на главную | войти | регистрация | DMCA | контакты | справка | donate |      

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
А Б В Г Д Е Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Э Ю Я


моя полка | жанры | рекомендуем | рейтинг книг | рейтинг авторов | впечатления | новое | форум | сборники | читалки | авторам | добавить




SECTION II. A Voyage from England to Guinea and Benin in 1553, by Captain Windham and Antonio Anes Pinteado185

PREVIOUS REMARKS.

This and the following voyage to Africa were first published by Richard Eden in a small collection, which was afterwards reprinted in 4to, by Richard Willes in 1577186. Hakluyt has inserted both these in his Collection, with Eden's preamble as if it were his own; only that he ascribes the account of Africa to the right owner187.

"I was desired by certain friends to make some mention of this voyage, that some memory of it might remain to posterity, being the first enterprised by the English to parts that may become of great consequence to our merchants, if not hindered by the ambition of such as conceive themselves lords of half the world, by having conquered some forty or fifty miles here and there, erecting certain fortresses, envying that others should enjoy the commodities which they themselves cannot wholly possess. And, although such as have been at charges in the discovering and conquering of such lands, ought in good reason to have certain privileges, pre-eminences and tributes for the same; yet, under correction, it may seem somewhat rigorous and unreasonable, or rather contrary to the charity that ought to subsist among Christians, that such as invade the dominions of others, should not allow other friendly nations to trade in places nearer and seldom frequented by themselves, by which their own trade is not hindered in such other places as they have chosen for themselves as staples or marts of their trade188. But as I do not propose either to accuse or defend, I shall cease to speak any farther on this subject, and proceed to the account of the first voyage to those parts, as briefly and faithfully as I was advertised of the same, by information of such credible persons as made diligent inquiry respecting it, omitting many minute particulars, not greatly necessary to be known; but which, with the exact course of the navigation, shall be more fully related in the second voyage. If some may think that certain persons have been rather sharply reflected on, I have this to say, that favour and friendship ought always to give way before truth, that honest men may receive the praise of well-doing, and bad men be justly reproved; that the good may be encouraged to proceed in honest enterprizes, and the bad deterred from following evil example.

That these voyages may be the better understood, I have thought proper to premise a brief description of Africa, on the west coast of which great division of the world, the coast of Guinea begins at Cape Verd in about lat. 12° N. and about two degrees in longitude from the measuring line189; whence running from north to south, and in some places by east, within 5, 4, and 3-1/2 degrees into the equinoctial, and so forth in manner directly east and north, for the space of about 36 degrees in longitude from west to east, as shall more plainly appear in the second voyage190.

*****

Brief Description of Africa, by Richard Eden191.

In the lesser Africa are the kingdoms of Tunis and Constantina, which latter is at this day subject to Tunis, and also the regions of Bugia, Tripoli, and Ezzah. This part of Africa is very barren, by reason of the great deserts of Numidia and Barca. The principal ports of the kingdom of Tunis are, Goletta, Bizerta, Potofarnia, Bona, and Stora. Tunis and Constantina are the chief cities, with several others. To this kingdom belong the following islands, Zerbi, Lampadola, Pantalarea, Limoso, Beit, Gamelaro, and Malta; in which the grand-master of the knights of Rhodes now resides. To the south of this kingdom are the great deserts of Lybia. All the nations of this lesser Africa are of the sect of Mahomet, a rustical people living scattered in villages.

The best of this part of Africa is Mauritania, now called Barbary, on the coast of the Mediterranean. Mauritania is divided into two parts, Tingitana and Cesariensis. Mauritania Tingitana is now called the kingdoms of Fez and Marocco, of which the capitals bear the same names. Mauritania, Cesariensis is now called the kingdom of Tremessan, the capital of which is named Tremessan or Telensin. This region is full of deserts, and reaches to the Mediterranean, to the city of Oran with the port of Mersalquiber. The kingdom of Fez reaches to the ocean, from the west to the city of Arzilla, and Sala or Salee is the port of this kingdom. The kingdom of Marocco also extends to the ocean, on which it has the cities of Azamor and Azafi. Near to Fez and Marocco in the ocean are the Canary islands, anciently called the Fortunate islands.

