the squadron of the Viceroy Dom João Coutinho, Conde de
Redondo, which left the Tagus on 21 April 1617, reaching Goa
six months later on 25 October. The return voyage began at the
end of February 1618, and ended with the safe arrival of the
Santo Antonio at Lisbon on 6 October.2
João Pereira had now a total of four voyages to and from
India to his credit, and, as a result of his experiences, he pre¬
sented to the King the first of his many proposals for regulating
the Portuguese navigation and trade with India, dated 12
September 1619. Briefly, these proposals were to the effect that
the officers and crews of the Indiamen should be paid adequate
wages, instead of (as was then customary) enlisting them at
purely nominal rates of pay but with special privileges for
carrying tax-free goods on their own behalf or on that of others.
He proposed to finance this new method of adequate cash pay¬
ments from the profits of a Royal monopoly to be established
over the cultivation and the Export of Cinnamon in Ceylon,
which island was then the sole source of supply of this much
coveted spice. This proposal was not adopted, as vested interests
were too powerful to permit of the long-established privileges
and abuses of the India trade being abolished by a stroke of the
1 Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 20902, fl. 121. Cf. also Faria y Sousa, Asia Portu¬
guesa, in, 256. Antonio Bocarro and Barreto de Rezende, Livro do Estado da
India Oriental, fl. 62.
2 The names of the pilots and other ships officers for the voyage in 1617 are
given in the document reproduced by Frazão de Vasconcellos in the Arquivo
Historico da Marinha, hi, 240.
 VIII

IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 393

pen; as also because the Royal Treasury was too exhausted to
find sufficient ready cash to pay the crews on a salaried basis,
whilst the Cinnamon monopoly was considered an impracticable
project.1
The next occasion on which João Pereira Corte-Real came
into prominence was in connection with the reorganization of
the high command of the Portuguese Fleet in the winter of
1621. This was due to the temporary disgrace of the General
(as a naval Commander-in-chief was then usually termed) Dom
Antonio de Ataide, and his Admiral, or second in command,
Dom Francisco d’Almeida, both of whom were court-martialled
(and in due course acquitted) for failing to prevent the loss of
the East-India carrack Nossa Senhora da Conceição which was
burnt off Ericeira by a squadron of Algerine Pirates in October
1621. As a result of this disaster, both the General and Ad¬
miral were dismissed, and the latter was replaced by João
Pereira Corte-Real, who likewise assumed the post of Mestre do
Campo, or Colonel, of the Terço da Armada, being a regiment of
marines raised in 1618, and as such probably the oldest marine
regiment in Europe.2 Corte-Real retained this dual position of
Admiral of the Fleet and Colonel of Marines for two years,
until he sailed for the fourth and last time for India in the spring
of 1624, whilst Dom Francisco de Almeida reassumed these
posts on his acquittal in the same year. An interesting auto¬
graph letter of João Pereira Corte-Real, dated May 1622,
which refers to the method of enlisting soldiers for service in
the Terço da Armada, is in the present writer’s collection, and
was reproduced in facsimile by Frazão de Vasconcelos on p. 13
of his Archivo Nobiliarchio Portuguez (Lisboa, 1917), vol. 1.
The loss of Ormuz to an Anglo-Persian force in 1622, and
the miscarriage in whole or in part of the annual India fleets
during the years 1621—3, compelled the Iberian government to
fit out an exceptionally strong and well-equipped squadron of
1 This proposal is printed in full on pp. 19-28 of Senna Barcellos’s article,
Construcções de naus em Lisboa e Goa para a Carreira da India no começo do seculo
XVII in the Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, 17 Serie, No. 1 (1898—9).
2 From a dispatch written when Governor of Cabo-Verde, 15 May 1628, in
the writer’s collection. It is interesting to note that regiments of English and Dutch
marines were first raised in 1665.
VIII

394 CONSTRUCTION OF PORTUGUESE EAST-INDIAMEN

eight sail in the spring of 1624, which was placed under the
command of Nuno Alvares Botelho, a stout and expert
soldier”, with João Pereira Corte-Real as his Admiral in the
galleon São Francisco. The squadron left the Tagus on 25 March
1624, and reached Goa at the beginning of September. The
celebrated Italian traveller, Pietro Della Valle, was at this time
on a visit to the Indo-Portuguese capital, and his description of
the arrival of Botelho’s squadron is worth quoting in full.1
“September the second, a little before daylight, the safe
arrival of the annual Portugal Fleet was congratulated by all the
Bells of Goa. It consisted of two Merchants’ ships, lesser and
lighter than the Carracks which used to come in other years;2
one Galeon laden also with merchandize, and ordr’d to return
with the same ships, in case it should not be necessary at Goa
for the war;3 and five other Galeons equip d for war which were
to remain at Goa4 with all the soldiery which was numerous and
good, to be imploy’d as occasion should require. The General
of this Armada was Sig. Nuno Alvares Botelho; the Admiral Sig.
João Pereira Corte-Real, to whose diligence the happy and
speedy arrival of this Fleet is attributed; the like not having
come to pass in many years, and that through the fault and
greediness of both the Pilots and Merchants: for before, with-
out keeping order or rule in the voyage or obedience to the
General, every one endeavoured to have his ships arrive first
and alone. But this Sig. João Pereira Corte-Real having written
and presented a printed discourse about this matter to the King,
his Majesty approv’d the same and gave strict charge that his
Prescription should be observed with all exactness; and hence
proceeded the good success of the voyage.”
The highly interesting Discourse of João Pereira Corte-Real
referred to by Della Valle deals in point of fact not so much
with the actual navigation as with the construction of the East-
India ships, and of the payment of their crews. The full title of
1 The Travels of Pietro Della Valle into the East-Indies (London, 1665),
p. 219.
2 The Cinco Chagas (flagship) and the Nossa Senhora da Quietação.
3 São João.
4 São Francisco, Santo Antonio, São Pedro, Santiago, Nossa Senhora da
Conceição.
 VIII

IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 395

the original work is Discurjsos sobre la Na/vigacion de las naos de

la Indiafde Portugal, Por Iuan PereyraJCorte-Real, Cavaliero
Portujgues, para que V. Magestadjsea servido de mandar)ver/[no
date or place of publication, but probably printed at Madrid in
1622], 40, sixteen leaves numbered on one side only.
This original and exceedingly rare first edition was printed
at Madrid early in 1622, to judge by the fact that it is dated
“Madrid 1st January 1622” at the end of the text, whilst an
Alvara, or Royal Decree, embodying some of the suggestions
contained therein, was promulgated on 22 January of the same
year. Only three copies of this very scarce little treatise have
been recorded by bibliographers, of which one is in the
National Library at Lisbon, whilst another, with marginal
annotations and a final autograph note signed by the author, is
in the collection of the present writer. To judge by this example,
whose margins have unfortunately been severely cut by the
binder, although the actual text is unaffected, the original
format was larger than a small quarto.1
From the fact that it contains no ecclesiastical or civil
licences to print, it is clear that it was printed for a restricted
circulation in high official circles, probably confined to members
of the Councils of War, Portugal, and other persons directly
interested. In addition to this printed edition in Spanish, the
work was also circulated in manuscript copies in Portuguese.
One of these is in the present writer’s collection, whilst Senna
Barcellos published another copy which he found in the
National Library at Lisbon. There are no material differences
between the Spanish printed and Portuguese manuscript
versions.2
The discussion of the subject matter of these Discursos of
1622 necessitates a short digression on the vexed question of
the exact differences between carracks and galleons in seven-

1 This copy is the same as that offered for sale by Jose dos Santos in his
Arquivo Bibliograpkico, No. 2, p. 176, for 30 escudos, having cost me £25 in
1929! Inserted loose in the book are two contemporary MSS. drafts on the same
topic, one of which in the hand of Gaspar Roiz, Pilot of the Carreira da India, is
of the greatest interest and refers to Corte-Real’s India voyages of 1624-5.
2 Bol. Soc. Geografia de Lisboa, 17a Serie, No. 1 (Lisboa, 1898-9), pp. 30—45.
VIII

396 CONSTRUCTION OF PORTUGUESE EAST-INDIAMEN

teenth-century nautical phraseology, and their respective merits

and demerits as Indiamen. In the first place it must be noted
that the Portuguese themselves seldom or never used the term
carrack for their great East-India ships, which they called Naus
(or IVa os') da Carreira da India. On the other hand these Naus
are invariably termed “carracks” in contemporary English and
Dutch accounts, as a perusal of seventeenth-century records
will show, and they are usually (though not invariably) dis¬
tinguished from galleons. Although carracks are frequently
mentioned in medieval documents, the Portuguese East-India
carracks which acquired such fame for their stupendous size
and burthen attained their greatest celebrity during the second
half of the sixteenth century. A typical example was the
colossal Madre de Deus which was taken by the English off the
Azores when homeward bound from India in 1592,, and whose
measurements are given by Hakluyt as something exceptionally
noteworthy for the period, since she was rated as a 1600 ton
ship.
Broadly speaking, one gathers from contemporary descrip¬
tions that a Nau da India or East-India carrack was a large
merchant vessel, broad in the beam, with high poop and fore¬
castle, lightly-gunned, and an indifferent sailer; whereas a
galleon was primarily a war-vessel and a lighter and handier
ship in every way. This distinction however was not always a
hard and fast one, and in the course of the seventeenth century
it became very difficult to draw an exact line between galleons
and Naus. Thus although galleons usually did not exceed 500
tons, whereas carracks were frequently over 1000, yet (as we
have seen) galleons of 1200 tons and over were built from
1639 onwards. The famous Santa Tereza destroyed in the
battle of the Downs is termed “galleon” in some contemporary
accounts and “carrack” in others. Prior to 1622, Portuguese
carracks had usually four flush decks, but smaller types of three
or even two decks were not unknown, and these were sometimes
called Navetas. Here again is another source of confusion, as
the term naveta was also applied to small frigate-type India-
built vessels which contemporary Dutch and English records
call “yachts” or “frigates”.
 VIII

IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 397

The opening paragraph of the Discursos informs us that the

work was written in response to a request from Don Diego
Brochero, member of the Council of War at Madrid, that
Corte-Real should draw up a memorandum on the mistaken
way in which the navigation to India was operated, and submit
concrete proposals for its improvement. The work is composed
of seventy-five paragraphs (numbered in the manuscript and
unnumbered in the printed versions) and falls naturally into
three main portions. The first twenty-three paragraphs form a
historical disquisition, showing how the Portuguese came to
abandon their former practice of using handy three-deck ships
of 300—400 tons, and built instead unwieldy four-deck carracks
of 1000 tons or more. The next twenty paragraphs endeavour
to show how superior in every way a galleon was to a
carrack—whether in seaworthiness, sailing qualities, fighting
value, or ability to take in cargoes in harbours which the heavier
carracks could not enter by reason of their draught, apart from
considerations of economy and expense. The final section of the
work deals with the payment of the officers and crews on a
fixed salary basis, based on a projected Royal monopoly of the
cultivation and commerce of Cinnamon in Ceylon.
In its essence, this memorial of 1622 is an expansion of the
proposals already put forward by Corte-Real in 1619, to which
we have already alluded, but there is one important difference.
For whereas in 1619 Corte-Real had recommended the use of
four-deck as opposed to three-deck ships for the India trade, he
had completely changed his views three years later, and became
what he never ceased to be to the end of his days, an ardent
supporter of the use of the galleon-type as opposed to the
carrack-type in the navigation to East India.
As a result of his representations, two three-deck vessels,
variously described as Naus or Navetas and named Cinco Chagas
and Nossa Senhora da Q'uietação, were built at the Lisbon yard
in 1623, and sailed in the fleet of which Corte-Real was the
Admiral in the following spring. Although he had thus
apparently gained his point, this innovation was hotly opposed
by many interested parties, the design and proportions of these
new-fangled vessels being bitterly criticized by the local ship-
VIII

398 CONSTRUCTION OF PORTUGUESE EAST-INDIAMEN

wrights headed by the master-carpenter, Valentim Themudo.

Although Corte-Real’s arguments had induced the King and
his advisers to promulgate a decree on 22 January 1622,
whereby the construction of four-deck Naus was prohibited,
the opposition of the majority of ships’ officers and shipwrights
continued unabated, and the question was acrimoniously dis¬
cussed by several Royal Commissions at Lisbon in the years
1623, 1626 and 1627.1
In the course of time the majority of those best qualified to
judge came to side with Corte-Real, whose views had to some
extent been anticipated by the master-builder, Manoel Gomes
Gallego, who had submitted a memorial advocating the substi¬
tution of three-deck ships for four-deckers as early as 1605.2
Amongst those who warmly supported Corte-Real in advo¬
cating three-deck ships of the galleon type were Dom Antonio
de Ataide, who had made the India voyage in 1611-12 and
served as Commander-in-chief of the Portuguese fleet from
1618 till 1621, and the Viceroy Dom Francisco da Gama,
Conde de Vidigueira. Another adherent was Dom Miguel de
Noronha, Conde de Linhares, who was Viceroy of India 1629-
35; whilst on the technical side he had a staunch supporter in
the person of Diogo Luiz, who was for many years master-
builder at the Goa Dockyard. The chief opposition came from
the Lisbon shipbuilders and contractors, who were naturally
interested in the greater scope for “squeeze” afforded by the
construction of mammoth carracks; and from the India pilots,
whose carrying and freight privileges were more lucrative in
carracks than in galleons. Corte-Real’s other proposal to pay
the officers and crews of the Indiamen fixed rates of pay, out of
the profits estimated to accrue from a Royal Monopoly of the
Cinnamon trade in Ceylon, was rejected by a commission
assembled to discuss the proposal in September 1623.

1 Senna Barcellos, op. cit. pp. 18—71. Frazão de Vasconcellos, op. cit. pp. 17-21.
2 Frazão de Vasconcellos, A Fabrica das Naus da Carreira da India no seculo
XVII (Lisboa, 1928). Similar suggestions were made by Duarte Gomes de Solis
in his Discursos de las dos Indias printed at Madrid in 1622, the original Contrato
propuesto por el Autor, cerca de las fabricas de las naues de la carreira de la India,
being dated 10 November 1612.
 VIII

IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 399

Incidentally, we learn from the few biographical details

vouchsafed us in the Discursos that João Pereira Corte-Real was
an accomplished pilot and had passed a qualifying examination
as such for the India and other ocean routes. This was indeed
a rare accomplishment in a man of his social standing; and it is
not surprising that he claimed to be “the only person of his
quality, whom a liking and attraction for the sea, together with
zeal for the King’s service’’ had induced to take this step.1
As we have seen, Corte-Real arrived at Goa as Admiral of
a fleet of eight sail which cast anchor in the Mandovi on
2 September 1624. Five of the galleons in this fleet were retained
in India to serve in the Armada do alto bordo or “Fleet of Tall
Ships’’ which was being prepared to sail for the Persian Gulf,
under the command of Corte-Real’s Captain-General, Nuno
Alvarez Botelho. The remaining three vessels came under the
orders of Corte-Real as Captain-Major for the return voyage in
the spring of 1625, and wintered in the Mandovi River to¬
gether with three ships belonging to the ill-fated India fleet of
1623, of which more than half had been lost or failed to reach
India. The fleet which finally weighed anchor on 4 March 1625
was composed of six sail as under:
(1) São Francisco Xavier (Carrack). Flagship of the Captain-
Major, Dom Antonio Tello.
(2) Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Carrack). Captain Dom
Francisco de Sa.
(3) Mizericordia (Galleon). Captain ?
(4) Cinco Chagas (Carrack). Flagship of the Admiral
(Captain-Major) João Pereira Corte-Real.
(5) Nossa Senhora da Quietação (Carrack). Captain João de
Siqueira Varejão.
(6) São João (Galleon). Captain João da Costa Valente.
Dom Antonio Tello, as the senior Captain-Major, was in
command of the whole fleet; but João Pereira Corte-Real, as
I Copia do Discurso de João Pereira Corte-Real, §73. Another proof of his

technical skill in navigation is afforded by his invention of an Instrumento de navegar

do Sol (evidently some kind of an astrolabe) on which the Cosmographer-Royal,
Valentim de Sa, wrote a Treatise, circa 1640. His services were rewarded in 1622
by his admission to a Knighthood in the Order of Christ, with the Commenda of
Santa Maria do Prado in the diocese of Braga.
VIII

400 CONSTRUCTION OF PORTUGUESE EAST-INDIAMEN

Captain-Major of the three last-named ships, seems to have had

a semi-independent jurisdiction over his own squadron.
The voyage progressed without incident at first, but shortly
after rounding the Cape (probably some time in May) heavy
weather was encountered. According to a contemporary nar¬
rative by Gaspar Roiz, Piloto da Carreira da India, “The naveta
of João Pereira made more than io spans of water, and the
Quietação which was of the same burthen, made the same; and
if the bad weather had lasted longer, these ships would have
been in danger of foundering, since they were unsatisfactory as
either merchant or warships, whereas the carrack São Francisco
Xavier which came in the same squadron was unaffected by the
highest seas. To this he [i.e. Corte-Real] may reply that the
carrack Conceição of the same fleet sprang a serious leak, to
which I reply that this was due to other causes, since she was
an old ship and overloaded.”1
So severely was the Conceição buffeted that it was decided to
make for Saint Helena and leave her there. The subsequent fate
of this carrack has been recounted in detail by the present
writer elsewhere, and we need only refer briefly to the voyage
of her five consorts. These reached Portugal safely, and Corte-
Real with his squadron entered the mouth of the Tagus on 23
October, having narrowly escaped being intercepted by the
combined Anglo-Dutch fleet of over a hundred sail under
Wimbledon and Haultain, which was then off the Portuguese
coast on its way to attack Cadiz. Great anxiety as to the fate of
the Indiamen prevailed in Lisbon, and great was the rejoicing
when these vessels slipped into the Tagus in the nick of time,
with the exception of Dom Antonio Tello’s flagship, S. Fran¬
cisco Xavier, which foundered on the dangerous Cachopos

