Ch. I. Book I. soever, which was not pierced with sorrow, seeing that company for some had sunken cheeks, and their faces bathed in tears, looking at each other; others were groaning very dolorously, looking at the heights of the heavens, fixing their eyes upon them, crying out loudly, as if they were asking succour from the Father of nature; others struck their faces with their hands, throwing themselves on the earth; others made their lamentations in songs, according to the customs of their country, which, although we could not understand their language, we saw corresponded well to the height of their sorrow. But now, for the increase of their grief, came those who had the charge of the distribution, and they began to put them apart one from the other, in order to equalize the portions; wherefore it was necessary to part children and parents, husbands and wives, and brethren from each other. Neither in the partition of friends and relations was any law kept, only each fell where the lot took him. O powerful fortune! who goest hither and thither with thy wheels, compassing the things of the world as it pleaseth thee, if thou canst, place before the sem acorro ao Padre da natureza ; ¦ sobreveherom aquelles que tiin- ham carrego da partilha, e começarom de os apartarem huūs dos outros; afim de poerem seus quinhooês em igualleza; onde conviinha de necessydade de se apartarem os filhos dos padres, e os molheres dos maridos, e os huus irmaãos dos outros. Α amigos nem a parentes nom se guardava nhua ley, somente cada huu caya onde o a sorte levava !" eyes of this miserable nation some knowledge of Book I. the things that are to come after them, that they Ch. 1. may receive some consolation in the midst of their great sadness! and you others who have the business of this partition, look with pity on such great misery, and consider how can those be parted whom you cannot disunite! Who will be able to make this partition without great difficulty? for while they were placing in one part the children that saw their parents in another, the children sprang up perseveringly and fled to them; the mothers enclosed their children in their arms and threw themselves with them on the ground, receiving wounds with little pity for their own flesh, so that their offspring might not be torn from them! And so, with labour and difficulty, they concluded the partition, for, besides the trouble they had with the captives, the plain was full of people, as well of the place as of the villages and neighbourhood around, who in that day gave rest to their hands, the mainstay of their livelihood, only to see this novelty. And as they looked upon these things, some deploring, some reasoning upon them, they made such a riotous noise, as greatly to disturb those who had the management of this distribution. The Infante was there upon a powerful horse, accompanied by his people, looking out his share, but as a man who for his part did not care for gain, for, of the forty-six souls which fell to his fifth, he speedily made his choice, as all his principal riches were in his contentment, considering with great delight the salvation of those souls which before were BOOK I. lost. And certainly his thought was not vain, for Ch. 1. as soon as they had knowledge of our language, they readily became Christians; and I, who have made this history in this volume, have seen in the town of Lagos young men and young women, the sons and grandsons of those very captives, born in this land, as good and as true Christians as if they had lineally descended, since the commencement of the law of Christ, from those who were first baptized."* The good AZURARA wished that these captives might have some foresight of the things to happen after their death. I do not think, however, that it would have proved much consolation to them to have foreseen that they were almost the first of many millions to be dealt with as they had been; Beginning for, in this year, 1444, Europe may be said to have made a distinct beginning in the slave trade, henceforth to spread on all sides, like the waves upon stirred water, and not, like them, to become fainter and fainter as the circles widen. of the slave trade in 1444. In 1445, an expedition was fitted out by Prince Henry himself, and the command given to Gonsalvo de Cintra, who was unsuccessful in an attack on the natives near Cape Blanco. He and some other of the principal men of the expedition lost highest rarity. In such a case it seems to be a service to literature to quote as copiously from the original documents as * AZURARA, cap. 25. I have of the printed ones are of the not scrupled to give AZURARA's description of this remarkable scene without abridgment; and, indeed, throughout this narrative I shall be obliged to quote largely. be done without embarrassing Many of the works referred to the narrative, or encumbering are in manuscript. Several even the page. can Ch. 1. their lives. These were the first Portuguese who BOOK I. died in battle on that coast. In the same year, the Prince sent out three other vessels. The Pedro, who was then regent of Portugal, to enter the river d'Oro, and make all endeavours to convert the natives to the faith, and even, if they should not receive baptism, to make peace and Ch. 1. BOOK I. alliance with them. This did not succeed. It is probable that the captains found negociation of any kind exceedingly tame and apparently profitless in comparison with the pleasant forays made by their predecessors. The attempt, however, shows much intelligence and humanity on the part of those in power in Portugal. That the instructions were sincere, is proved by the fact of this expedition returning with only one negro, gained in ransom, and a Moor who came of his own accord to see the Christian country. This same year 1445, is signalized by a great event in the progress of discovery along the African coast. Dinis Dyaz, called by BARROS and the historians who followed him, Dinis Fernandez, sought employment from the Infante, and being entrusted by him with the command of a vessel, pushed boldly down the coast, and passed the river Sanaga (Senegal) which divides the Azenegues (whom the first discoverers always called Moors) Fernandez from the negroes of Jalof. The inhabitants were discovers much astonished at the presence of the Portuguese Dinis Cape Verde. 1445. vessel on their coasts, and at first took it for a fish, or a bird, or a phantasm; but when in their rude boats (hollowed logs) they neared it, and saw that there were men in it, judiciously concluding that it was a more dangerous thing than fish, or bird, or phantasm, they fled. Dinis Fernandez, however, captured four of them off that coast, but as his object was discovery, not slave hunting,* "Como seu proposito mais era descubrir terra por servir o infante, que trazer cativos pera seu proprio proveito."-BARROS, dec. 1, lib. I, cap. 9. |