To the south is the kingdom of Guinea, with Senega, Jalofo, Gambra, and many other regions of the black Moors, called Ethiopians or Negroes, all of which regions are watered by the river Negro, called anciently the Niger192. In these regions there are no cities, but only villages of low cottages made of boughs of trees, plastered over with chalk and covered with straw; and in these regions there are great deserts.

The kingdom of Marocco includes seven subordinate kingdoms, named Hea, Sus, Guzula, Marocco proper, Duccula, Hazchora, and Tedle. Fez has an equal number, as Fez, Temesne, Azgar, Elabath, Errif, Garet, and Elcair. Tremessan has only three, being Tremessan, Tenez, and Elgazair; all the inhabitants of all these regions being Mahometans. But all the regions of Guinea are peopled by Gentiles and idolaters, having no religion or knowledge of God except from the law of nature.

Africa, one of the three great divisions of the world known to the ancients, is separated from Asia on the east by the river Nile, and on the west from Europe by the Pillars of Hercules or the Straits of Gibraltar. The entire northern coast along the Mediterranean is now called Barbary, and is inhabited by the Moors. The inner part is called Lybia and Ethiopia. Lesser Africa, in which stood the noble city of Carthage, has Numidia on the west and Cyrenaica on the east.

On the east side of Africa, to the west of the Red Sea, are the dominions of the great and mighty Christian king or emperor Prester John, well known to the Portuguese in their voyages to Calicut. His dominions reach very far on every side, and he has many other kings under his authority who pay him tribute, both Christian and Pagan. This mighty prince is named David emperor of Ethiopia, and it is said that the Portuguese send him every year eight ships laden with merchandise. His dominions are bounded on one side by the Red Sea, and stretch far into Africa towards Egypt and Barbary. To the southwards they adjoin with the great sea or ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope, and to the north are bounded by the great and dangerous Sea of Sand, lying between the great city of Cairo in Egypt and the country of Ethiopia; in which are many uninhabitable deserts continuing for the space of five days journey. It is affirmed, if the Christian emperor were not hindered by the deserts, in which there is great want of provisions and especially of water, that he would ere now have invaded Egypt. The chief city of Ethiopia, in which this great emperor resides, is called Amacaiz, being a city of some importance, the inhabitants of which are of an olive complexion. There are many other cities, such as the city of Sava on the Nile, where the emperor ordinarily resides during the summer. There is likewise a great city named Barbaregaf and Ascon, whence the queen of Saba is supposed to have gone for Jerusalem to hear the wisdom of Solomon193. This last city though little is very fair, and one of the principal cities of Ethiopia. In this province there are many very high mountains, on which the terrestrial paradise is supposed to have been situated; and some say that the trees of the sun and moon which are mentioned by the ancients, are to be found there, but no one has ever been able to go to them, on account of great deserts extending to an hundred days journey. Also beyond these mountains is the Cape of Good Hope.

Journal of the Voyage.

On the 12th of August 1553, there sailed from Portsmouth two goodly ships, the Primrose and the Lion, with a pinnace called the Moon, all well furnished with 140 able bodied men, and with ordnance and victuals fitting for the voyage. They were commanded by two captains; one of whom was a foreigner named Antonio Anes Pinteado, a native of Oporto in Portugal, a wise, discreet, and sober man, who, for his skill in navigation both as an experienced pilot and prudent commander, was at one time in such favour with the king of Portugal, that the coasts of Brazil and Guinea were committed to his care against the French, to whom he was a terror in these seas. He had been likewise a gentleman of the household to the king. But as fortune ever flatters when it favours, ever deceives when it promises, and ever casts down whom it raises, so great wealth and high favour are always accompanied by emulation and envy; in like manner was he, after many adversities and malicious accusations, forced to take refuge in England. In this golden voyage Pinteado was ill-matched with an evil companion, his own various good qualities being coupled with one who had few or no virtues. Thus did these noble ships depart on their voyage; but previously captain Windham put out of his ship at Portsmouth a kinsman of one of the head merchants, shewing in this a sample of the bad intention of his mind, which grew from this small beginning to a monstrous enormity; yet happy was that young man for being left behind.