I Resposta em hüa proposta que se poem em conselho sobre que sera melhor nave-
gasão para ajmdia se embarquasois pequenas se naus de quatro cubertas; draft of
4 pp. folio in the autograph of the India Pilot, Gaspar Roiz. The original is un¬
dated, but from internal evidence must have been written about 1635, and was
inserted loose in the copy of the 1622 Discursos referred to in n. 1, p. 395. It will
be seen that Gaspar Roiz terms the Chagas and Quietação “navetas”, although
almost all other contemporary sources refer to them as “Naus” anglice “carracks”.
The Chagas saw no further service, but the Qyietação made another India voyage
in 1626-7.
 VIII

IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 4OI

shoals at the entrance to the bar. Part of the cargo was saved,
but over thirty persons were drowned. Her three consorts
Chagas, Quietação and the galleon São João were brought safely
in by João Pereira Corte-Real, who was at once placed in charge
of the organization of the maritime defence of Lisbon, which it
was feared the English would attack after their attempt on
Cadiz.1
Corte-Real’s movements during the next two years are un¬
certain, but he seems to have continued in the naval service in
some capacity or other. There are records of his presence at
Lisbon in connection with the various commissions which were
formed to discuss the still hotly-debated question of three- or
four-deckers during the period. On these occasions he stoutly
upheld his preference for the former type, although he was
careful to point out that the real crux of the matter was not the
number of decks but the size of the ships concerned; galleons
or small carracks of about 400 or 500 tons being preferable
to the unwieldy carracks of over a thousand which could
not take in their cargoes in relatively shallow harbours under the
protection of the guns of the shore batteries. For some reason
or other he was not given a senior command in the fleet which
was fitted out in the autumn of 1626, under Dom Manuel de
Menezes, for the purpose of convoying home the Brazil and
India fleets. He thereby escaped being involved in the loss of
this squadron in the Bay of Biscay, as a result of the stormy
weather which prevailed in the Eastern Atlantic in January
1627—perhaps in consequence of his appointment as Governor
of Cape Verde.
Corte-Real governed Cape Verde and part of the opposite
Guinea Coast for five years, from 1628 to 1632, and his tenure
of office forms a bright interlude in the otherwise decadent and
disastrous history of those islands during the seventeenth
century. Besides suppressing the fraudulent practices of Andre

I For a detailed account of the voyage of the Na Sra da Conceição and the India

Fleet of 1624-5, see m7 article On a Portuguese Carrack’s Bill of Lading in 1625

(Biblos, vol. xiv, Coimbra, 1938, and Petrus Nonius, 11, fasc. 3, pp. 179-200,
Lisboa, 1939), of which a résumé was published in The Mariner's Mirror, xxv,
no. i, pp. 24-34.
VIII

402 CONSTRUCTION OF PORTUGUESE EAST-INDIAMEN

da Fonseca, the Crown contractor and tax-farmer, Corte-Real

vigorously maintained and defended Portuguese sovereign
rights, not only in Cape Verde itself but along the Guinea Coast.
In 1628 he frustrated a Dutch raid on Ribeira Grande where
the Hollanders had disembarked a landing force from a fleet of
seventy-two sail. Not content with this, he later visited the
African coast between Senegal and Sierra Leone with a small
squadron. In the latter place he captured two richly-laden
pirate ships, whilst in Senegal he expelled the Dutch from a
settlement they had made at Bezeguiche or Gorée.1
In 1631, João Pereira Corte-Real was nominated as member
of the Council of State, but beyond this we know nothing of his
activities between his return from Cape Verde, and his appoint¬
ment as Admiral of the combined Hispano-Portuguese fleet
which was being equipped to drive the Dutch from their strong¬
holds in Brazil in June 1635. Although formally appointed to
this post, he did not actually sail with the fleet when it finally
left Lisbon in the autumn of the same year under the command
of Don Lopo de Hoces y Cordoba, with Dom Joseph de
Menezes as Almirante. The reason for Corte-Real’s replace¬
ment by Menezes is uncertain, but was probably due to the
illness of the former; since having once been appointed to so
high a command, it is unlikely that any other reason would have
caused him to relinquish it.
In the same year he brought out a second edition of his
Discursos which is even rarer than the first edition of 1622, the
only recorded copy being that in the British Museum. The
material differences between the two editions are in the title,
which is longer in the second than in the first; and in the first
page and a half of text in the 1635 edition, which explains why
he had decided to reprint the work. This was because although
the King had accepted his reasons in 1622, and had ordered
three-deck carracks to be built instead of four-deckers, they
were so badly designed that the cure was worse than the disease.

i Dr Jaime Cortesão on pp. 442-3 of the Historia de Portugal Illustrada, v

(Barcellos, 1933). In the present writer’s collection is a long dispatch by Corte-
Real from Santiago de Cabo-Verde dated 15 May 1628, recounting his troubles
with Andre da Fonseca’s minions.
 IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 403

He states he had pointed out in the penultimate paragraph of

the 1622 edition that it was useless to build ships with one deck
less than the usual four, unless the whole design was modified
accordingly. He also complains that his proposal to make a
Royal Monopoly of the Cinnamon trade had been watered
down to enforcing it solely between Ceylon and Goa; whereas
the essence of his plan was that the Crown should be the only
shipper and supplier from India to Europe.1
If it was indeed illness which prevented Corte-Real from
acting as Admiral of the combined expedition to Brazil in 1635,
this sickness evidently did not last long, as in the following year
he was nominated General of a fleet of ten sail which was being
fitted out in the Tagus at the end of October 1636. This fleet
was likewise destined for Brazil, that of the previous year having
failed to dislodge the Hollanders, but for some reason unknown
to us it got no farther than Cadiz. Even so, its actions do not
seem to have been devoid of all significance, since contemporary
documents frequently allude to services rendered by officers
who had embarked in this so-called Armada de Cadiz. Amongst
these officers was the celebrated writer, Dom Francisco Manuel
de Mello, who was sent by Corte-Real from Cadiz, to bring
help to the East-India carrack Nossa Senhora de Saude, which
had been forced into Malaga by stress of weather when home¬
ward bound with the ex-Viceroy Dom Miguel de Noronha,
Conde de Linhares.
Corte-Real’s days however were now nearly numbered. The
Restoration of 1 December 1640 found him a very sick man,
and although he was appointed a member of King Dom
João IV’s Council of War, when this body was constituted in
the early days of the new monarch’s reign, he did not long sur¬
vive this honour. The exact date of his death is unknown, but
since his commenda of Santa Maria do Prado was conferred on

i Discursos, y advertências de Iuan Pereira Corte-Real, del Consejo de V.

Magestad, Encomendador de Santa Maria del Prado, de la Orden de Christo, y
nombrado por Almirante Real del armada grande de la restauracion del Brasil, en
este ano de 635. The frontispiece of the two editions and the extra text of the 163 5
edition are reproduced by Frazão de Vasconcellos on pp. 340-1 of the Arquivo
Hist, da Marinha, 1.
VIII

404 CONSTRUCTION OF PORTUGUESE EAST-INDIAMEN

another in July 1642, owing to his demise, it is virtually certain

that he died early in the same year.
He did not live quite long enough to see the triumph of the
cause which he had at heart, although shortly after the Restora¬
tion of 1640 the construction of huge East-India carracks
virtually ceased. It is true that we meet with references to
Portuguese carracks in Dutch and English documents until the
last quarter of the seventeenth century, but these Naus were no
longer the unwieldy monsters against which Corte-Real had
declaimed so often and so eloquently.1 From the date of the
publication of the second edition of his Discursos in 1635,
galleons gradually superseded carracks, and the latter even
when built conformed more and more to the galleon type. Not
only foreigners like the English and Dutch, but the Portuguese
themselves became increasingly uncertain as to the distinction
between a nau and a galleon, and the Lusitanian East-Indiamen
of the period 1640-70 are called indiscriminately naus and
galleons, often in the same document.
The substitution of carracks by galleons and by smaller naus
than those built in the first quarter of the seventeenth century
was doubtless accelerated by the fact that Corte-Real and his
supporters all occupied influential positions about this time.
Thus Corte-Real himself was Admiral and General of the
Portuguese Armada in 1635—6, and Dom Antonio de Ataide,
one of his staunchest adherents in this matter, was Governor of
Portugal in 1631—4. During the same period, the Conde de
Linhares, another advocate of galleons as opposed to carracks,
was Viceroy of India; whilst the Vedor da Fazenda, or Comp¬
troller of Finances, at Goa was Joseph Pinto Pereira, who sug¬
gested the adoption of ships modelled on the English East-
Indiamen which visited the port. All these persons were there¬
fore in a position to ensure that ships of the type they favoured
were built in the yards of Portugal and India.
The change was of course a gradual one, and it is impossible

I “Nenhuma nação do mundo usa estas montanhas de madeira como são as

naus de 4 cubertas” (no other nation in the world uses these mountains of wood
which are four-deck carracks) wrote Corte-Real in 1627 (Senna Barcellos, op. cit.
p. 60).
 VIII

IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 405

to state exactly when the word nau (which was used by the
Portuguese well into the nineteenth century) ceased to denote the
type of ship which the English and Dutch termed “carrack”. We
know that four-deck carracks were still being built in 1637,1
despite the Royal Edicts prohibiting their construction which
had been issued at Corte-Real’s instigation in 1622—3, but they
did not survive the Restoration of 1640 for very long. It is true
that Severim de Faria printed an essay entitled Concerning the
reasons for the numerous shipwrecks amongst East-India ships
owing to their great size in his Noticias de Portugal published in
1655, but the original would appear to have been written some¬
what earlier. By the time of Corte-Real’s death the advantages
of galleons over carracks were generally recognized, and the
position was well summed up by an anonymous contemporary
as follows:2
“This damage being fully realized by several experienced
persons in this kingdom, written protests against it were made
from time to time, the first of these being that by João Baptista
Lavanha in his account of the shipwreck of the nau Santo
Alberto, followed by others; until finally in the year 1622, two
lengthy memorials were presented to His Majesty,3 wherein it
was plainly proved that the excessive size of these naus was the
cause of much loss in goods, men, and matters of state. Where¬
fore having seen these memorials, His Majesty ordained that
naus should cease to be built and should be replaced by
galleons, as in fact was done, and with excellent results. But
seamen, since they are interested in the size of the ships (for
the larger they are, the more room they have for their duty-

1 Cf. the interesting dispatch on this subject by Joseph Pinto Pereira written
at Goa, 15 December 1637, and printed in the present writer’s essay—Joseph
Pinto Pereira, Vedor da Fazenda Geral da India e Conselheiro Ultramarino de
Rey D. João IV (Lisboa, 194°).

2 Bibliotheca Publica de Evora, Codice — a, fl. 70, entitled As causas porque

2 7
as naos da carreira da India chegarão a demasiada grandesa com que hoje se vem e se
uzou nellas 0 prejudicial concerto das Çpuerenas. This paper is very similar to
Severim de Faria’s published essay, and may be the original draft.
3 The reference is to the Discursos of João Pereira Corte-Real and to the Dis¬
cursos de las dos Indias by Duarte Gomez de Solis.
VIII

4o6 construction of Portuguese east-indiamen

free space privileges) continued to persuade the ministers that

it was better to build large naus instead of galleons; and they
will always argue thus, since they are prejudiced in this matter.
“The fact is, that five galleons cost as much as three naus;
and whereas five galleons sailing in company amount to a
powerful fleet, three naus are but three helpless carracks, which
after two voyages have to be broken up in the yard; whereas the
galleons can be used for many years in the coastguard fleets.
However, what should be chiefly considered, is that when five
galleons leave India, they all reach Portugal safely, except on
occasions when God obviously wishes to punish us; whereas
when three naus leave Goa they cannot all arrive safely without
a miracle, since they leave as doomed ships owing to their huge
size and heavy lading; as may be seen from the case of the nau
Relíquias, which foundered on setting sail before actually
leaving the port.1 Finally a sufficient argument is afforded by
the galleons of this year which sailed to India in four and a half
months and returned in five, a thing which never happened to
any nau.”2-
This is the last reference I have been able to trace on the
controversy of carracks versus galleons. Both these types
ceased to be built during the last quarter of the seventeenth
century, when the Portuguese Nau da Carreira da India closely
resembled the average English, Dutch, or French East-India-
man in design and build.3

1 This happened at Cochim in 1587.

2 U nfortunately, the year is not stated, but it would seem to apply to the fleet of
1651-2.
3 The last reference to a galleon is the São Pedro da Ribeira which made the
India voyage in 1677—82.
 IX

The Naval and Colonial Papers

T of Dom Antonio de Ataide

HE present essay is designed to draw attention to the im¬
portance for Portuguese colonial and maritime history in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of the papers of
Dom Antonio de Ataide which are now preserved in the
Harvard College Library and elsewhere. By virtue of his successive
posts of Captain-Major of the India Fleets (1611-12), Captain-General
of the Portuguese Home Fleet (1618-21), and Governor of Portugal
under the Spanish Crown (1631-33), Dom Antonio de Ataide had
excellent opportunities to collect and collate information on those
naval and colonial affairs in which he was interested. Of these oppor¬
tunities he made full use, forming a remarkable assemblage of docu¬
ments which passed by inheritance to his cousins of the Castel-Melhor
family on his death in 1647. The celebrated Castel-Melhor collection
of books and manuscripts was disposed of in 1878-79, when the greater
part was sold at auction. Some of the most valuable documents were
acquired by Fernando Palha, which accounts for their presence at Har¬
vard. Others are scattered in various libraries in Portugal, England, and
Brazil. They have never been described as a connected whole, despite
their importance for students of the maritime and colonial history of
the seventeenth century. About equally divided between Europe and
America, in the present paper they will be dealt with according to their
present locations, following a brief biographical sketch of their original
owner.1
Dom Antonio de Ataide, born 1567, was the second son of the sec¬
ond Conde de Castanheira, and grandson of the first Conde of the same
1 The account of Dom Antonio de Ataide which follows is based on a perusal of
the papers described hereafter and secondary sources such as Barbosa Machado,
Bibliotheca lusitana, 2nd ed. (Lisbon, 1930), I, 207-208, and my article, ‘Um roteirista
desconhecido do século XVII, D. Antonio de Ataide, capitão geral da armada de
Portugal,’ Arquivo histórico da marinha, I (1934), 189-200 (with the sources there
quoted). It may be noted that Barbosa Machado, the standard Portuguese bibliog¬
rapher, does not even mention the naval and colonial papers in his otherwise fairly
full bio-bibliographical notice of Dom Antonio, which underlines the importance of
drawing attention to these papers at the present time.
 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de Ataide 15

name and title, who was the life-long favorite of King João III of
Portugal and that monarch’s Vedor da Fazenda or Comptroller of the
Exchequer for many years. Dom Antonio first saw active service in
the Marques de Santa Cruz’ expedition to the Azores in 1582; and he
subsequently served in various coast defence armadas afloat, and with
the local militia ashore.
In 1611, he sailed for India as Captain-Major of the annual India
fleet, which consisted in that year of the three carracks Na Sra de
Guadelupe, São Felipe, and Na Sra de Piedade. They left Lisbon on
the 20th March, and reached Goa on the 12th September, after an
unusually prosperous voyage from the navigational viewpoint, although
Dom Antonio had considerable trouble with mutinous subordinates or
passengers, whom the government subsequently tried to arrest and
bring to trial in India. The return voyage was uneventful, the squad¬
ron leaving Goa on the 16th January 1612, and reaching Lisbon on the
21 st August. Dom Antonio proudly noted twenty years later that
‘these were the first ships which made the round voyage without ever
parting company.’
His doings for the next five years are not recorded, but in 1618 he
was appointed by King Felipe IV (of Spain, III of Portugal) as Cap¬
tain-General ‘in perpetuity’ of the Armada of the Crown of Portugal
In this capacity he commanded the annual fleet of defence which
cruised off the coast during the summer and autumn of the years
1618-21, with the object of protecting shipping bound for Portuguese
ports from the attacks of the Barbary corsairs and other enemies. This
annual fleet was usually known as the Armada do Consulado, as it was
fitted out from the proceeds of a tax known as the Consulado or Con¬
sulate. It was at Dom Antonio s suggestion that the Terço da Armada,
or Regiment of the Navy, was raised in 1618, for the purpose of assur¬
ing a supply of soldiers to serve in these annual coast defence fleets.
This unit lasted for some ninety years in its original form, and was thus
the second oldest of its kind in Europe, being preceded only by its
Spanish counterpart, the Tercio de la Infanteria de la Armada de Indias,
or, as it was more commonly and conveniently known, the Tercio de
Galeones.2
2 For the Spanish Tercio de Galeones see José Veitia Linaje, Norte de la contra-
tacion de las Indias Occidentales (Seville, 1672), II, 27-51. For the Terço da Armada da
Coroa de Portugal, renamed the Terço da Armada Real do Mar Oceano after 1640, see
Gastão de Mello de Mattos, Noticias do Terço da Armada Real (1618-1707) (Lisbon,
IX

26

He served as Captain-General of what may be termed the Portu¬

guese Home Fleet until he was removed from his command on a charge
of culpable negligence in connection with the loss of the homeward-
bound East India carrack Na Sra de Conceição in October 1621. This
richly-laden argosy had been attacked and burnt off Ericeira by
seventeen sail of Algerine warships after a two-day fight, during which
time Dom Antonio lay becalmed off Cape Espichei, only thirty-six
miles away, and unaware of what was going on until it was too late.
Ill-informed public opinion naturally selected him as the scapegoat for
this unprecedented disaster, and he was duly imprisoned and tried for
dereliction of duty. After a legal battle lasting two years, the highest
court of appeal acquitted him without a stain on his honor, although
he had to pay the costs of his defence. This acquittal was by no means
popular with most people, although a few discerning individuals con¬
sidered that the defence had proved its case. The contemporary chron¬
icler, Manuel Severim de Faria, was one of those who agreed with the
belated verdict, ‘because it was proved that after he had received the
warning which was sent him, he was becalmed and could not reach the
carrack, whereas before he received it he was in the station assigned to
him by his orders.’ The scholarly Canon of Evora Cathedral concluded
philosophically that ‘this disaster should rather be attributed to the
occult designs of God, and to the injustice with which wealth is often
acquired in India, than to any fault of his own.’* * 3
King Felipe IV evidently agreed with Severim de Faria’s opinion,
for two years later Dom Antonio was given the title of Conde de
Castro-Daire, explicitly because of the trouble which he had under-

