The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. Vol. IZurara, Gomes Eannes de
History
The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. Vol. I
Zurara, Gomes Eannes de
Guinea (Region) -- Discovery and exploration -- Early works to 1800
_Ergim_, in ch. xxxiii, pp. 104, etc., and elsewhere, is, of course,
Arguim. Santarem here refers to Barros' description in _Decade I_, i,
10. "Porque naquelle tempo para fazer algum proveito todos os hião
demandar (os ilheos d'Arguim); e tinha por certo que avião elles de ir
dar com elle, por ser aquella costa e os ilheos a mais povoada parte de
quantas té então tinhão descoberto. E a causa de ser mais povoada, era
por razão da pescaria de que aquella misera gente de Mouros Azenegues se
mantinha, porque em toda aquella costa não avia lugar mais abrigado do
impeto dos grandes mares que quebrão nas suas praias senão na paragem
daquellas ilhas d'Arguim: onde o pescado tinha alguma acolheita, e
lambujem da povoação dos Mouros, posto que as ilhas em si não são mais
que huns ilheos escaldados dos ventos e rocio da agua das ondas do mar.
Os quaes ilheos seis ou sete que elles são, quada hum per si tinha o
nome proprio per que nesta scriptura os nomeamos, posto que ao presente
todos se chamão per nome commum _os ilheos d'Arguim_; por causa de huma
fortaleza que el Rei D. Affonso mandou fundar em hum delles chamado
Arguim." Cf. Duarte Pacheco Pereira's _Esmeraldo_, chs. xxv-vi, pp.
43-4. _Arguim_ is defined in the most recent surveys of its present
French possessors as "Golfe, île, et banc de sable ... l'île est par 20°
27' N. lat., 18° 57' à 60 kilom. vers le S.E. du Cap Blanc ... Ses
dimensions sont de 7 kilom. sur 4. Elle est basse, inculte, et parsemée
de dunes."]
[Endnote 98: (p. 107). _John Fernandez ... in that country._--Santarem
draws attention to Azurara's statement that the explorer, Fernandez, was
personally known to him. Cf. ch. lxxvii of this Chronicle; also chs.
xxix and xxxii. "That country" is of course the Azanegue or Sahara land,
near the Rio do Ouro.
_Setuval_ (p. 106) is in Estremadura (of Portugal), twenty miles
south-east of Lisbon.]
[Endnote 99: (p. 110). _Fear to prolong my story ... though all would
be profitable._--The fondness of Azurara for these scholastic
discussions and useless displays of learning is one of his worst
failings; and a good deal of Cerveira's matter of fact has apparently
been sacrificed to this weakness of his redactor.]
[Endnote 100: (p. 110). _Nine negroes and a little gold-dust._--This
was the first instalment of the precious metal brought home to Portugal
from the Negro-land of Guinea. The same Antam Gonçalvez had already, in
1441, brought the first gold dust from the Sahara, or Azanegue coast
(see ch. xvi of this Chronicle, p. 57). As to the importance of these
gold-samples in promoting the European exploring movement, see
Introduction to vol. ii, pp. x-xi.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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