Arriving at the island of Madeira, they took in some wine for the use of the ships. At this island was a great galleon belonging to the king of Portugal, full of men and ordnance, which had been expressly fitted out to interrupt our ships in their intended voyage, or any others that might intend a similar expedition; for the king of Portugal had been secretly informed that our ships were armed to attack his castle of Mina, though no such thing was intended; yet did not that galleon attempt to stay our ships, nor could she have been able to withstand them if that had been tried.

After their departure from Madeira the worthy captain Pinteado began to experience affliction from Captain Windham, who had hitherto carried a fair appearance of good will, but now assumed to himself the sole command, setting both captain Pinteado and the merchants factors at nought, giving them opprobrious words and sometimes abusing them most shamefully with threats of personal ill-treatment. He even proceeded to deprive captain Pinteado of the service of the boys and others who had been assigned him by order of the merchant adventurers, reducing him to the rank of a common mariner, which is the greatest affront that can be put upon a Portuguese or Spaniard, who prize their honour above all things. Passing the Canaries, they came to the island of St Nicholas, one of the Cape Verds, where they procured abundance of the flesh of wild goats, being almost its only produce. Following their voyage from thence, they tarried by the way at certain desert islands, not willing to arrive too early on the coast of Guinea on account of the heat. But being under an arbitrary rule, they tarried too long, and came at length to the first land of Guinea at the river Cesto194, where they might have exchanged their merchandise for a full lading of the grains, or spice of that country, which is a very hot fruit and much like figs; the fruit being full of grains which are loose within the pod195. This kind of spice is much used in cold countries, and may be sold there to great advantage in exchange for other commodities. But, by the persuasion or command rather of our tyrannical captain, our people made light of this commodity in comparison with the fine gold for which they thirsted, wherefore they made sail an hundred leagues farther till they came to the golden land or gold coast.

At this part of the coast, not venturing to come near the castle of St George del Mina belonging to the king of Portugal, they made sale of their goods only on this side and beyond that place, receiving the gold of the country in exchange to the extent of 150 pounds weight196, and they might have bartered all their merchandise for gold at that place, if the pride of Windham had allowed him to listen to the counsel and experience of Pinteado: but not satisfied with what he had got or might still have procured, if he had remained in the neighbourhood of Mina, he commanded Pinteado to navigate the ships to Benin under the equinoctial, 150 leagues beyond the Mina, where he expected to have laden the ships with pepper. When Pinteado urged the lateness of the season, and advised that instead of going farther they should continue to dispose of their wares for gold, by which great profit would have been gained, Windham flew into a passion, called Pinteado a Jew, and gave him much opprobrious language, saying, "This rascally Jew promised to conduct us to places that either do not exist or to which he knows not the way, but if he does not I will cut off his ears and nail them to the mast." The advice given by Pinteado, not to go farther, was for the safety of the mens lives, which would have been in great danger at that late season, during their winter or rossia, not so called on account of cold, but from the heat accompanied with close and cloudy air, alternating with great tempests, during which the air was of so putrifying a quality as to rot the clothes on their backs. He had formerly lingered by the way, to prevent them arriving too soon on the coast, when the heat of the sun is scorching and unbearable.