1932). Dutch and English regiments of marines were first raised during the war of
1665-67, and I presume that French marine units are likewise of later origin than
their Iberian counterparts.
3 Manuel Severim de Faria, ‘Historia portuguesa e de outras provincias do
Occidente desde o anno de 1610 até o de 1640 . . . escrita em 31 Relações,’ Biblioteca
National, Lisbon, Codex 241 (A. 6. 27), fol. 175. The best account of the loss of the
Conceição is that by one of the survivors, João Carvalho Mascarenhas, Me?noravel
relaçam da perda da nao Conceiçam que os Turcos queymàrão à vista da barra de
Lisboa; vários successos das pessoas que nella cativarão (Lisbon, 1627), reprinted in
the so-called third volume of Bernardo Gomes de Brito’s Historia tragico-maritima
(Lisbon, 1735-37?)» which there are several modern editions. There is also an
interesting contemporary account of this disaster, containing some details not to be
found elsewhere, in Nicholas van Wassenaer, Historisch Verhael alder ghedenck-
weerdichste Gescbiedenissê, die bier en da in Europa . . . van den Beginne des Jaers
1621 . . . voorgevallen syn (Amsterdam, 1622-35), T 4°> V, 142-143.
 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de Ataide 2y

gone during his trial. Nor did the King’s munificence stop there, for
in 1629 he was sent as ambassador extraordinary to the Emperor
Ferdinand II of Austria. His secretary has left us an interesting account
of the envoy’s journey to Vienna and return through Lower Germany.
Neither was this the limit of his promotion, for in August 1631 he was
nominated as one of the two Governors of Portugal for the Iberian
Crown — a post which he filled alone after the death of his col¬
league in March 1632 until April of the following year, when he
retired. He was then appointed President of the Board of Conscience
and Military Orders, and became about this time the fifth Conde de
Castanheira through the death of his nephew. He was dismissed from
his government post after the outbreak of the Portuguese Revolution
in December 1640, presumably because the new monarch, Dom João
IV, suspected him of Spanish sympathies in view of the honors which
Felipe IV had heaped upon him, and also because his eldest son, Dom
Jeronimo de Ataide, did not adhere to the national movement but re¬
mained in Madrid. Dom Antonio was imprisoned for a time during
the summer of 1641, on suspicion of being implicated in the Arch¬
bishop of Braga’s abortive and pro-Spanish plot. His innocence having
been proved, he was released in the winter, and allowed to remain in
peaceful retirement until his death in December 1647, when he was
over eighty years old.4
It is apparent from a study of Dom Antonio’s career in more
detail than is possible here that he was a man of wide interests and con¬
siderable learning, the translator of a treatise of Seneca and the author
of a number of poems. Amongst his friends were numbered Lope de
Vega Carpio, ‘prince of Castilian poets,’ and the caustic chronicler of
Portuguese India, Diogo do Couto. He was, of course, not without his
critics. Apart from the storm of criticism aroused by the loss of the
Na Sra da Conceição in 1621, a confidential report to the Conde-Duque
de Olivares, Felipe IV’s all-powerful minister, about the year 1634,
4 See, in addition to the references in note i above, Ernesto Soares, ‘Perfis humo¬
rísticos da Restauração,’ Congresso do mundo português. Publicações (Lisbon, 1940-
42), VII, 423. Damião Ribeiro’s account of Dom Antonio de Ataide’s embassy to
Austria and Germany in 1629 was printed by Johannes Albrecht as Embaixada de
Alemanha’ in Congresso do mundo português. Publicações, VI, 173-195- Dom
Antonio’s original papers relating to this embassy formed lot 66 in the Castel-Melhor
sale of manuscripts in 1879. Ataide papers sold with the Castel-Melhor collection can
be checked to some extent from the summary Catalogo dos preciosos manuscriptos
da bibliotheca da casa dos Marquezes de Castello Melhor (Lisbon, 1878).
IX

28

alleges that Dom Antonio was an intelligent but dishonest minister of

the Crown.5 I am not aware that this charge was ever substantiated,
and in any event we are not here concerned with his literary interests
or his financial integrity, but with his naval and colonial papers and
their significance for the history of colonial expansion and maritime
enterprise.

There are several papers by or relating to Dom Antonio de Ataide

in the British Museum, which were acquired before the Castel-Melhor
sale of 1879. The most important are as follows.
1. MS Egerton 1133, foil. 131-134. Five autograph letters or notes
by Dom Antonio de Ataide, addressed to the Conde-Duque de Olivares
in May-July 1626. The contents are of no particular interest, but
these holograph letters are useful in identifying Dom Antonio’s hand¬
writing in the other codices which are described hereafter.
2. MS Egerton 1136, foil. 475-526. A collection of papers relating
to the trial of Dom Antonio de Ataide for the loss of the Conceição in
1621. They include original documents and transcripts of evidence
given for the prosecution and for the defence. The original collector
or rather compiler of these papers was evidently a member of the
Council of Portugal which functioned as an advisory body to the
Iberian Crown at Madrid.6
3. Additional MS 20,902. This is a folio volume of 156 leaves en¬
titled ‘Relação das Naos e Armadas da India com os successos dellas
que se puderam saber, para noticia e instrucção dos curiozos, e amantes
da Historia da India’ (Narrative of the India Fleets and Carracks and

6 British Museum, Add. MS 15, 195, Vol. Ill, fol. 220. This interesting report of a
Spanish spy at Lisbon on the character and reputation of the principal Portuguese
fidalgos is not dated, but from the context was compiled about 1634 or 1635.
"See Frederico Francisco de la Figanière, Catalogo dos manuscrlptos pormguezes
existentes no Museu Britannico (Lisbon, 1853), pp. 220 and 255; Pascual de Gayangos
y Arce, Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Spanish Language in the British Museum
(London, 1875-93), h 641. Another set of transcripts relating to the trial is catalogued
in lots 56 and 57 of the Castel-Melhor catalogue (1878). Two printed documents
pertaining to the trial are very rare: the Cargos que resultarão da devassa que os
Governadores de Portugal mandarão tirar de Dom Antonio de Attayde (Lisbon,
1622) and the Sentenças dadas sobre a devassa que se tirou de Dom Antonio de Atayde
(Lisbon, 1624). Both appear in Catalogo da . . . livraria . . . que pertenceu a . . .
Annibal Fernandes Thomaz (Lisbon, 1912), lot 357, and there are copies of the
Sentenças in the Bibliotheca Publica at Evora and in the British Museum.
 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de At aide 29

of what befell them, in so far as could be learnt, for the information

and instruction of those who are interested in the History of India).
It covers the period 1496-1653, but the greater part of it was evidently
compiled under the superintendence of Dom Antonio de Ataide in
1631-34, judging by the handwriting of his amanuensis and his holo¬
graph comments and notes which are to be found in the text relating
to the period 1626-32. Many other notes, although not in Ataide’s
hand, obviously originated with him, and he refers in them to the
pilots’ journals of the years 1593-1612 which will be described later.
It is not clear who continued the ‘Relação,’ in a rather desultory fashion
be it said, up to 1653.
This kind of compilation, which gives lists of the governors and
viceroys of India, as well as the names of all vessels sailing thither, the
dates of their departure from Lisbon, and the names of their captains
(less often the dates of their return), is not uncommon in Portuguese
archives. Several of them have been published, but this codex is ex¬
ceptionally interesting in that it is the only one (to my knowledge)
compiled and annotated by a one-time Captain-Major of the India
Voyage. Dom Antonio’s jottings are often piquant enough, particu¬
larly when dealing with matters which directly concerned him. In
the recital of his own voyage in 1611-12, he notes: ‘as may be seen
from the journal of the voyage written by the same Captain-Major
with the greatest exactitude, depicting therein all the sandbanks and
shallows, and copying down many of the large Latin letters which
were carved on stones at the island of Saint Helena.’ This rather
mysterious entry will be clarified when we deal with the journal of
this voyage as preserved in the codex of the Arquivo Historico Militar
at Lisbon. And this is what he has to say, writing in the third person,
about the loss of the Conceição in October 1621: ‘When the carrack
arrived within sight of the Berlengas in front of Ericeira, they met
seventeen Turkish ships which they fought so bravely that these
could not capture the carrack except when it caught fire. And it is a
most noteworthy thing that on the Saturday the General Dom Antonio
de Ataide passed reconnoitering off the Berlengas with ten galleons
and two pinnaces, for he had received orders to detach two galleons to
be sent to India. On the Sunday he lay becalmed off Cape Espichei,
and on the Monday the carrack was burnt, without the General having
had any news of it, nor a caravel or a fishing-boat which advised him,
although the Governors knew where the carrack was fighting, the
IX

30

which Governors were the Bishop Dom Martim Affonso Mexia, the
Count Dom Diogo de Castro, and Dom Nuno Alvarez de Portugal,
fidalgo of His Majesty’s household.’ Apart from such intimate personal
touches, his marginal notes supply many details about other early
seventeenth-century Portuguese voyages which are not recorded else¬
where.7
4. Additional MS 28,487. A small folio volume of 109 leaves,
entitled ‘Summario de todas as cousas que socederão a Dom Paulo de
Lima Pereira do dia que entrou na India te sua perdiçam e morte.’ It is
a biography of Dom Paulo de Lima Pereira, elder brother of Dona Ana
de Lima, the wife of Dom Antonio de Ataide, at whose request it was
written, and to whom it was dedicated by Diogo do Couto, the official
chronicler of Portuguese India, at Goa on the roth December 1611.
This codex presents some small but interesting variations from the
published version, entitled Vida de Dom Paulo de Lima (Lisbon, 1765),
which have been described elsewhere. It is of maritime interest in that
it contains the moving account of the shipwreck of the carrack São
Thomé off the coast of Natal in 1589, which as a separate account was
included in the Historia tragico-maritima.9

’Another recension of this codex formed lot 13 of the Castel-Melhor catalogue

of 1878. For similar lists of Portuguese Indiamen and their voyages see Manuel
Xavier, Compendio universal de todos os viso-reys, governadores, capitães-geraes,
capitães mores, capitães de naos, galleões, ureas e caravellas, que partirão de Lisboa
para a India oriental (Nova Goa, 1917), which, with the additions made by a contin-
uator after 1661, covers the years 1497-1667; an anonymous Relação de capitaens
mores e naos que vierão do reyno a este estado da India desdo seu descobrimento,
covering the period 1497-1731, printed by Ernesto de Vasconcellos (Coimbra, 1925);
Simão Ferreira Paes, As famosas armadas portuguesas, 1496-1650, covering the same
period as Add. MS 20,902, and published at Rio de Janeiro in 1937. The fullest list is
as yet unpublished, being the ‘Noticia chronologica . . . das armadas que os reys de
Portugal tem mandado aquelle estado . . . ,’ by Francisco Luis Ameno, covering the
years 1496-1762 (Bibliotheca Publica, Evora, Cod. CXV / 1-21). It is also unique in
that it gives the dates of the return voyages as well as those of the departures from
Lisbon and arrivals at Goa. The Conde de Tovar, Catálogo dos manuscriptos portu¬
gueses . . . existentes no Museu Britânico (Lisbon, 1932), pp. 84-86, gives a descrip¬
tion of Add. MS 20,902, but he did not realize that Dom Antonio de Ataide was
the principal compiler and annotator. A close scrutiny of the annotations in com¬
parison with the other codices of the same original provenance has enabled me to
establish this identity beyond dispute. This codex was bought at Lord Stuart de
Rothesay’s sale in 1855.
8 Historia tragico-maritima, II, 153-213. For the differences between this codex
and the other manuscript and printed versions see my articles, ‘Admiral João Pereira
Corte-Real and the Construction of Portuguese East-Indiamen in the Early Seven-
 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de Ataide 31

In addition to the foregoing manuscripts in the British Museum,

there is in my possession a manuscript collection of Portuguese Roteiros
(Rutters or Sailing Directions) compiled by Dom Antonio de Ataide.
It originally formed lot 264 of the 1878 Castel-Melhor catalogue, and
has been described in more detail elsewhere. All that need be said here
is that the volume was compiled in 1631 or 1632, after a careful com¬
parison of the numerous logbooks and Roteiros to which Dom Antonio
de Ataide had access in his official capacity. It therefore represents the
cream of Portuguese nautical experience at that time.9

B
In the library of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences there is a codex
of 536 pages in a seventeenth-century sheepskin binding, entitled
‘Viagens de Portugal para Goa e de Goa para o Reino’ (Voyages from
Portugal to Goa and from Goa to the Kingdom). This volume is iden¬
tical with lot 266 of the Castel-Melhor catalogue, and comprises copies
of six pilots’ journals and logbooks for various voyages to and from
India in the years 1593 to 1603. As this codex was edited by the late
Quirino da Fonseca — unfortunately in a manner which is by no
means above reproach — and published by the Academy in 1938, I
need only mention here that it was originally compiled by Dom
Antonio de Ataide, probably for use on his own India voyage in
1611-12. He gives a brief summary of the principal points or dates
concerned with each voyage, but his marginal annotations are rela¬
tively few and far between.10
In the Arquivo Historico Militar at Lisbon is a companion codex to
the above, comprising another six pilots’ journals of India voyages in
the years 1608-12. It is identical with lot 267 of the Castel-Melhor
catalogue. This codex, which is still unpublished, is even more inter¬
esting than the foregoing, since it includes Dom Antonio’s holograph
teenth Century,’ Mariner's Mirror, XXVI (1940), 391, and ‘João Pereira Côrte-Real
(1580-1642) Capitão-Mor das naus da carreira da India and Almirante da Armada
Real,’ Congresso do mundo português. Publicações, VI, 454-456.
“For a detailed description of this 1631 codex see my article in the Arquivo
histórico da marinha, I, 189-200 (especially pp. 198—200). See also Abel Fontoura da
Costa, A marinharia dos descobrimentos (Lisbon, 1933), pp. 469-470, and my article,
‘Portuguese Roteiros, 1500-1700,’ Mariner's Mirror, XX (1934), 182-183.
10 Diários de navegação da carreira da India nos anos de 159’;, 1596, 1591, 1600 e
1603, ed. Quirino da Fonseca (Lisbon, 1938), and reviewed by José Frazão de Vas¬
concelos, Petrus Nonius, II (1939), 314-325; my article in the Mariner's Mirror,
XXVI, 316-319.
IX

32

journal in the Guadelupe, 1611-12, and is profusely annotated by him

throughout, often in a most pungent and critical manner. Comparison
with the manuscript collection of Roteiros in my possession establishes
that this latter Lisbon codex was compiled by Dom Antonio after due
comparison and collation of these pilots’ journals for the years 1595“
1612, and (in all probability) of others which are included in the
Castel-Melhor catalogue (see lots 257, 263, and 265) but whose present
whereabouts are unknown. It is a thousand pities that this magnificent
collection was so carelessly dispersed, for judging by these three
codices Dom Antonio de Ataide’s vast collection of Roteiros was
something sui generis. Let us hope that the Arquivo Historico Militar
codex, which is the most valuable and detailed of the three, will be
published and made available for students of maritime history as soon
as possible.11
Examples of the pilots’ observations and of Dom Antonio’s technical
annotations have been given elsewhere, but I may mention here a
curious entry from his holograph journal dated 4th July 1611: ‘Oje
me deu Antonio Correia hua carta de dona Anna que acabou de me
aperfeiçoar o gosto do dia. Deus me deixe tornar a vela.’ (Today
Antonio Correia gave me a letter from Dona Ana which crowned the
pleasure of this day for me. God grant that I may see her again.)
Antonio Correia was in the flagship Guadelupe, and Dona Ana de
Lima was the Captain-Major’s wife. Evidently she had given Correia
some letters which he was to hand to her husband at intervals during
the voyage. I suppose that this practice was a fairly common one, but
this is the only instance of it which I have come across. Another inter¬
esting feature of Dom Antonio’s holograph journal is that he copied
down the inscriptions left by Dutch and English sailors on stones at
Saint Helena, which the Portuguese found when they called at this
island on the homeward voyage in 1612.12

“See José Frazão de Vasconcelos, ‘Diário de navegação da nau São Francisco de

Goa para Lisboa em 1600-1601,’ Anais da Academia Portuguesa da Historia, VIII
(1944), 237-295.
“I have not seen this codex since 1936, and most of the notes which I took from
it became war casualties in 1941; but, if my memory serves me rightly, it was easy to
identify the Dutch and English ships concerned, since Dom Antonio, although he
knew neither language, had copied the inscriptions very carefully. For the orders
which he was given on the outward and homeward voyages see Documentos remet-
tidos da India ou livros das monções, ed. Raymundo Antonio de Bulhão Pato (Lisbon,
1884), II, 86-87.
 ,4, rr

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Plate Ia

HARVARD FMS PORT 4794, VOL. I, FOL. 163R, BEARING ANNO¬

TATIONS BY DOM ANTONIO DF ATAIDE

IX

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HARVARD FMS PORT 4794, VOL. II

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Plate lib
HARVARD FMS PORT 4794, VOL. II, FOL. 28R, BEARING ANNO¬

