[Footnote 53: The letter was first published in the _Panorama_ for 1841, at p. 336. General Brito Rebello argues that the date 1406 is impossible, and should read 1466, or possibly 1460. The former has here been adopted. Other mistakes occur in the letter, as printed in the _Panorama_, besides that of date. Some of its expressions are ambiguous, and the subscript "From Aviz", an evident addition to the original, may be put down to the copyist, who, knowing D. Pedro to be Master of Aviz, concluded that the letter was written from there, though the contents disprove it.] On July 27th, 1467, in answer to a petition of the inhabitants, Azurara issued a certificate[54] of the "foral" of Azere (Azár), _virtute officii_, and on the very next day he met with another piece of good fortune. From the deed of grant it appears that, some ninety years previously, a certain Gonçalo Estevez of Cintra had died, after having built a chapel in honour of St. Clare in the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, in Lisbon, where he desired to be buried, and had left his property with the condition annexed that masses should be regularly said there. This condition, the document goes on to declare, had been broken by his heirs for about seventy years, in spite of judgments obtained against them, and many had died excommunicate because of their neglect and disobedience. Finally, the goods had been declared forfeit to the Crown, and they were now granted out to Azurara, on condition that he should provide for the masses and generally carry out the instructions contained in the will of the founder.[55] A gift of this nature was considered an extraordinary grace in those days, and it affords clear evidence that the Chronicler stood high in the royal regard. [Footnote 54: Gav. 8, Maço 1, No. 17. Torre do Tombo.] [Footnote 55: _Decimo de Estremadura_, fol. 270. Torre do Tombo.] In August of this same year Azurara went to Africa, and, to explain the journey, some introductory remarks are needed. On returning from the fruitless African expedition of 1464, the King had written to him from Aveiro, with instructions to leave all his other occupations--which the Chronicler naïvely assures us were very important and profitable to his countrymen--and forthwith to collect and put in writing the deeds of D. Duarte de Menezes, late Captain of Alcacer.[56] This Duarte was the natural son of D. Pedro, the hero of Azurara's last book; and he had merited much from Affonso V for his long and faithful services at Alcacer, ending with the sacrifice he had made of his own life to save that of the King, during a reconnaissance against the Moors in the last-named year. [Footnote 56: _Chronica do Conde D. Duarte de Menezes_ (_Ineditos_, vol. iii), ch. 1. It would almost seem as though Azurara accompanied the King in his first expedition in 1458, when Alcacer was taken.--_Ibid._, ch. 34.]