PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR 1T5
rique, my much esteemed and beloved uncle, understanding that he would do service to our Lord God and to us, set about sending his ships to learn of the part of the world beyond Cape Bojador, since until that time there was no one in Christendom who knew about it, nor did they know whether there were people there or not, nor in the sea charts and maps was anything beyond Cape Bojador depicted except what seemed good to the makers ; and since it was a doubtful matter, and since men did not venture to go, he sent thither fourteen times till he learned about that region, and they brought him some thirty-eight Moors, and he ordered a chart made, and he told us that his plan was to send his ships fur- ther to learn of that region," etc.^ The same aim is as- serted in another charter of Affonso dated Feb. 2, 1446,2 and directly by Prince Henry himself in December, 1458, except that in this last case the field of discovery begins from Cape Non.3 Gomes Eannes de Azurara, in his invaluable Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, which was written before 1453, reports a conversation between Prince Henry and Antonio Gongalvez just before Gongalvez's voyage in 1442.* This may be considered as an authentic representation of Prince Henry's views either in 1442 or at
1 Alguns Documentos do Archivo Nacional da Ton-re do Tomho Acerca das Nava- gagoes e Conquistas Portuguezas, Lisbon, 1892, 8. This charter may be taken as a personal statement of Prince Henry's, as Affonso was only twelve years of age and under the guardianship of the Regent Dom Pedro and of Prince Henry.
2 Alguns Documentos, 9.
- " Sendo certo como des a memoria dos homes se nom avia algua noticia na
Christandade, dos mares, terras e gentes que eram alem do Cabo de Nam contra o meio dia e esguardando quanto servi9o se a Deus em ello fazer podia, e bem essy a El Rei D. Affonso meu snr. e sabrinho, que Deus mantenha, me fundei de enquerer e saber parte de muitos annos passados aca do que era des o dito Cabo de Nam em diante, nam sem grandes meus trabalhos e infindas despezas special- mante de dinheiros e rendas da Ordem" (of Christ). Cited from MS. in the Portuguese archives, in A Escola de Sagres e As Tradigoes do Infante D. Henrique^ by the Marquez de Souza Holstein, Lisbon, 1877, 47.
- Azurara, Chronica do Descohrimento e Conquista de Guine', Paris, 1841, 94.
Azurara is now accessible to the English reader in the translation of Beazley and Preetage. London, The Hakluyt Society, 1896 and 1899. The passage referred to in the text is in I, 55.