TATIONS BY DOM ANTONIO DE AT A IDE

 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de Ataide 33

In the Harvard College Library are three seventeenth-century cod¬

ices which indubitably belonged to Dom Antonio de Ataide. They
passed from the Castel-Melhor collection to that of Fernando Palha in
1879, and thence to Harvard in 1928. There is a brief description of
them in the catalogue of the Palha library, where it is stated that they
were compiled by Dom Antonio de Ataide and comprise a total of 162
documents and printed pieces. The majority relate to the years 1618-
33, thus covering Dom Antonio’s service as Captain-General of the
Portuguese Home Fleet and as Governor of Portugal, but they include
a few transcripts of earlier documents. These three codices afford a
wealth of material for the study of seventeenth-century shipping and
sailors.13
Volume I opens with a series of papers giving copious statistical and
technical information concerning gun-founding, and naval guns and
ammunition for ships ranging from 250 to 2,000 tons. They include a
list of the guns in the Spanish squadron of galleons which left Cadiz in
1629, and details of the train of artillery formed at Brussels in 1630.
The next items are very detailed lists of the materials supplied or
purchased for the construction and fitting-out of two East Indiamen
in 1623-24, the São Bartholomeu and the Santa Helena, which left
Lisbon for Goa on the 6th April 1625. The prices and specifications of
the timber, rigging, sails, etc., are given in itemized lists. These are
followed by a full list of the pay and allowances for the officers and
seamen of an average East India carrack (18 officers, 60 sailors, 60
gromets, 4 cabin boys, and 26 gunners), as also itemized lists of the
provisions, medical supplies, firewood, etc., necessary for such a
voyage. The estimates include particulars of the seamens liberdades
or allowances of duty-free goods which they were allowed to import,
based on a sliding scale according to rank. This list is undated, but
would appear to be of about 1633.14
13 Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. Fernando Palha, comp. José Antonio Moniz
(Lisbon, 1896), Pt. Ill, No. 2943. The codices formed lot 37 in the Castel-Melhor
catalogue of 1878. .
14 The details given in these papers of Dom Antonio de Ataide about the liber¬
dades da India,’ as they were commonly called, are much more extensive than the
summary given in tabular form by Luiz de Figueiredo Falcão in 1612 in his Livro em
que se contém toda a fazenda e real patrimônio dos reinos de Portugal, Indta, e ilhas
adjacentes (Lisbon, 1859), pp. 198-199- It may be added that J. Lucio de Azevedo
IX

34
Very detailed lists of various armadas are given in the following
pages, including an imperfect copy of the printed list (Lisbon: Antonio
Alvarez, 9 May 1588, 40 pages) of the Invincible Armada of Medina
Sidonia against England.15 Other lists include the armada of Don
Fadrique de Toledo for the recovery of Bahia in 1624; and Luso-
Portuguese naval expeditions to Pernambuco in 1631. The lists are not
confined to ships’ names but give full details of the men, munitions,
and supplies which they carried.
Next comes a deed of sale of a galleon at San Sebastian in Guipuzcoa
(8th June 1628). This is followed by a printed proposal for equipping
a squadron of six sail for Cartagena and Alicante in 1630. Next there is
a series of printed and manuscript contracts concerning Masibradi and
his fleet, dating from the years 1631-33. Then come the instructions
and powers for the Marques de Castel-Rodrigo for fitting out an India
fleet in 1628, with marginal annotations in the holograph of Dom
Antonio de Ataide (see Plate la). A detailed estimate for equipping a
galleon of 550 tons for the India voyage and return, dated 18th January
1633, follows. Then come tables for fitting masts to ships and carracks
of 800 to 1,000 tons according to their size. Then follow other similar
estimates, including one of the cost of fitting out a galleon of 600 tons
for service in the home fleet for six months, provided with 126 sailors,
200 soldiers, and 20 guns. Next come estimates for fitting out two
four-deck carracks for the India voyage, each provided with 24 guns
(of only 10 and 11 pounds calibre), 200 sailors, and 300 soldiers. These
estimates include itemized lists of sets of sails and sail plans for India
carracks. The last document in this codex is a very detailed estimate
for careening and refitting the Spanish flagship Na Sra de la Concepcion

is mistaken in his assertion (Epocas de Portugal económico, Lisbon, 1929, pp. 10&-
109) that these ‘liberdades’ were finally abolished by King Dom João IV in 1648.
They were, it is true, withdrawn in 1647, in return for a higher regular pay-scale for
officers and crews; but their removal proved so unpopular, as had previous attempts
in the same direction, that the old system had to be restored two years later, and it
persisted for a long time after. See Simão Ferreira Paes, Recopilação, pp. 143-144 and
Í47-Í48. The Dutch and English East India Companies likewise found that licensed
(and unlicensed) ‘private trade’ proved a perennial source of smuggling, but, as with
the Portuguese Crown, it was something that their employees neither would nor
could relinquish owing to the (in most cases) purely nominal salaries which were
paid them.
15 A perfect copy of this first edition of the Armada list appears in Volume II; see
below. The copy in Volume I lacks both the first and last leaves, the first being
supplied in manuscript.
 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de Ataide 35

in 1629, which, as Dom Antonio has commented in one margin, ‘es

notable.’16
Volume II begins with a perfect copy (one of two known) of the
order of battle of Medina Sidonia’s Armada printed by Antonio
Alvarez, Lisbon, 9 May 1588 (see Plate lb).17 This volume also con¬
tains a number of printed instructions for masters and pursers of ships
engaged in the East and West India trades. The most interesting, and at
the same time the fullest, of these is a Portuguese one of 1611, contain¬
ing 24 pages. The title-page reads: ‘Regimento dos escrivaens das naos
da carreira da India, [crowned shield bearing the Portuguese arms]
Impresso em Lisboa, Anno. 1611.’ (see plate Ha); the work is thus obvi¬
ously a relic of Dom Antonio de Ataide’s voyage to Goa in that year.
Its importance may be judged by a translation of the ‘Tavoada deste
Libro,’ or table of contents, which reads as follows:
1. The purser’s standing orders or regulations (Regimento).
2. The goods which the master of this carrack received here in the India
House in accordance with the first paragraph of these regulations.
3. The victuals and supplies which the carrack’s steward received here in
accordance with the second paragraph of the regulations.
4. The arms and artillery which the master and the master-at-arms received
here in the magazine, in accordance with paragraph 3.
5. Record of the day on which this carrack leaves here for India, and the day
on which it leaves India for the Kingdom. As also of the day on which it
enters any port, and of the day on which it leaves it.
<5. The muster-roll of the seamen and of the men-at-arms who go in this
carrack, as per paragraph 4.
7. Record of those who blaspheme in the ship, as per paragraph 5.
8. The pepper and spices which the master receives in India, paragraph 6.

10 See Figueiredo Falcão, Livro em que se contém toda a fazenda, pp. 205-208, and
the seventeenth-century shipbuilding treatises reproduced by Eugênio Estanislau de
Barros, Traçado e construção das naus portuguesas dos séculos XVI e XVII (Lisbon,
1933), and Christiano José de Senna Barcellos, ‘Construções de naus em Lisboa e Goa
para a carreira da India no começo do século XVII,’ Boletim da Sociedade de Geo¬
grafia de Lisboa, 17th Ser., No. 1, 1898-99) ~ especially pp. 57-61 of the latter, where
Dom Antonio de Ataide, Conde de Castro-Daire, gives his opinion on the problem
of three- and four-deck carracks. See also Mariner's Mirror, XXVI, 388-406, and
Helio Vianna, Estudos de história colonial (São Paulo, 1948), pp. 292-299. On
Masibradi and his fleet see Cesáreo Fernandez Duro, Armada espanola desde la union
de los reinos de Castilla y de Aragon (Madrid, 1895-1903), IV, 438.
17 See above for another, imperfect copy in Volume I. The only other perfect
copy traced is that of Lord Burghley in the British Museum. The compiler of the
Palha catalogue very properly drew attention (Pt. Ill, No. 2943) to this important

piece.
IX

3Ó
9- Regulation concerning the slaves and goods of passengers who come from
India to the Kingdom.
10. Muster-roll of the passengers who come from India to the Kingdom.
11. Concerning those who fall ill aboard this ship, on the making of their wills,
with all the necessary declarations.
12. The inventories and declarations of those who die at sea.
13. The method of disposal of the goods of those wrho die at sea.
14. Concerning the seamen in this carrack who leave or change places with
others, according to the regulation.
15. If some sailors or gromets die and more are necessary to take their place
[in India].
16. The declaration you will make concerning the method of lading this
carrack with pepper and spices.
17. The alms vowed at sea in connection with the Hospital of All Saints.18
18. The records you will keep of what concerns the goods and service of our
Lord the King.
19. The declarations made to the captain of this carrack and to everyone else
aboard it, that they must register their baggage for clearance through this
house.
20. Action to be taken regarding seamen of this carrack who are found at sea
to be others than those who were signed on at this house.
21. Description of the muster-roll which is to be given to the scrivener of the
central registry [in Goa], and how the said muster is to be carried out.

The text of these preliminary instructions is followed by that of

others with separate chapter headings, dealing with a heterogeneous
lot of items, amongst which may be mentioned the following: the
method of lading the carrack in India with its cargo of spices and the
baggage of the passengers and crew, together with the precautions to
be taken to avoid overloading, the allotment of cabins, berths, and
shipboard space in general; prohibition of New Christians (crypto-
Jews) going to India without special leave; senior officers forbidden to
take aboard more water for their own use than is allowed to other
persons; watch to be kept aboard the carracks whilst in harbor at Goa
or Cochin; precautions against the outbreak of fire on board; warnings
against leaving the ships’ boats at the island of Saint Helena on the

18 This rather cryptic entry alludes to the custom of passengers and seamen in
Portuguese ships vowing to give alms or other benefaction to their favorite shrine
or saint if they reached their destination in safety, such promises being particularly
common in time of storm or tempest. This paragraph of the text enjoined the
purser, on such occasions, to remind devout penitents of the great Hospital of All
Saints at Lisbon, where their thank-offerings would be much appreciated and put to
good practical use in relief of the sick.
 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de Ataide 37

homeward voyage — and so forth and so on. Although this particular

Regimento is dated 1611, some of the official documents reprinted
therein date from the fifteen-seventies, and the regulations as they
stand clearly embody the experience of the preceding century. Taken
in conjunction with the pilots’ journals previously described, and the
accounts of travelers such as Linschoten and Pyrard de Laval, they
give us a wonderful picture of life on board a Portuguese East Indiaman
in the first quarter of the seventeenth century.
Another item of interest in this volume is a 42-page printed Ordi¬
nance, in Spanish, dated Madrid 16th June 1618, which lays down in
great detail the rules and regulations to be observed for building ships
of various categories for the Spanish navy. This decree supersedes a
previous one of similar tenor dated 6th July 1613, a manuscript copy
of which is attached. The printed Ordinance is copiously annotated
throughout by Dom Antonio de Ataide, who has entered in the
margins the Portuguese (and Indo-Portuguese) measurements corre¬
sponding to the Spanish measurements as given in the text (see Plate
lib). As there are scores of these calculations involved, Dom Antonio
must have gone to considerable trouble to annotate this copy so fully.
Leaves 67-110 of this volume contain Portuguese Regulations (in man¬
uscript) dated 1578, on the construction of ships, carracks, and galleons,
so this section of the papers presents a fairly complete picture of Iberian
ship-building methods in the years 1578-1618.19
This volume also contains (leaves 111-121) manuscript copies of the
1515 ‘Regimento’ concerning the liberdades of the seamen on board
the Portuguese East Indiamen and of the pepper contract of 1570.20
‘The Regimento das Caixas de Liberdades’ of 1515 laid down that all
persons returning to Portugal from India were allowed to import
spices (otherwise a Crown monopoly) and certain other goods duty¬
free, up to a total value which varied in accordance with the rank and
social station of the individual concerned, as follows:
Governor, Captain-Major, and Bishop of Goa 400 rnilreis each
Captains of Armadas, Captains of Fortresses, Comp¬
trollers of the Exchequer, Vicar-General, Captain-
Major of the Sea . 300 rnilreis each
“See the sources quoted in note 16 above, to which may be added from the
Spanish side those listed by Veitia Linaje, Norte de la contratacion de las índias, II,
JÓ7—i89. The ‘cedula’ of 16 June 1618 is mentioned on p. 169.
20 For the pepper contract see Archivo portuguez oriental, Fase. V (Nova Goa,
1865), pp. iis-i*6-
IX

38
Captains, Judges, Chief-Justice, Secretary of State,
and fidalgos in the King’s service 250 milreis each
‘All my other servants’ . 200 milreis each
All men-at-arms. 120 milreis each
All sailors . 120 milreis each
All gromets. 80 milreis each

All chests for importing such liberdades were to be made to a standard

measurement of ‘seis palmos de vara em comprido e tres dalto e dous e
meio de largo.’ They were allotted on the following basis:
Captains of Fortresses and of Voyages 4 chests each
Gentlemen of the Royal Household 2 to 3 each a/c
category
Men-at-arms who served over 2 years . 1 chest each
Masters, pilots, and pursers of Indiamen . 1 chest each
Bombardiers . 1 chest each
Every two sailors. 1 chest between
them
Every three gromets. 1 chest between
them

There were a few other recognized perquisites for the officers and
crews of Indiamen, but it was these ‘caixas de liberdades’ which formed
the most dearly prized privileges.
The Spanish documents in the codex include (leaves 147-151) an
interesting manuscript ‘cedula’ of 1628 on the establishment of a gun-
foundry. Among printed documents in leaves 134-146 are a number
of Portuguese Regimentos dealing with such matters as the avoidance
of overlading homeward-bound East Indiamen (18th February 1604),
and a prohibition ‘against bringing back from India male slaves who are
not old enough to help work the ship, and against bringing any female
slaves on penalty of their being confiscated’ (23rd March 1618).21
Leaves 157-159 contain a brief manuscript narrative of the voyage
from Surat to Europe of some Portuguese prisoners aboard an English
East Indiaman. These men had been captured in the rout of Dom
Francisco Coutinho at Sualhi (‘Swalley Hole’) near Surat on 27th
October 1630. Their observations on the pay and conditions of em¬
ployment of their captors are interesting.22
21 See Archivo portuguez oriental, Fase. VI (Nova Goa, 1875), PP- 789. 1130, and
1153; C. R. Boxer, Fidalgos in the Far East 1550-1710 (The Hague, 1948), p. 229.
22 For the English side of Dom Francisco Coutinho’s defeat see Sir William Foster,
The English Factories in India, 1630-1655 (Oxford, 1910), pp. 65-70; The Travels of
 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de At aide 39

Leaves 166-202 comprise a mass of papers, in manuscript, relating

to the loss of the Conceição off Ericeira in October 1621, and the sub¬
sequent accusations made against Dom Antonio de Ataide.23 The re¬
maining papers (all manuscript) in this volume contain particulars of
different armadas fitted out in Spain and Portugal at various dates be¬
tween 1580 and 1620.24 The documents transcribed on leaves 210-348
are invaluable for anyone who wishes to make a detailed study of
Portuguese and Spanish naval administration and supply problems dur¬
ing the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Volume III of this remarkable collection begins with a copy of Dom
Antonio de Ataide’s patent as Captain-General of the Armada of the
Crown of Portugal in 1618. The rest of this volume consists of a series
of letters, reports and orders, daily states, etc., relating to the three suc¬
cessive armadas which Dom Antonio de Ataide commanded in the
years 1618-20. From these papers it is possible to follow the move¬
ments of the ships and the doings on board almost daily. It is also inter¬
esting to note (as Dom Antonio himself does on the margin of fol. 56V)
how his administrative orders and arrangements improved as he gained
in experience during his months at sea. These papers show, amongst
other things, that Dom Antonio took a great interest in the selection
and training of naval gunners. It was in this branch of the sea service
that the Portuguese and Spaniards were noticeably weaker than their
Dutch and English opponents, and the Portuguese commander’s efforts
to improve the quality and quantity of his gunners are worthy of close
study. The extent to which Portugal and Spain depended on naval
stores and supplies from Northern Europe, and to what extent they
could obtain such supplies in the Iberian peninsula itself are problems
which also appear in this codex and in the preceding ones. Volume III
itself is concluded (leaves 157-162) with transcripts of various docu¬
ments concerning English naval preparations in 1620, including corre¬
spondence between the Spanish ambassador in London, Conde de

Peter Mundy, ed. Sir Richard Carnac Temple (Hakluyt Society, 2nd Series; Cam¬
bridge, etc., 1907-36), II, 350-353. The fullest Portuguese version is that given by
Antonio Bocarro and Pedro Barreto de Rezende, ‘Livro do estado da India oriental,
1635’ (British Museum, MS Sloane 197, foil. 183-184), where, however, the English
are wrongly described as ‘Holandezes,’ as they are in Fernão de Queiroz’ brief men¬
tion of this action on p. 312 of his Vida do Irmão Pedro de Basto (Lisbon, 1689).
23 Cf. British Museum, MS Egerton 1136, foil. 475-510, described above, p. 28.
24 Some of the leaves in these later documents are badly corroded in places by ink
acid.
IX

4°
Gondomar, and Sir John Digby. In concluding this brief survey of the
contents of these three codices, it should be emphasized that they pro¬
vide valuable source material not onlv for the history of the Portuguese
navy in the first four decades of the seventeenth century, but for that
of the Spanish armadas as well.

In the Manuscripts Section of the National Library at Rio de Janeiro

are two folio volumes designated Pernambuco, I-1-2, Nos. 44 and 45,
respectively. Both of them contain a large number of papers annotated
by Dorn Antonio de Ataide, and were presumably arranged by him in
their present form, although the binder has sometimes separated docu¬
ments which should be together. These two volumes are identical with
lots 227 and 49 in the Castel-Melhor catalogue of 1878.25
Volume I begins with a very curious and detailed statistical survey
of Brazil as it was about 1630, arranged in tabular form, so as to facili¬
tate reference and consultation. It is valuable for the particulars which
it gives concerning the sugar production of the different captaincies,
and estimates of how many ships or galleons could be built annually in
each of the harbors where sufficient wood was available.26
This volume also contains some interesting printed Memorials on
the State of Maranhão in 1624-30, this colony being at that time and
for long afterwards administered separately from the rest of Brazil.
These are amongst the greatest Luso-Brazilian bibliographical rarities,
and their value as such is further enhanced by the fact that they are
profusely annotated by Dom Antonio de Ataide. In connection with
Bento Maciel Parente’s Memorial of 1630, he has added in the margins
the figures for the population of the colony and notes on the state of
the defences. In Estacio da Silveira’s curious and tendentious Relação
sumaria of 1624, Dom Antonio frequently takes the memorialist to
task for his over-optimistic assertions. Silveira’s statement that the local
Indians ‘are very robust and live for many years’ is flatly contradicted
by the laconic marginal note, ‘they are frail and die quickly.’ The

28 Some of the documents have been utilized by Helio Vianna in his Estudos de
história colonial, but the author of this interesting work was unaware that Dom
Antonio de Ataide was the compiler and annotator of these papers.
” This survey may have some connection with the manuscript ‘Memória de como
se pueden fabricar en el Brasil 68 galeones de 1,000 toneladas cada hum,’ Madrid, 15
April 1630 (Bibliotheca da Ajuda, Lisbon, Cod. 51-V-28, foil. 154-155V).
 The Papers of Dom Antonio de At aide 41

author’s assertion that the voyage from Lisbon to the Maranhão aver¬
aged about twenty days is corrected in the margin to ‘between thirty-
five and forty.’ To Silveira’s claim that the hinterland was very rich
in gold and silver mines, Dom Antonio retorts, ‘nothing is known of
this.’ On fob 39 the author’s observation that the Maranhão produces
the best quality of sugar-cane in Brazil is stigmatized as a wanton ex¬
aggeration. Dom Antonio also queries Silveira’s estimates of the length
of the Amazon and the width of its mouth; and he contemptuously dis¬
misses the memorialist’s assertion that the country was full of half-
breeds descended from the French predecessors of the Portuguese.27
Leaves 44-48 contain interesting information of the cost of build¬
ing the ship Na Sra da Guia at Oporto in June-October 1624, and of
her voyage to Paraiba in the following year. Various proposals to
finance the upkeep of coast defence fleets and convoys from the pro¬
ceeds of a tax on Brazilian sugar exports are discussed in these reports
at considerable length. This volume also includes a number of papers
on the search for mines of precious metals in Brazil (1606-17), and
details of the efforts made to raise money, men, and ships for the war
against the Dutch in Pernambuco (1630-32).28
The companion volume to the above is scarcely less interesting. It
begins with the correspondence of the Spanish naval commander-in¬
chief, Don Fadrique de Toledo y Osorio, with the authorities at Lisbon
and Madrid on the financial difficulties which were crippling the
Spanish navy. The crews had not been paid for some years in several
instances, and Don Fadrique protests that he cannot accept responsi¬
bility for what the starving and ill-clothed soldiers and sailors may do.
Most of the letters bear the great Spanish admiral’s autograph signa¬
ture. Connected with this correspondence is the interrogation of two
Dutch prisoners captured when Pater’s flagship was sunk by Oquendo
off Pernambuco in 1631. It is dated 28th December 1631, and bears
the autograph signatures of the two Hollanders, one being the master
gunner and the other a barber-surgeon.
27 For Bento Maciel Parente (whose autograph signature is on the Memorials
which he initiated) and his checkered career in the Maranhão see João Francisco
Lisboa, Obras completas, 3 vols. (Lisbon, 1901); Barão de Studart’s edition of Manuel
Severim de Faria, Historia portuguesa e de outras provindas do occidente . . . de
1610 até . . . 1640 (Fortaleza-Ceará, 1903); Vianna, Estudos, pp. 252-291.
28 Several of the documents relating to Pernambuco in this codex were printed
by Vianna, Estudos, pp. 201-299. Some of them duplicate or complement those in
Volume I of the Palha codices at Harvard.
IX

42
On leaves 72-74 is a very interesting report by the commander of
the Terço da Armada de Portugal (Portuguese Navy Regiment) on his
unit, explaining its organization, discipline, and pay. Dom Antonio
practically rewrote this report in his annotations (12th June 1631),
and makes repeated references to the regimental standing orders of
March 1621, which have never (to my knowledge) been found hith¬
erto. He evidently retained a lasting interest in this corps which he
had raised in 1618.29
Other matters covered in this volume, either in whole or in part,
include such varied topics as the following: list of the sums raised from
the New Christians or converted Jews in 1630-31, for the purpose of
financing overseas wars; the Crown lawsuit against João Pereira Corte-
Real, admiral of the fleet and governor of the Cape Verde Islands in
1628-32 (this suit was brought at the instance of the Crown con¬
tractor, André da Fonseca); the preparations for the voyage of Joseph
Pinto Pereira to India in 1632; bottomry in connection with ships of
the Carreira da India in 1609-23; allegations of undue Jewish influence
in the Portuguese East India Company formed by the Crown in 1628-
32. A list of the ships which brought corn into Lisbon during the
year 1631 (leaves 154-155) shows to what an extent Portugal de¬
pended on foreign shipping for the importation of essential foodstuffs,
even from the Azores. Not one of these 145 vessels was Portuguese;
they were all French, German, or Spanish.
The foregoing summary is purely selective and does not exhaust
the variety of maritime and colonial subjects which are covered in these
two codices, but enough has been mentioned to indicate their scope.

On the occasion of my visit to Rio de Janeiro in 1949, I had the

good fortune to examine some of the manuscripts in the valuable
library of Sir Henry Lynch. One of these turned out to be a codex
concerned with the East India trade in the seventeenth century, and
Sir Henry was so generous as to present this very important manu¬
script to the Library of London University, King’s College, where it is
now catalogued under the designation of Codex-Lynch. It is identical
""Gastão de Mellos de Mattos, Notícias do Terço da Armada Real (1618-1101),
p. 10, states that he was unable to find out how this regiment was originally organ¬
ized. This report annotated by Dom Antonio de Ataide would seem to supply the
answer.
 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de Ataide 43

with lot 242 of the Castel-Melhor catalogue, and consists of 250 num¬
bered folio leaves. Like the other codices described in this article it is
freely annotated throughout by Dom Antonio de Ataide.
This codex is of particular interest in that it is a collection of papers
(many of them original and others in contemporary and certified
transcripts) relating to the little-known Portuguese East India Com¬
pany which was incorporated by a Royal Alvara of the 27th August
1628. The Company was founded by the Crown in avowed imitation
of the Dutch East India Company, but the measure of state control
and interference in its constitution was so great that no private mer¬
chant could be induced to invest any capital in this new venture.
Apart from the Crown, which contributed 900,000 cruzados in money,
ships, and artillery, the Portuguese municipalities subscribed some
300,000 cruzados, but only one Indo-Portuguese City (Chaul) fol¬
lowed their example. The Company had perforce to be liquidated in
1633, but these papers prove that it did function for over three years —
a fact of which most historians seem to be quite unaware.
The papers collected by Dom Antonio in this volume consist of
memoranda about the Company and its affairs; original letters from its
representatives at Goa, with Dom Antonio’s marginal remarks thereon;
fitting-out and repair of the Company’s ships, both at Lisbon and at
Goa; purchase of pepper, indigo, and other Asiatic exports; detailed
price lists and balance sheets covering the Company’s transactions in
1629-33. Apart from their great importance in this hitherto unexplored
field of Portuguese colonial history, these papers also provide an inter¬
esting comparison with the published Dutch and English sources for
the India trade in the fourth decade of the seventeenth century.30
30 The prices paid for labor in the dockyard at Goa, and for pepper, indigo, salt¬
peter, etc., and the observations on the cost of living and commodity prices in the
letters of the representatives in Goa may be compared with the material available in
printed sources such as Sir William Foster, The English Factories in India 1624-1629
and 1630-1633 (Oxford, 1909 and 1910); W. H. Moreland, From Akbar to Aurangzeb,
a Study in Indian Economic History (London, 1923); Sir Shafa’at Ahmad Khan, The
East India Trade in the XVIIth Century, in Its Political and Economic Aspects (Lon¬
don, 1923); Sir Shafa’at Ahmad Khan, Sources for the History of British India in the
Seventeenth Century (London, 1926); Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia
. . . 1631-34, ed. H. T. Colenbrander (The Hague, 1898). It need hardly be said
that none of the writers or editors of these works knew of the Portuguese material
bearing on their subject in the Codex-Lynch. A copy of King Felipe’s circular letter
of i March 1629, announcing the incorporation of the Company and soliciting capital
investments from Portuguese and colonial municipalities, is printed in George McCall
Theal, Records of South-Eastern Africa (Cape Town, 1898-1903), IV, 206-210.
IX

44
From the naval historian’s point of view, the most interesting features
of this codex are: (a) the details given on the construction, cost, and
armament of Portuguese East India carracks, which supplement those
given in the Palha Codices at Harvard, although these latter are a good
deal fuller and cover a longer period; (b) the full report of a judicial
inquiry into alleged miscarriages in connection with the outward-
bound India Fleet of 1629; (c) proposals to build bigger and better
ships at Goa.
The perennial argument between the advocates of three-deck car-
racks as opposed to the unwieldy four-deckers which were so popular
with the officers and seamen of the Carreira da India, is represented by
a paper on leaves 9-11. Dom Antonio was a protagonist of the smaller
and handier type of ship, as was his colleague the Admiral João Pereira
Corte-Real.31
One of the most valuable papers from a technical point of view is a
detailed inventory of the ships and naval stores which were handed
over to the administrators of the new Company by the Crown dock¬
yard officials at Lisbon, dated April 1633 (leaves 169-196). This is
complete almost down to the last nail, and as the estimated value of
each ship, gun, mast, sail, and so forth is listed, the inventory gives a
useful idea of the prices of such things at that time. The valuation was
done by a board of experts including the master-shipwrights, Manoel
Gomes Galego and Valentim Themudo; Antonio Dias, master-caulker;
Balthazar Gonçalvez, the master-superintendent of the dockyard; and
a number of pilots and masters of East India ships. It may be added
that this codex affords a means of comparing European prices of naval
stores with those prevailing at Goa. Several of the ships operated by
the Company in 1629-32 were extensively refitted and repaired at
Goa. The cost of such repairs is given in considerable detail in the
accounts submitted annually by the Company’s representatives in the
Indo-Portuguese capital, and may be compared with the prices for

31 See Mariner's Mirror, XXVI, 388-406. Dom Antonio de Ataide adds something
to João Pereira Corte-Real’s arguments which are summarized in this article. He
states that in the four-deckers the pilot could not see the mainsail and the tiller
simultaneously, with the result that orders to shorten sail, etc., were passed by word
of mouth and were often garbled or too slow in transmission, whereas in three-
deckers the pilot could give the necessary orders directly.
 IX

The Papers of Dom Antonio de Ataide 45

similar items at Lisbon, given in the various estimates transcribed in the

three volumes of the Palha codices at Harvard.32
The letters of the Company’s representatives at Goa to their board
of directors at Lisbon are very full and frank. They naturally have a
great deal to say on shipping matters, and I have space for only a few
instances here. Writing home in January 1631, they state that the cost
of repairing, caulking, and careening the carracks at Goa is double
what it was a few years previously because ‘there are no longer here
the contractors who used to repair and refit ships in the old days, whose
prices were reasonable because they tendered in competition with each
other. Nowadays it is clean contrary, because they all went bankrupt
and have no capital, so that there- are only two men left and these two
have an understanding between themselves and submit their tenders
jointly.’
Nevertheless, despite the vastly increased cost of shipbuilding and
ships’ stores, the Company’s Goa agents strongly advocated the build¬
ing of carracks in India, when asked for their opinion on this point by
the Lisbon authorities. They suggested that one carrack should be
built annually at Goa, ‘since we have here so expert a master-shipwright
as is Diogo Luiz, and a ship made here lasts for many years,’ but they
demanded thirty or forty thousand cruzados in cash to enable them to
make a start. The plans sent out from Lisbon envisaged the construc¬
tion of a four-deck carrack, and the dockyard officials at Goa were
unanimous in preferring this type to the three-deck variety so persist¬
ently advocated by João Pereira Corte-Real and Dom Antonio de
Ataide. The death of Balthazar Gonçalvez, who had been sent out to
supervise the building of the new carrack, was considered locally to
be of little moment, ‘because the acting master-shipwright is Diogo
Luiz, pupil of Valentim Themudo, who is regarded as one of the
greatest living shipwrights, and who is in no way inferior to his master
Valentim Themudo, as he clearly proved in his building of the unlucky
carrack São João [Baptista], which, if God had permitted it to reach
Portugal and been seen for what it was, everyone would agree with
“Dom Antonio de Ataide states elsewhere in this codex (fol. u) that the cost
of a typical four-deck carrack was 130,000 cruzados, whereas a three-deck galleon
could be built for only 74,000 cruzados. A carrack was manned with 200 sailors and
300 or 400 soldiers, whereas a galleon’s complement was 120 sailors and a maximum
of 230 soldiers. See also Frazão de Vasconcelos, ‘A fabrica das naus da carreira da
India no século XVII,’ Anais do Club Militar Naval, LIX (1928); Vianna, Estudos,
292-299.
IX

4ó

what we say, apart from which he is a very good and true man and of
an upright conscience.’33
From a letter written about a year later at Goa, it is apparent that
the idea of building a four-decker carrack for the Company was
abandoned. The Viceroy, Conde de Linhares, had organized a new
shipyard, ‘near the wharf of Saint Catherine next to the galleys’ yard,
where he has laid down the keels of two powerful galleons. It is only
in this place that carracks can be built at Goa, for the yard at Pangim
where they used to build them is now unserviceable owing to the in¬
roads of the sea, and the passage being silted up.’ The Goa agents went
on to say that all official interest was concentrated on the building of
these two galleons, and they saw no chance of being able to start the
construction of their own carrack until these were launched. In any
event, they concluded, the Viceroy’s personal support must be en¬
listed, ‘because otherwise there is no chance of our being able to build
even the smallest pinnace.’34
One of the most interesting series of the papers which are bound
together in this codex comprises the report of a judicial court of inquiry
which was held at Goa in 1630 to investigate allegations of inefficiency
and corruption in connection with the fitting-out of the two carracks,
Santo Ignacio de Loyola and Bom Jesus do Monte Calvario, which
were sent out to India by the Company in that year. Briefly, the
33 For the shipwreck of the São João Baptista on her maiden voyage in 1622 see
Francisco Vaz de Almada, Tratado do sucesso que teve a nao Sam Joam Baptista, e
jornada que fez a gente que della escapou, desde trinta e tres graos no Cabo de Boa
Esperança, onde fez naufragio, até Zofala, vindo sempre marchando por terra
(Lisbon, 1625), which was reprinted in the third volume annexed to Gomes de
Brito’s Historia tragico-maritima-, and again, with an English translation, by Theal in
Records of South-Eastern Africa, VIII, 1—137.
“The two galleons laid down by the Conde de Linhares in 1630, the Bom
Jesus and the São Boaventura, were seen six years later by the celebrated Cornish
traveler, Peter Mundy: ‘Att our beeing here was launched a New Galleon off 14
Foote by the Keele, as they say, beeing First blessed, Christned, and named el buen
Jesus by the Archebishoppe thatt came over in the Carracke as aforementioned. Shee
was launched in a Device wherin shee was built, called a Cradle, which is a world
of tymber Made uppe and fastned on either side to keepe her uprightt, and soe with
Cables, Capstanes and a Multitude of people, the[y] Forced her into the Water, the
way beeing first very well tymbred and tallowed. There was another on the stockes.
They are very long a Doing and issue att e[x]cessive rates’ (Travels of Peter Mundy,
III, 59). For Diogo Luiz and his certified list of galleons and carracks at Goa in
1636 see my article, ‘O General do Mar, Antonio Telles, e o seu combate naval contra
os Holandeses na barra de Goa em 4 de Janeiro de 1638,’ Boletim do Instituto Vasco
da Gama, No. 37 (Nova Goa, 1938), pp. 55-58.
 IX

The Papers of Do?n Antonio de At aide 47

allegations were that (a) pilots, gunners, and other such persons had
bought their respective posts, instead of being awarded them on the
basis of merit and experience; (b) the ships’ rigging and tackle were
deficient and rotten; (c) the provisions and wine provided were inade¬
quate for the length of the voyage and were poor in quality.
The second-in-command or Admiral, Christovão Borges Corte-
Real, declared on oath that ‘when he was in Lisbon engaged in signing
on men in the warehouse for the voyage, he saw Dom Jorge Masca-
renhas take out a nominal roll and put down in it the names of such
persons as he wished. And he saw that a sailor of many voyages whom
he knew by sight but whose name he did not know, was left out, and
this man said in a loud voice “I am left out because I have no money
to buy my place, and others who have money but no experience go
instead.” And the said Dom Jorge gave orders in a loud voice that this
man was to be arrested but nobody laid a finger on him.’ Dom Jorge
Mascarenhas was the Crown-appointed president of the Company’s
board of five directors at Lisbon, and he and his family were favorite
targets for the accusations of witnesses in this case. It was alleged by
various individuals that Dom Jorge had taken bribes, and his sons
likewise; his wife was accused of having sent barrels of wine aboard to
be carried duty-free to India by the ships’ officers who had got their
places through her husband’s influence.35
Another witness, who had come out in the flagship, deposed that the
provisions were so few and rotten that everyone would have died of
starvation if the voyage had not been an exceptionally quick one. The
rigging and tackle were even worse and no spare sets of sails were car¬
ried. When the Captain-Major, Dom Jorge de Almeida, asked the
Master for some canvas to make sails, the latter replied that he had none,
‘to which the Captain-Major retorted that he had better find some
quickly or else he would make it from his beard, to which the Master
answered that the Junta had not given him any, and this was said in the
presence of the deponent and of Dom Rodrigo de Costa.’ Other wit¬
nesses deposed that some of the sailors had never had their hand on a
tiller previously, and the master-gunner stated that only five of his
men knew their business, for the remainder were cobblers and tailors
from Lisbon. One of the witnesses warned the court that they should
35 Several witnesses alleged that the Master of the Bom Jesus do Monte Calvario
had secured his place by a bribe paid to the wife of Dom Jorge Mascarenhas through
the intermediary of the Jesuit Padre Antonio Rodriguez.
IX

48
not believe the evidence given by the seamen, ‘because they are bound
to give false evidence since they depend on the favor of Dom Jorge
and of the Company to enable them to make other voyages, as can be
seen by the Master, Jeronimo de Gouvea, who after complaining to
the deponent in Lisbon that the carrack only carried insufficient, rotten,
and disintegrating tackle, was heard by the deponent subsequently to
say on board to somebody (he doesn’t remember to whom) that he had
given Dom Jorge a certificate certifying that the carrack was well
fitted with tackle.’
Despite this insinuation, most of the sailors who gave evidence
frankly admitted that the provisions and ships’ stores left much to be
desired, although a few of them claimed that it was only their quantity
and not their quality which was faulty. Virtually all the witnesses
agreed that the ships would never have reached Goa under normal
conditions; but although they left Lisbon exceptionally late in the
season (19th April) they had unprecedently favorable weather the
whole way and arrived unusually early (September). Many witnesses
pointed out that conditions on board ship had been much better when
things had been managed by the Crown. One deponent instanced the
voyage of Dom Jorge de Meneses in Na Sra do Rosario in 1628, which
lasted over seventeen months, yet the carrack reached Goa with plenty
of provisions and wine aboard. The correspondence of the Company’s
Goa agents contains interesting details about the liberdades of the sea¬
men, and is full of complaints of their behavior, ‘so arrogant and dis¬
orderly that there is no bridling them.’
The Viceroy, Conde de Linhares, in his covering letter when for¬
warding the proceedings of the court to the Crown, stated that some
of the evidence was clearly prejudiced and exaggerated, and that not
all of the charges had been proved. He added that nevertheless it
disclosed a sufficiently serious and unsatisfactory state of affairs, which
reflected little credit on headquarters at Lisbon. He concluded by
saying that there was no fear of similar miscarriages on the return
voyage, since he had taken care thoroughly to refit, repair, and pro¬
vision the two carracks, in which he had been well supported by the
Goa agents of the Company, for whose zeal and integrity he could
vouch.38
3,1 Despite the Viceroy’s boast, the Santo Ignacio de Loyola was forced to call at
Luanda in Angola on her return voyage, owing to shortage of food and water. She
finally reached the Tagus on the last day of March 1632, but stranded off Oeiras on
 IX

The Papers of Dow Antonio de Ataide 49

The sensational nature of the charges against Dom Jorge Masca-

renhas as president of the Company so embarrassed the Governors of
Portugal (one of whom was Dom Antonio de Ataide) when they
received this report, that instead of sending it to Madrid through the
‘usual channel’ of the Council of Portugal, they sent it direct to King
Felipe IV by the hand of the Marques de Villa-Hermosa. The lethargic
Castilian monarch evidently adopted his usual policy of masterly in¬
activity, since Dom Jorge Mascarenhas remained as head of the Com¬
pany until its dissolution, and was later appointed first Viceroy of
Brazil with the title of Marquês de Montalvão in 1640.37

Lack of space precludes the giving of any more extracts from the
various codices compiled or annotated by Dom Antonio de Ataide in
the years 1611 to 1633, and now scattered throughout three continents
after their disposal at the Castel-Melhor sale. Sufficient has been said
to indicate their interest and scope, and it is to be hoped that some
naval historian, at Harvard or elsewhere, may eventually make a study
of them in earnest. It would be best to begin at Harvard, which has
the most extensive collection so far located, but reference to the Castel-
Melhor catalogue discloses several other interesting items (lots 20, 33,
44, 234, and 243, for example) which it would be worth while trying
to trace.
It would obviously be absurd to claim that Dom Antonio de Ataide
was a great naval commander, or that he made any outstanding con¬
tribution to the development of nautical science. But it may, I think,
be fairly argued that he was a most competent seaman, and that he took
an exceptionally keen and intelligent interest in all maritime affairs
which came within his purview. As a Portuguese naval adminis¬
trator he may perhaps be compared with his Castilian contemporary,
Don Diego Brochero, who did so much to reorganize and improve the
Spanish sea service. His nearest English counterpart is probably Sir

her way up the river next day, no lives being lost, but much of the cargo damaged
by sea water before it could be unloaded. The Bom Jesus de Monte Calvario had
reached Lisbon safely on the 21st October 1631.
37 Dom Jorge de Mascarenhas, Conde de Castello-Novo and later Marquês de
Montalvão, had a singularly checkered career, being in his time a prisoner of the
Moors, Governor of Mazagão in Morocco, Viceroy of Brazil 1640-41, deposed and
sent a prisoner to Portugal, released and made President of the Overseas Council and
Comptroller of the Exchequer, then arrested again and thrown into prison, where
he died in 1647.
IX

5°
William Monson, and his papers may be regarded as a Portuguese
equivalent of the Naval Tracts. The colonial, maritime, and naval
documents which he so assiduously amassed, and diligently annotated,
are now scattered far and wide. Their thorough collation, comparison,
and, where necessary, publication, will show students of seventeenth-
century maritime history how much they owe to the professional zeal
and collector’s forethought of this industrious and honorable man.38

38 Thanks are due to the authorities in charge of the rare book and manuscript
sections of the Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, and of the Harvard College
Library for facilitating my consultation of the codices in their charge.
 X

Sailing Orders for the Portuguese

East-Indiamen of 1640 and 1646

The Portuguese carreira da índia, 1497-1863, and the Spanish carrera de

Filipinas, 1565—1815, were called the longest and most arduous voyages in the
world by such men as Alessandro Valignani (carreira, 1574) and Giovanni Fran¬
cesco Gemelli Careri (carrera, 1697—98), who had experienced one or the other.
The two circuits certainly had much in common, and they afford some interest¬
ing contrasts. The present article complements one I have previously contrib¬
uted on the Manila galleons.1 For that route we have the classic work of William
Lytle Schurz to consult, but nothing of comparable value has been written on
the voyage to Portuguese India.2 The published Portuguese sources are strong
on describing the vicissitudes of life aboard the carracks and galleons of the
carreira da India, but they are sparse on such matters as the loading, unloading,
and storage of cargoes and the financing provided by the crown—a gap of
information which the two documents described below should help to fill.3
Both documents concern the same man, João da Silva Tello de Meneses
(15??—1650), a Portuguese fidalgo who made the outward voyage to Goa in
1640 and the homeward voyage to Lisbon in 1646. He was the son of the
regedor (chief justice) Diogo da Silva and his wife Dona Margarida de Meneses.
The family was of noble blood, the title regedor, held by successive generations,
being more honorary than indicative of some real function. Our man served as
a volunteer in the Spanish-Portuguese “Expedition of the Vassals,” which re¬
took Bahia (modern Salvador) from the Dutch in May 1625; he also took part
in the defense of Cadiz against the English in October of the same year. From
1631 to 1636 he was governor of Mazagão, the most southerly Portuguese

1C. R. Boxer, “The Sailing-Orders for the Manila Galleons of 1635-36,” Terrae Incognitae 4
(1972): 7 — 17.
2 William Lytle Schurz, The Manila Galleon (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1939; paperback reprint
published by Dutton, 1959).
3joão Vidago, “Anotações a uma bibliografia de ‘carreira da índia,’ ” Studia: Revista quadrimestral
18 (August 1966):209-41; Georg Schurhammer, Francis Xavier: His Life, His Times, trans. M.
Joseph Costelloe, vol. 2: India, 1541-1545 (Rome; Jesuit Historical Institute, 1977), app. 3:
“Sailing Manuals and Travelogues, 1497-1753,” pp. 682-86; Vitorino Magalhães Godinho,
"Rota do Cabo,” an excellent analytical article in the Dicionário de história de Portugal, ed. Joel
Serrão, vol. 3 (Lisbon, 1968), pp. 673-92, although the very inferior work of Albert Hyma, The
Dutch in the Far East (Ann Arbor, Mich.: George Wahr, 1942), should be excluded from the
bibliography.
X

stronghold in Morocco, where he enjoyed great popularity and earned lasting

esteem for the exemplary conduct of his office. His Moroccan service was
unfortunate in one way, since he lost a son in a disastrous sally against the
Moors, 17 September 1633.4 At an unascertained date prior to February 1640,
when he was appointed viceroy of India and created count of Aveiras, he
served as governor of the Algarve. On 26 February 1640 he took the oath of
office at the hands of King Philip IV (III of Portugal) in Madrid. A month
later, he sailed from Lisbon in the galleon Santo António, accompanied by the
carrack Nossa Senhora da Atalaia and three other ships. I he first document
summarized below is the regimento (instructions or standing orders) given to
him for this voyage.
The safe arrival of his squadron at Goa between 17 and 19 September,
following a relatively prosperous voyage that touched nowhere, “caused great
triumph and rejoicing” in the Indo-Portuguese capital, as a contemporary
Dutch report sourly noted. The Dutch forecast that this joy would be short¬
lived, however, and so it proved. I he viceroyalty of the count of Aveiras (24
September 1640 to 30 December 1645), through circumstances in the main
beyond his control, coincided with one of the most disastrous periods in the
history of Portuguese India, as I have described in detail elsewhere.' Despite
the misfortunes of his viceroyalty, the count of Aveiras had contrived to amass
a considerable personal fortune by the time he sailed from Goa for Lisbon on
22 Januarv 1646, in the galleon Santa Margarida, accompanied by the galleon
Santo Milagre. The regimento for this return voyage is translated in full below.
The trip was a relatively smooth one, but the count himself suffered greatly
from scurvy. Gritics of his conduct as viceroy were not lacking at the Portu¬
guese court; among them was the influential Jesuit, António Vieira.h King John
IV, however, though he took Vieira's advice more often than not, never lost
confidence in the count of Aveiras, bestowing the family’s hereditary post of
regedor upon him with the most flattering terms of praise, 31 May 1648. The
king also persuaded the count, against his better judgment, to accept the vice¬
royalty of India a second time, in January 1650, promising that he would be
created marquis of Vagos upon his arrival there.
On this occasion the count offered passage in his flagship to the itinerant
English Roman Gatholic poet (or poetaster, pace John Dryden) Richard Fleck-
noe, whose talents as a warbler had earned him the patronage of the music-
loving King John IV. Flecknoe had just returned from a delightful voyage
“rolling down to Rio" in 1648—49. But he declined the count’s offer because,

'See the extracts front an eighteenth-century chronicle ot Mazagão quoted in António Dias Fa¬
rinha, "História de Mazagão durante o período Filipino." Studia: Revista quadrimestral 26 (April
1969): 179-346, especially 317-19.
Boxer, “Portuguese India in the Mid-Seventeenth Century, 1640-1660” (The Heras Lectures,
delivered at Bombay, December 1978;now published: New Delhi, O.U.P., 1980).
'’See Boxer, Fidalgos in the Far Fast. 1550—1770 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1948), pp. 139—56,
and the sources there quoted. The Swedish resident at Lisbon, 1649—52, John Frederick von
Friesendorff, described the count ot Aveiras as “Vir magnae quidem staturae et molis, sed in quo
de caetero nihil adeo magnum reperio" (quoted in Karl Mellander and Edgar Prestage, The
Diplomatic and Commercial Relations of Sweden and Portugal from 1641 to 1670 [Watford: Voss &
Michael, 1930], p. 85).

38
 X

as he believed, “not one Portugal ship of three returns safe from that voyage,
whilst not one in ten of the Hollanders ever miscarries, the doubling of the
Cape of Bonna Esperanza being only dangerous at some seasons in the year,
which seasons they never avoid (by their own confession) so unwise men, or
so ill mariners are they, not better to know to time their voyage or trim their
ship.”' Flecknoe’s caution was thoroughly justified: of the five sail with which
the count of Aveiras left Lisbon on 21 April 1650, not one reached India that
year, and the viceroy himself died of fever near Quelimane on the coast of
Mozambique. King John was much upset when he heard of the death of his
loyal servant and wrote a heartfelt letter of condolence to the widow in July
1651.7 8
The two documents of 1640 and 1646 described below formed part of a
large collection of the family and official papers of the counts of Aveiras
which were dispersed at various sales between 1974 and 1977, including one
at Sotheby’s London on 9 April 1974.9 10 1 acquired the two regimentos from a
Lisbon bookseller, together with the original letters-patent on parchment ap¬
pointing the hrst count of Aveiras as viceroy of India in 1640 and 1650, and
other related original documents. The hrst regimento is reproduced in a
slightly abridged form, because the Portuguese text of a very similar one,
given to Luis Velho on 23 March 1644 has already been reproduced in full by
Alberto Iria.1" Quotation marks have been used in the hrst text to distinguish
passages of direct translation from those which are merely summaries of the
original. The second regimento has been translated in full.

Regimento for the count of Aveiras, 20 March 1640

“I the king inform you, João da Silva Tello de Meneses, count of Aveiras, of
my Council of State, whom I now send as my viceroy of India, that for the
greater safety of the ship in which you sail together with the others in your
company, I hereby order you to abide by the following regimento”:

1. Before clearing the bar of the Tagus, he is to ensure that all the guns
are properly mounted; that cannonballs of different calibers are available and
handily placed for the corresponding guns; that all the men are divided into
squadrons under officers, who are to see that their men are well armed and
maintain proper watch by day and night. These defensive precautions are to be
continued until reaching the latitudes where it is unlikely that any enemy ships

7 Richard Flecknoe, A Relation of Ten Years Travells in Europe, Asia, Affrique, and America (London,
1656), p. 101.
8P. M. Laranjo Coelho, ed., Cartas de el-rei D. João IV para diversas autoridades do reino (Lisbon:
Editorial Ática, 1940), p. 463.
9 Sotheby’s Sale Catalogue, Tuesday, 9 April 1974, pp. 104-7. lots 675-78, where, however, some
items are wrongly identified owing to the ignorance of the cataloger, who (p. 107, lot 678) for
example, confuses the Indian Kanarans of Goa with the Spanish Canary Islands!
10 Alberto Iria, Da navegação portuguesa no índico no século XVII: Documentos do Arquivo Histórico
Ultramarino (Lisbon: Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1963), pp. 248-57.

39
X

will be encountered and where the prevailing winds and weather mean that the
guns should be dismounted and stowed below."
2. In order that the men should be properly trained by the time they reach
India, they should be exercised in firing their arquebuses and muskets when¬
ever the weather is fine and the sea smooth enough. But great care must be
taken not to leave any gunpowder in the soldiers' possession after such practice
periods.
3. Particular care must be taken to ensure that the ships always keep in
company and do not separate from each other during the whole voyage. The
captain of any ship which disobeys this order will be punished as guilty of a
most heinous crime.
4. In order to facilitate station keeping at night, the poop lantern must be
kept lit. If contact is lost, the flagship must display an additional light at the
maintop, and at the changing of the watch, signal Hares must be fired from the
poop or wherever is safest in the prevailing wind. These efforts are to be
continued nightly until all hope of regaining contact is lost.
5. In hard weather, care must be taken not to shorten sail too much. The
flagship must regulate its sailing so that her consorts are not forced to crowd
on sail to the point where their sails may be carried away.1" In case of hard
weather at night, the flagship will display a lantern at the maintop, and the
other ships one at the poop, in order to avoid running foul of each other.
6.[Describes and details the flares to be fired and other signals of distress
to be made if any ship becomes unrigged by day or night.] In the latter case,
every effort must be made not to tack or change course, but to hold the same
course as the flagship was steering at sunset. If contact is lost, every effort must
be made to regain it.
7. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the voyage should be con¬
tinued through the Mozambique Channel, if possible. “If you raise the Islands
of Angoche and learn there for certain that the enemy are not cruising off the
Island of Mozambique, you may call at that stronghold if compelled by some
urgent necessity to do so, but not on any other account whatsoever. As regards
whether you should take either the outer or the inner passage of the Island of
São Lourenço [Madagascar], you will be guided by the standard manual of
navigation in which are laid down the alternative courses to take in the prevail¬
ing conditions of wind and weather.”13
8. “As soon as you have passed the dangerous coast of Natal, you will
remount the ships guns and be prepared for action with any enemy ships you
may encounter during the remainder of the voyage.” Special attention must be

The corresponding clause in the 23 March 1644 regimento lor Luis Velho is more explicit on this
point, adding that it will only be necessary to stow the guns below between the Cape of Good
Hope and the entrance to the Mozambique Channel (Ida. p. 248).
17 The 23 March 1644 regimento for Luis Velho is also more explicit here, adding that if shorten¬
ing sail occurs in the daytime, “you will do it in such wise that the other galleons can see what you
are doing, so that they may do the same” (Ida, p. 249).
For a detailed description of the Islands of Angoche as seen from seaward, see the British
Admiralty Hydrographic Department, Africa Pilot, pt. 3, I 1th ed. (1954), pp. 256-57.

40
 X

given to the arrangements for storing the gunpowder and for keeping it dry,
whether the guns are mounted or stowed below.
9. In taking your course through the Mozambique Channel, you should
try to raise the Island of São Lourenço in twenty-three degrees latitude, and
coast along it as far as twenty-one degrees latitude. Navigating in this way, you
will sight the Island of João da Nova to the westward.14 By coasting along the
Island of São Lourenço you are sure of meeting with more favorable winds
than if you sighted the coast of Mozambique, which you should endeavor to
avoid doing. From the Island of João da Nova you should be able to cross the
Indian Ocean, as some ships have done as late as September. But if you pass
the Mozambique Channel at the end of the monsoon, you should try to set a
course for Bombay near Chaul after crossing the Line. If you cannot do this,
you should put into either Socotra or else Mombasa. If you cannot get as high
as the latitude of Bombay, you should raise the Indian coast as far north of the
Queimados Islands as you can, in order to gain intelligence there of what is
happening in India and what the enemy is doing.13 Acting on the information
you receive, you will then take the safest course to Goa.”
10. “In case you have to winter at Socotra, which god forbid, you will leave
there early in April with the first westerly winds and seek refuge in Bombay.”
11. “If you have to winter at Mombasa or at Querimba, you will be able to
leave there on 20 March, which is when the westerly winds begin to blow.”16 As
the winter season on the coast of India begins early in some years and late in
others, it is best to try to reach India before it begins, which might be either on
10 or 20 May. As these are great ships, it will be safer to go to Bombay rather
than to Goa, in such an eventuality.
12. The captain of Mozambique Island has standing orders that as soon as the
season sets in when the Indiamen may be expected, he should send a vessel to
the factor who is stationed at Angoche, with orders to send two light pangaios
(barge-like vessels with one matsail of coconut matting) to cruise in the offing
where the Indiamen must pass, in order to inform them about the situation at
Mozambique and what course they should take. [Explains what signals should be
exchanged between these pangaios and the Indiamen for mutual recognition.]
13. If none of the pangaios are encountered off Angoche, the Indiamen must
see if they can sight a mast set up on shore with a small shack at the foot of it, on
one of these islands. If so, the ship’s boat should be sent ashore with a man to
look for a box at the foot of the mast, where there should be written information
about which island it is, where the pangaios on watch are cruising, news of the
situation at Mozambique, and whether there are any enemy ships off the coast.

14 Island at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel. For a detailed description by a pilot in
1604, see Gabriel Pereira, Roteiros portuguezes da viagem de Lisboa á India nos séculos XVI e XVII,
(Lisbon: Impresa nacional, 1898), 49—50.
15 The Ilheos Queimados, as they are spelt in Portuguese, are the Burnt Islands or Vengurla Rocks
of the British Admiralty charts, situated in 15° 53' N., very close to die west coast of India.
16 Ilhas Querimba (or Quirimba) are a chain of islands and reefs fronting the Mozambique coast for
about 110 miles south of Cape Delgado. See the Africa Pilot, pt. 3, 11th ed. (1954), pp. 285-89.
See also Boxer, “Moçambique Island as a Way-Station for Portuguese Fast-Indiamen,” Manner's
Mirror 48 (1962):3—18, for the carreira in the Mozambique Channel.

41
 X

AO 'PeIXEIÍA CojMOefUfNO.
Dr S'A Maucstadk

AuiV/ J H
Jl"« r///.,. ,/£■
•ll+M'/./,,,.,

Z/vjvt Eg* /.vt»< /.«

; -*/ Cjpxr cpfi.vro

Joaõ Teixeira chart of 1649, from Melchisédech Thévenot, Relation de divers voyages curieux . . . ,
(Reproduction, courtesy of the William L. Clements Library.)
 X

14. As the count of Aveiras should have extensive judicial powers in order
to enable him to deal with such crimes and misdemeanors as may be committed
on the voyage, the king specifically empowers him to act as follows:
15. 'In your flagship during the voyage and in any port, save only that of
Goa, you are empowered to try and sentence anybody committing any crime,
including those deserving the death penalty, and there will be no appeal or stay
of execution against your judgments.” However, sentence of death, or of bodily
mutilation, will not be carried out on any nobles and gentlemen who are pro¬
ceeding to India in the service of the crown, nor against any pilots, assistant
pilots, masters, and their mates. Individuals of these categories who have mer¬
ited a death sentence, will be placed in close confinement on board and will be
transferred to the public jail on arrival at Goa, where they will be tried under
due process of law.
16. “Moreover, if such fidalgos and other persons of the categories above
mentioned commit mutinous or rebellious acts against your authority on the
outward voyage, they will be imprisoned at Goa and tried by the local high
court for the same.” If these crimes are committed on the homeward voyage,
the offenders will be arrested and handed over to the magistrates on arrival at
Lisbon for trial and sentencing by the competent legal authorities.
17. The count will open a judicial inquiry in the flagship, which will be kept
open during the whole voyage, wherein will be recorded the names of any
individuals found guilty of blasphemy, witchcraft, swearing, perjury, sexual
immorality, or reading prohibited books. Such offenders will be arrested and
confined on board, and handed over to the competent authorities on arrival at
Goa for imprisonment and trial, as for the mutineers and rebels listed in the
preceding paragraph.
18. “You are empowered to levy monetary fines up to a total of two hun¬
dred cruzados on any person of any quality or condition whatsoever, without
any appeal or stay of execution being allowed them.”1'
19. “Eight or ten days after the voyage has begun, you will take a muster roll
of all the people on board, in addition to the one taken in the port of Lisbon
before sailing. In this you will have the scrivener of your ship record all the
names of the people in your ship, the soldiers in one section and the mariners
in another, specifying the privileges [“foros”] with which each individual has
embarked, from the royal decree [“alvará”] which each one must present,
checking their personal identifications against their distinctive physical fea¬
tures. And you will not allow any mariner to have a foro even if he can present
an alvará in his favor. You will check this muster roll on reaching the coast of
India, deleting the names of those who have died on the voyage. This corrected
muster roll will be handed in to the general registry at Goa, so that the soldiers
can be entered therein together with the specifications of their individual foros.
The scrivener of your ship will make copies of both these muster rolls, which
you will bring back with you and hand in to the Overseas Gouncil, so that they
may be checked against the muster roll taken on the eve of departure. There
must be no negligence in this matter.”

17 One cruzado was then the equivalent of four shillings English.

43
X

20. All the weapons on board must be inspected, cleaned, and repaired by
the armorers every fifteen days. Similarly, the guns and gun carriages must be
regularly maintained, and all munitions and war matériel kept serviceable for
action.
21. Soldiers who have been issued with weapons on the voyage are apt to try
to retain them at the end, refusing to hand them back to the master-at-arms.
This abuse cannot be tolerated, and effective measures must be taken to ensure
that all these weapons are collected before the soldiers disembark at Goa.18
22. On reaching the Cape of Good Hope, the count will have to decide
whether to take the inner passage through the Mozambique Channel or the
outer passage to the east of Madagascar, according to the season of the year,
and as laid down in the official manual of navigation. If the inner passage is
taken, a call will be made at Mozambique Island only if there is no risk of losing
the voyage in so doing.
23. The Dutch have many ships in the Indian Ocean, and they reportedly
intend to blockade the river of Goa and to try to intercept the Portuguese
Indiamen off Mozambique. It is therefore vitally necessary that all these ships
keep in company and that all on board are ready and trained for action if the
enemy are encountered.
24. There is often trouble between the sailors and the soldiers on board
over their respective use of the cooking hearth, and therefore it may be better
to establish separate hearths for each category and to appoint a reliable person
to superintend them and to assure that everyone gets fair and equal treatment.
25. The count must ensure that neither the ship’s physician, surgeon, nor
barber, makes any charge for his professional services and that all the drugs
and medicines supplied by the crown are issued free to patients.
26. In addition to being distributed in squadrons and watches, the soldiers
must also be subdivided into messes, so that they may help each other in case of
necessity and foster mutual comradeship.
27. On no account will the soldiers be allowed to sell, swap, or give their
wine rations away. The wine rations for those individuals who do not wish to
drink wine and the wine rations for boys (“moços de pouca idade”), must be
given in full to their intended recipients on arrival at Goa so that they can sell
this wine and get something on which to live. An edict to this effect will be
affixed to the foot of the mainmast so that nobody can plead ignorance.19
28. The standing orders prohibiting the construction of unauthorized extra
cabins and berths will be rigidly enforced on both the outward and the home¬
ward voyage, as such structures are of great prejudice to both the royal exche¬
quer and navigational safety. The ships’ officers of those vessels which put back
to port will forfeit their places and privileges for another voyage. Men who
jump ship will not be allowed their liberty chests. The scriveners of each ship
must formally notify the captain and ship’s officers of these rules when at sea.

18 This paragraph is not included in the 1644 regimento, which f rom this point is rather differently
worded in several respects. See Ida, pp. 253-57.
19 The 1644 regimento is fuller on the problem of the moços de pouca idade, and what should be done
to check the abuse. See Iria, p. 256.

44
 X

29. In order to avoid the customary frauds and embezzlements of the crown
rations issued on board Indiamen, the scrivener of each ship must give his
captain a daily list of what rations are issued, for as long as the voyage lasts. If
this is not done, the captain and the scrivener will both forfeit their wages, and
their permitted goods will not be cleared through the India House at Lisbon.
Care must be taken to avoid embezzling the rations of those who die on the
voyage. The captain must carefully check the scrivener’s books and accounts
when brought for his countersignature, and he must be present in person
when barrels and casks of provisions, wine, and water are opened.
30. The crown has been informed that many persons embark at Goa in the
homeward-bound Indiamen without the authorization of either the crown or
the viceroy. [Describes the measures which must be taken to stop this practice
and for arresting unauthorized passengers and stowaways and handing them
over to the proper authorities on arrival at Lisbon.]
31. Great prejudice and expense have been incurred by the crown when
Indiamen make unauthorized calls at the port of São Paulo de Loanda in
Angola, owing to the ease with which the crown customs are defrauded and the
enormous cost of repairs. Only in case of the direst necessity may Indiamen put
into Luanda and then only after a formal sworn declaration has been drawn up
and signed by all the ship’s officers giving their individual reasons for such a
decision. The contents of this paragraph are to be formally communicated to
the ship’s pilot after leaving Tagus.
32. The greatest care must be taken to avoid giving offense to god on the
voyage and thus provoking his divine wrath. A good voyage is only possible with
god’s blessing and it is essential to obtain this. Accordingly, a judicial inquiry will
be kept open for this purpose, preferably by the ship’s scrivener or by some
other reliable personage, provided he is not a member of the viceroy’s staff.
Sodomy and other sins against nature are to be particularly guarded against.
33. After considering the opinions of all the most experienced pilots of the
carreira da índia, the crown has decided to accept their recommendation that
the best course to be followed is the one laid down in the sailing directions of
Vicente Rodrigues.20 If no call is made at Mozambique Island, or any port
nearby, it will be best to make straight for the bar of Goa, if early in the
monsoon. If late, it will be best to call first at Cochin and then consider what
course to take. As maritime conditions are so uncertain and it is impossible to

20 The reference is probably to the version adapted and published by another pilot, Gaspar Ferreira
Reimão, by order of the crown in 1612, under the title Roteiro da navegaçam e carreira da India . . .
tirado do que escreveo Vicente Rodrigues, e Diogo Afonso, pilotos antigos (Lisbon: Pedro Crasbeeck, 1612).
The original roteiro of Vicente Rodrigues, perhaps the most famous pilot of the carreira, was
probably compiled about 1570, but not printed in Portugal, in order to prevent foreigners from
learning the navigational secrets of the carreira da índia, circulating only in manuscript form. Such
was the reason given by the Conselho da India de Portugal when they reluctantly gave permission
for the printing of the 1612 Roteiro under conditions of the most stringent secrecy, and threatening
the death penalty to anyone who copied it. This provides a classic instance of locking the stable
door after the horse has been stolen, as Jan Huyghen van Linschoten had obtained a manuscript
copy of the original roteiro at Goa in the 1580s, and it was included in all the many editions of his
classic Itinerário, published in several languages from 1596 onwards. The 1612 Roteiro was re¬
printed with an introduction by the late A. Fountoura da Costa at Lisbon in 1939.

45
X

legislate for all eventualities, the count must take the advice of his pilots into
due consideration, together with the prevailing monsoons, winds, tides, and
other circumstances, maintaining always a good lookout and vigilant watch.
34. Above all, it is essential that the ships keep in company for the whole
voyage, particularly in view of the great danger from the Dutch and the likeli¬
hood of encountering them in the Indian Ocean.
35. There are strong reasons both for and against making a call at Mozam¬
bique Island. The count is authorized to do so if he considers that this can be
done without risk of losing the voyage. But it must be done with great caution,
as the Dutch are liable to infest the Mozambique Channel, especially in view of
the recent news about the riches of Zambézia and the gold mines of Monomo-
tapa. The count must make the final decision about what is best for the royal
service after carefully weighing all the options.

“This regimento is to be followed in everything unless contradicted in some

particular by the final orders given by the government of Portugal. Paschoal de
Azevedo wrote it at Lisbon on 20 March 1640. Afonso de Barros Caminha had
it written.”

[signed] Margarida

[countersigned on verso] Thomas de Ybio Calderon21

Rodrigo[rest of name illegible]

[endorsed] “Instructions for use in the voyage by João da Silva Tello de

Meneses, count of Aveiras, of the Council of State of Your Majesty, who goes
as viceroy of India. For Your Majesty to see.”

Regimento which Your Majesty orders to be given to

the count of Aveiras, of your Council of State,
who now returns to the kingdom in the two galleons
which leave from Goa. For Your Majesty to see the whole.22

Dom João by the grace of God, king of Portugal and of the Algarves on both
sides of the Sea in Africa, lord of Guinea and of the Conquest, Navigation, and

21 Margarida was the widowed duchess of Mantua, who was vicereine of Portugal from December
1635 to December 1640. Afonso de Barros Caminha was from a prominent family of Viana foz de
Lima in northern Portugal. He had served in the "Expedition of the Vassals” to Brazil in 1625, and
later in prominent bureaucratic posts at Lisbon; and he was for many years the secretary of the
Overseas Council, 1643-5?, after the Portuguese Restoration. Thomas de Ybio Calderon was a
Basque naval administrator who had served many years first at Cadiz and then at Lisbon as
superintendent of naval stores and supplies. Imprisoned after the Portuguese revolt in December
1640, he died a few months later, apparently from chagrin and/or ill treatment. Antonio Seyner,
Historia del levantamiento de Portugal (Saragossa: P. Lanaja y Lamarca, 1644), pp. 88, 105, 198.
*2At this period the instructions for the homeward or return voyage were invariably very much
shorter than those for the outward voyage. For typical examples see the regimento dated Goa, 21
January 1645, given by the count of Aveiras to the captain-major Joseph Pinto Pereira of the

46
 X

Commerce of Ethopia, Arabia, Persia, and of India, etc., I inform you, João da
Silva Tello de Meneses, count of Aveiras, of my Council of State, who art now
going to the kingdom in the galleon Santa Margarida, and as captain-major of
the two which are leaving the bar of Goa, that forasmuch as it is convenient
that you should take my instructions in order that you should know how to
make your voyage, despite your great experience and my confidence that you
will always behave as is best for my service, I therefore give you these instruc¬
tions which you will follow as enjoined therein.
As soon as you leave the bar of Goa, you will forthwith ensure that the
galleon is properly stowed and made shipshape. And forasmuch as the
obstacles which originated the order to sail directly for the kingdom have been
removed through the truce signed with the English and with the Dutch, and
the only remaining danger is the possible presence of Spanish or of Turkish
fleets cruising off the coast of Portugal, I order you to try to keep in close
company, being well prepared for action, as I feel sure that you will be.23
Unless you receive some special advice from me as to where and how you
should approach the bar of Lisbon, it seems best that I should leave this to your
own judgment, reminding you, however, that you should consider the prevail¬
ing winds and weather and should consult with the most experienced ship’s
officers, recording your joint decision in writing.24 The same notification is
being made to your admiral, João Rodrigues de Sá.25
And although, as stated above, you should sail directly for the kingdom, yet
if through stress of weather, which is often encountered off the Cape of Good
Hope, or through some other mishaps such as occur in navigation, you should
become separated from your accompanying galleon, or you need drinking
water or running repairs to the extent that you must seek a landfall, you will
call at the Island of Saint Helena for refreshment and repairs and wait there

homeward-bound galleon São Lourenço, published in Boxer, "The Carreira da India: Ships, Men,
Cargoes, Voyages," in 0 Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos e as Commemorações Henriquinas
(Lisbon, 1961), pp. 73-74, and the regimento, dated Goa, 14 February 1646, given by Don Felipe
Mascarenhas to Luis Velho, as captain-major of the two homeward-bound galleons Nossa Senhora
da Candelaria and Santo Antônio da Esperança, unpublished manuscript in the Historical Archives
at Panaji, Goa. All three regimentos are very similar; they are also confusingly worded, reading
as if they were drawn up by King John IV himself instead of bv the two viceroys at Goa.
23 The Anglo-Portuguese truce concluded at Goa in January 1635 was duly incorporated in the
Anglo-Portuguese peace treaty signed at Westminster in January 1642, reestablishing the Anglo-
Portuguese alliance, which had lapsed between 1580 and 1640. A ten-year Luso-Dutch truce was
signed at the Hague in June 1641, but it was not implemented in the East until another truce was
signed at Goa in November 1644. More correctly, the fleets cruising off the coast were Algerian
and other Barbary rovers.
24 Advice boats were usually cruising off the Azores in order to meet homeward-bound Indiamen
and warn them of any dangers and provide help if needed. Compare the letter from King John
IV to the captain-major of the homeward-bound Indiamen, dated 3 August 1646, in Coelho,
p. 135.
23 The term almirante was applied to the second-in-command of a fleet or squadron, or, as here,
of two ships, the senior commanding officer being entitled captain-general or captain-major.
João Rodrigues de Sá e Meneses was later governor of Setúbal and died in 1682. He pub¬
lished an account of his father’s governorship and death in Cevlon. in Spanish, Rebelion de
Ceylan y los progressos de su conquista en el gobierno de C. Saa y Noroii/i (Lisbon: A. Craesbeeck de
Mello, 1681).

47
X

during an agreed time (to be decided beforehand) for the other galleon so that
you can then continue your voyage in company to the kingdom. Your said
admiral, João Rodrigues de Sá, has likewise been so informed, and you will give
him the necessary orders in this connection.
And forasmuch as corsairs are often found cruising in the latitudes of the
islands of the Azores, I warn you that when your course brings you there, you
must sail with great care and vigilance. And even if you only sight one or two
sail, you should not relax your guard, because the said enemies usually cruise
widely separated in order not to miss any opportunity and they can easily
concentrate very speedily by means of signals for mutual support.
The misfortunes which so frequently occur in the voyages of our Indiamen
can confidently be ascribed to the sins which are committed in them against
God Our Lord. It is therefore most essential that you should prevent them, as I
am confident that you will. You will take special care during the whole voyage
to maintain an open judicial inquiry of the offenses committed on board, par¬
ticularly those of unnatural vice. This inquiry will be in the charge of someone
of upright and approved conduct, and it will always remain open. And of¬
fenders who are found guilty of such offenses will be sentenced to close con¬
finement, with the approval of qualified lawyers; and if there are none of these
on board, then sensible and conscientious individuals can act as substitutes.
And those offenders who have been sentenced, as well as those who have
merely been charged, will be handed over to the proper magistrates on arrival
at Lisbon.
Whatever else may befall you, I leave you to cope with it through your great
prudence, being sure that you will use it in such wise that I will be well served
and the galleons will reach Portugal safely after a direct voyage without calling
anywhere, save only in dire necessity as stated above. And as soon as you reach
Lisbon with the favor of God, you will hand in this regimento to the secretary
concerned. Given at Goa. Francisco Gonçalves wrote it on 19 January 1646. I,
the secretary, André Gonçalves Maracote had it written.

[signed] Dom Philippe Mascarenhas

[countersigned] Maracotte"&

26 Dom Felipe Mascarenhas, a very capable but very controversial character, had served in Asia
since 1622, being governor of Ceylon from 1640 to 1645, and viceroy of Goa, 1646-50. He died
on the homeward voyage in 1651. Francisco Gonçalves was a noted Brahmene (Christianized
Brahman) bureaucrat, who was a great confidant of the viceroy and who often served as acting
secretary of state at Goa. André Gonçalves Maracote was a Portuguese who served as secretary of
state at Goa at intervals from 1644 to 1646.

48
 INDEX
Abreu, Lizuarte de: II 36
Adeodato da Trindade , O.E.S.A.:
VI 104
Affonso, Diogo: I 47;IV 177
Affonso, S.J., Gaspar: V 68
Agostinho de Azevedo, O.E.S.A.:
VI 104
Albuquerque, Affonso de: II 58
Albuquerque Coelho, Jorge d': V 61;
VI 102-03,109
Allen, David: VI 107-08
Almada, Francisco Vaz d' : V 81-82
Almeida, Dom Jorge de: IX 47
Almeida, Dom Pedro de, Marquis of
Castel-Novo and Alorna : II 44-45
alms : IX 36
Alvares, Manuel: IV 176,177
Alvares, S.J., Manuel: V 60-61
Alvarez, António: V 52,61,77-78;
VI 102-03
Amaral, Melchior Estacio do: V 70-
73; VI 105-06
Amaral Lapa, Roberto do: II 33,55-56
Ameno, Francisco Lufs: II 32;IX 30
Angoche (Angoxa): I 59;X 40-41
arribadas, abortive voyages: I 55
Ataide (Atayde), Dom António de:
I 60;IV 182-83;IX 24-50
Aveiras, João da Silva Tello de
Meneses, Count of: I 73-74;VI 108-
109;X 37-48
Azores: II 61;X 47-48
Bahia (Salvador): II 33-34,47-58
Baixos da India: V 63,64
Baixos da Judia: V 63
Barchiesi, Roberto: VI 100,106
Barreto de Rezende, Pedro: I 71;
VII 192 ;IX 39
Barros, Joao de: II 35-36; III 95-96,
105
Barros Caminha, Affonso de: X 46
Bassein: I 38-39
Bocarro, António: VII 192
Bombay: VII 192;X 41
Bontekoe, Wilem: V 95;VII 187-89
Botelho, Nuno Alvares: VII 179-80,
194 ; VIII 394,399
boticas (medicine-chests): I 62-66;
III 124-30
bribery and corruption: IX 46-49
Cabreira, Joseph de : V 84-85;VI 107
canela, see cinnamon
Cardim, S.J., António Francisco:
II 42 ; V 87-89 ; VI 108
Carletti, Francesco: V 73;VI 106
carpenters: I 39
carrack: I 34-36;VIII 395-403
Carvalho, Pero Fernandes de : VII 182-
183
Carvalho Mascarenhas, João: V 77-
80;VI 106
Castanheda, Fernão Lopes de: I 60;
III 103 ; V 54
Castro, Dom João de : IV 172,174-
176
caulkers: I 39
charrua: I 43
Chaul: IX 43
Chaunu, P. & H . : II 56
Chaves, Dr Manuel de : III 115
cinnamon: I 54,68;VIII 392-93,403
Cochin: I 38,39,56;III 100;IX 36;
X 48
Columbus, Christopher: VI 110
Comoro Islands : II 59
conhecimento, term explained: VII
180-84
Consulado: IX 25
contraband trade : II 53-58
convicts: I 49-50,81-82
cordage: I 38;IX 34
Corte-Real, João Pereira: I 48,54;
VII 179-81,190,194;VIII 388-406;
IX 42,44,45
Cortesão, Armando: V 54,68
Costa, João da: I 60
Couto, Diogo do: I 5 8 ; II 32,59;III
96;V 56-58,60-61,65-66;VI 104-
105,110; VIII 391
Dalmada, Francisco Vaz : V 81-82
Damão: I 38-39
Della Valle, Pietro: VII 179-80
departure dates: I 55-56
diários do bordo: II 30,41
Dias, Antonio: IX 44
Dias, Diogo: VII 181
Dias, Henrique: V 58-61,96-97
diseases, ship-borne: III 101-05
Duffy, James: V 48,55,75,76,91-92
Dutch criticism of the Carreira in
 -2-
1602: VI 109-10
Dutra, Francis A.: VI 103
Esmeraldo de situ orbis : IV 173
Fernandes, Aires: IV 176
Fernandes, Valentim: IV 172-73
Fernández de Navarrete, Domingo,
Spanish Dominican missionary:
VIII 389
Ferreira Paes, Simão: II 32
Ferreira Reimão, Gaspar: I 4 7 ; II 29,
30,43:IV 182; V 66;VI 103-04
Figueiredo, Manuel de: IV 180-82
Figueiredo Falcão, Lufs de : II 32
Flecknoe, Richard: VII 108-09;X 38-
39
Fontoura da Costa, Abel: I 4 7 ; II 29-
30;IV 171-86 passim
fragata: I 34-37
Franco, S.J., Antonio: V 60
Frazão de Vasconcelos, José Augusto:
Amaral: II 33;IV 171,184;V 60
galleon: I 34-35;VIII 394-406;IX 34,
37,41,44-49
Gama, Dom Francisco da, Count of
Vidigueira and Viceroy of India:
I 60;VII 177-78
Gama, Vasco da: I 34;II 30
Gemelli Careri, Francesco: V 97
Goa, dockyard at: IX 43-46,48
Godinho Cardoso, Manuel: V 61-64
Gomes de Brito, Bernardo: II 32;
V & VI passim
Gomes Galego, Manuel: IX 44
Gonçalvez, Balhazar: IX 44,45
Gonçalves, Bento, sota-piloto
(second pilot) : VII 181-91
Gonçalves, Francisco: X 48
grumete (s) : I 44; IX 38
gunners: IX 39
Hamilton, Alexander: III 110-11
Harvard University Library : IX 24,
33
Hawkins, Richard, his praise of
Portuguese pilots: IV 185
hospitals: II 38-39 ; III 104-110
Iria, Alberto: II 33 ;X 39
Jaboatao, O.F.M., Antonio de
Santa Maria: VI 102
Japan: IV 178,181
João da Nova, island of: X 41
Kanara: X 39n
La Bourdonnais., Mahé de : II 45;
III 119,131
Lavanha, Joao Baptista: IV 179-80;
V 67-68;VI 105
Leitão, Humberto: II 30;III 114
Leite de Faria, O.F.M .Cap.,
Francisco: VI 102
liberty-chests (liberdades) : IX 35-
37
Lima, Dom Paulo de: V 65-66;IX 30
Linhares, Count of, Viceroy of India:
IX 46-48
Linschoten, Jan Huyghen van: IV 178-
179;V 61;X 45n
Lisboa, João de: I 47;IV 173-74
Lobo, S.J., Jeronimo: V 85;VI 107
Lobo da Silveira, Dom Manuel: VI
108
Lockhart, James: VI 110,112
Luanda: II 59
Lufs, Diogo, Master-shipwright at
Goa: I 39 ; IX 45-46
Macao: II 55,60;V 61;VII 182-83
Madagascar: II 4 0—41,59; III 97,113;
IV 183 ; VII 187 ;X 40,41
Magalhães Godinho, Vitorino: II 33
MaggsBros.: V 52,58;VI 101
Malacca: V 60n;VIII 392
Manila Galleon: I 33-36;X 39
manning problems : I 48-50;VI 110
Manuel II, King (and ex-King) of
Portugal: V 54; VI 100-01
Maracote, André Gonçalves : I 74;
X 48
Margarida, Duchess of Mantua and
Vicereine of Portugal: X 46
marines: VIII 393;IX 42
Mariz Carneiro, António de : I 47-48;
IV 183-84
Marques Esparteiro, A.: II 30
Martins, S.J., Pedro: V 64
Mascarenhas, Dom Felipe: VII 178,
193;X 48
Mascarenhas, Dom Francisco : VII
193
Mascarenhas, Dom Jorge: IX 47-49
Mauro , F. : II 61n
Mazagão: X 37-38
McCall Theal, G . : V 93
Mendes, Afonso, Patriarch of
Ethiopia, quoted: I 41
Mesquita Perestrelo, Manuel de :
IV 177
Migueis, Rodrigo: V 67
Moçambique (Mozambique), as a
way-station: I 56-58;II 35-47;
III 95-132
 -3-
Mocarro, Luís Alvares: V 84
Mombasa: I 58-59; III 113;X 41
Montez, Caetano: II 33
Morais Pereira, Franeiseo Raimundo
de: II 30
Motta, Aleixo da: IV 183
Mozambique, see Moçambique
Mundy, Peter, quoted: I 40;IX 46
Muscat: V 81; VIII 193
muster-rolls : X 43
mutiny: VIII 391-92;X 43
náo (nau): I 14-15;VIII 396-406
navetas : VIII 396,400
Nobre, Francisco: V 54
Nuno da Conceição, O.F.M.: V 82-
84; VI 106-07
Olivares, Count-Duke of: VII 181,
185;IX 27-28
Oquendo, Don Antonio de : IX 41
Ormuz: VI 104;VII 177,180;VIII 393
orphans of the Crown: I 50-51
overloading: I 52-55;IX 36
Pacheco, Duarte: IV 173
Paes, Francisco: V 61
Palha, Fernando: IX 33
pay and allowances: IX 33,37-38
pepper: I 52-53;IX 36,37,43
Pereira de Brito, Joseph: III 109
Pimentel, Manuel: I 47;IV 184-85
Pinheiro da Veiga, Thomé: I 45
Pinto Pereira, Joseph: I 73-74;VIII
404-05;IX 42;X 46-47
Pires de Lima, Américo: II 33
porcelain, Chinese: II 53,62,63;
VI 105,108
Portuguese East-India Company:
IX 42-49
private trade : IX 33-34
pursers (escrivães ) , instructions for:
IX 35-37
Pyrard de Laval, François: III 103
Queiroz, S.J., Fernao de: I 51n;
II 37-38;III 101-03,105;IX 39
Quelimane : X 39
Querimba Islands : II 46-47 ;X 41
Quirino da Fonseca: II 30
Raleigh, Sir Walter: IV 175
Ramponi, Francesco: I 47
Rangel, Manuel: V 54-55
ration-scales: I 72,80—81 ;III 120-24
Rodrigues da Costa, Paulo: IV 183
Rau, Viginia: II 30
Respondencia (bonds): VII 182-83
Rodrigues, Vicente, pilot of Lagos:
I 47;IV 177-79
Rodrigues da Costa, António: II 54-
55; IV 183
Rodrigues de Sá e Menezes, João:
X 47-48
Roiz, Gaspar: IX 395,400
Rosenthal, A.: VI 100
roteiro(s) , sailing-directions: I 47-
48;IV 171-88
Sá, Pantaleão de: V 53
Sá, Leonor de: V 91,92
Saint Helena, island: II 58;V 68-75;
VII passim ; IX 29,32;X 47-48
Sanches Correa, Bartholomeu : VII
181,185
Sandomil, Count of: III 115
Santa Cruz, Alonso de : IV 175
Santos, O.P., João dos: II 36,38-39
Sassetti, Filippo: VI 111-12
Schurhammer, S.J., Georg: II 30;
VI 104;X 37n
seamen, commonly regarded with
contempt and dislike in Spain and
Portugal: I 44-4 5,54-55;VI 110
Sergio, António: I 32
Serrão Pimentel, Luis: IV 184-85
Severim de Faria, Manuel: VIII 405;
IX 26
SHIPS' NAMES
Aguia (1559): V 56;VI 101
Bom Jesus (1533): IV 176
Bom Jesus (1636): I 40-41;VIII 389
Bom Jesus do Monte Calvario (1630) :
IX 46
Bom Jesus de Portugal (1641) : VIII
389
Bom Jesus da Villa Nova (1740): I 75,
78
Cinco Chagas (1559): I 39-40
Cinco Chagas (1594) : V 68-74;VI 105
Cinco Chagas (1623): VII 179-80,186,
190; VII 397-401
Garça (1559): V 56;VI 101
Misericórdia (1625) : VII 179-80,186,
190;VIII 399
Nossa Senhora da Atalaia (1647) : V
IV 183;V 85-86;VI 107-08;X 38
Nossa Senhora de Belem (1635): V 84-
85,93;VI 107
Nossa Senhora do Bom Despacho (1630):
V 82-84,99;VI 106-07
Nossa Senhora do Bon Successo do Povo
(1649) : III 114
Nossa Senhora da Caridade e Sao Fran¬
cisco de Paulo (1744): I 81;II 44;
 -4-
III 116,118-19
Nossa Senhora do Carmo (1740):
I 75,78
Nossa Senhora do Castelo (1597):
II 43
Nossa Senhora da Conceição (1555):
V 54-55;VI 100-01
Nossa Senhora da Conceição (1621):
V 77-80;VI 106;VII 178;VIII 393;
IX 26,28,30,39
Nossa Senhora da Conceição (1625):
VII 176-200 passim;VIII 399-400
Nossa Senhora da Conceição (1688) :
I 60
Nossa Senhora da Conceição (1740):
I 75,76,77-80
Nossa Senhora da Esperança (1740) :
I 75,78,79
Nossa Senhora da Estrella (1713):
I 42
Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe (1611):
IX 25,32
Nossa Senhora da Guia (1624): VII
179; IX 41
Nossa Senhora da Guia (1719): I 59
Nossa Senhora do Livramento (17 24) :
I 42
Nossa Senhora da Luz (1614) I 47
Nossa Senhora Madre de Deus (1744):
II 44 ; III 116,118-19
Nossa Senhora das Merces (1740) :
I 75
Nossa Senhora dos Milagres (1686):
V 96
Nossa Senhora de Nazaré (1740) :
I 75,76
Nossa Senhora de Piedade (1611):
IX 25
Nossa Senhora da Piedade das Chagas
I 42
Nossa Senhora da Quietação (1624) :
VII 179,186,190; VIII 397-400
Nossa Senhora do Rosario (1628):
IX 48
Nossa Senhora da Vitória (1745) : I 60
81; III 116
Relíquias (1587): VIII 406
Sacramento (1647): V 85-86;VI 107
Santa Helena (1625): IX 33
Santa Margarida (1646): X 38,47
Santa Marfa da Barca (1559): V 57-
58;VI 101
Santa Tereza (1639): I 34;VIII 388-
389,396
Santiago (1585): V 61-64,97;VI 103
Santiago (1602): V 68-74;VI 105-06
Santo Alberto (1593) : V 67-68,93,99;
VI 105 ; VIII 405
SHIPS' NAMES (cont.)
Santo António (1565): V 61;VII 102-
103
Santo António (1615): VIII 391-92
Santo António (164 0): X 38
Santo António de Taná (1698): I 34,
41 -42 ;III 109
Santo Ignacio de Loyola (1630): IX 46,
48
Santo Milagre (1646): X 38
São Bartholomeu (1625): IX 33
São Bento (1554): V 54,91;VI 100
São Felipe (1611): IX 25
São Francisco (1596): II 48;V 68;
VI 105
São Francisco (1600): I 60
São Francisco da Borja (1691) : I 46,
52;II 36-37
São Francisco Xavier (1624): VII 179-
180,185,190;VIII 394,399-401
São Francisco Xavier (1740): I 75
São João (1552) : V 49-53,91;VI 100
São João (1624 ) : VII 179-80,186,190;
VIII 399,401
São João Baptista (1622): I 39;V 80-
81;VI 106;IX 45-46
São Joseph (1622) : VII 178
São Lourenço (1649): I 73-74;II 42;
III 114 ; V 87-89 ; VI 108
São Paulo (1561): II 48,49;V 58-64;
VI 101
São Pedro Gonçalves (1698): I 36,47,
51
São Pedro de Alcantara (1665) : II 38
São Salvador (1622): VII 178
São Sebastião (1625): I 34-35
São Tomé (1589): V 65-66,97;VI 103-
104; IX 30
ship-building: IX 37
shipwrights : I 39
Silva Correia, A.C. Germano da:
I 51n
Silva Rego, António de : II 32,39-40
Silva y Figueroa, Don Garcia de: I 47
Socotora (Socotra): X 41
Solis, Duarte Gomes de:II 45,48n
Sousa, Martim Affonso de : IV 174
Sousa, Pero Lopes de: IV 174
Sousa de Sepulveda, Manuel de: V 49-
53,91;VI 100
Sousa Rebelo, Luís de: VI 104
Surat: IX 38
Teixeira Feio, Bento: V 85-86;VI 107-
108
Teixeira Pinto, Bento: V 61;VI 102
Telles de Meneses, António, Captain-
 -5-
General of Armadas in India and in
Portugal: I 41
Theal, G. McCall: V 93
Themudo, Valentim: IX 44
Thévenot, Melchisédech: X 42
Thevet, André: IV 176
Toledo y Osorio, Don Fadrique de :
VII 189 ; IX 41
unnatural vice: X 48
Valignano, S.J., Alexandro : VI 110-
111
Vaz de Almada, Francisco: V 81-82;
IX 46
Velho, Luis: I 47 ;X 39,40,47
Velho Pereira, Nuno: V 67,93-94
Vidago, Joao: II 33 ;X 37
Vicente , Gil: III 117
Viegas, Dionizio Manuel: III 113
Vieira, S.J., António: II 52;X 38
Vives, Luis: VI 110
Welch, S.R. : V 93-94
Wicki, S.J., Joseph: VI 101
women: I 50-51,82;V 96-98;IX 38
Wratten, D. : VI 105
Xavier, S.J., Manuel: VII 192
Ybio Calderon, Thomas de : X 46
Zambesia: II 47 ;III 99
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From Lisbon to Goa, 1500-1750

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