Thus constrained contrary to his wish, he brought the ships to anchor off the mouth of the river Benin, whence the pinnace was sent 50 or 60 leagues up the river. They then landed, and Pinteado, with Francisco another Portuguese, Nicholas Lambert a gentleman, and other merchants were conducted to the kings court, ten leagues from the river, where they were brought into the kings presence by a great company. The king was a black Moor or negro, though not quite so black as the rest, and sat in a long wide hall having earthen walls without windows, roofed with thin planks open in many parts to let in air. These people give wonderful reverence to their king, even the highest of his officers when in his presence never daring to look him in the face, but sit cowering on their buttocks with their elbows on their knees, and their hands on their faces, never looking up till the king commands them. When coming towards the king they shew him the utmost reverence from as far off as they can see him; and when they depart they never turn their backs towards him. In the communication of our men with the king, he used the Portuguese language, which he had learnt when a child. Commanding our men to stand up, he inquired the reason of their coming into his country; on which he was answered by Pinteado, that we were merchants who had come from a distant country into his dominions, to procure the commodities of the country in exchange for wares which we had brought from our own country, to the mutual convenience of both countries. The king had then 30 or 40 quintals or hundred weights of pepper, which had long lain in a store-house, which he desired our people to look at, and that they should exhibit to him such commodities as they had brought for sale. He likewise sent some of his officers to conduct our people to the water-side, and to carry our wares from the pinnace to his residence. These things being done, the king engaged to our merchants that in 30 days he would provide a sufficiency of pepper to load all our ships, and in case our merchandise might not amount to the whole value of the pepper, he promised to give credit till next season, and immediately sent orders over all the country to gather pepper, so that in 30 days 80 tons of pepper were procured.

In the meantime our men lived without any rule, eating without measure of the fruit of the country, drinking the palm wine which runs in the night from the cut branches of that tree, and continually running into the water to assuage the extreme heat of the season; and not being used to these sudden transitions, which are excessively dangerous, they fell into swellings and agues, by which about the end of the year they were dying sometimes 3, 4, or 5 in a day. When the 30 days were expired, and Windham saw his men dying so fast, he sent orders to Pinteado and the rest to come away without any more delay. Pinteado and the others wrote back to inform him of the large quantity of pepper already gathered, and that they looked daily for more, desiring him to consider the great praise they would all get on their return if the voyage turned out profitable, and the shame that must attend returning without a full loading. Not satisfied with this answer, more especially as the men continued to die in great numbers, Windham sent a second message ordering them to return immediately, or that he would go away and leave them. Thinking to prevail upon him by reasonable means, Pinteado returned to the ships under an escort provided by the negro king.

In the mean time Windham, enraged at Pinteado, broke open his cabin and all his chests, spoiled all the cordials and sweetmeats he had provided for his health, and left him nothing either of his cloaths or nautical instruments; after which strange procedure he fell sick and died. When he came on board, Pinteado lamented as much for the death of Windham as if he had been his dearest friend; but several of the mariners and officers spit in his face, calling him Jew, and asserted that he had brought them to this place on purpose that they should die; and some even drew their swords, threatening to slay him. They insisted that he should leave the coast immediately, and though he only requested them to wait till those who were left at the court of the king of Benin could be sent for, they would by no means consent. He then prayed them to give him a boat, and as much of an old sail as might serve to fit her out, in which he proposed to bring Nicholas Lambert197 and the rest to England, but even this they would not consent to. Finding all his representations in vain, he wrote a letter to the merchants at court, informing them of all that had happened at the ships, promising, if God spared his life, that he would return as soon as possible for them.

Pinteado, thus kept on board against his will, was thrust among the cabin-boys, and worse used than any of them, insomuch that he was forced to depend on the favour of the cook for subsistence. Having sunk one of their ships for want of hands to navigate her, the people departed from the coast with the other. Within six or seven days, Pinteado died broken-hearted, from the cruel and undeserved usage he had met with,-a man worthy to have served any prince, and most vilely used. Of 140 men who had sailed originally from Portsmouth on this unfortunate and ill-conducted voyage, scarcely 40 got back to Plymouth, and many even of those died soon afterwards.

That no one may suspect that I have written in commendation of Pinteado from partiality or favour, otherwise than as warranted by truth, I have thought good to add copies of the letters which the king of Portugal and the infant his brother wrote to induce him to return to Portugal, at the time when, by the king's displeasure, and not owing to any crime or offence, he was enforced by poverty to come to England, where he first induced our merchants to engage in voyages to Guinea. All these writings I saw under seal in the house of my friend Nicholas Lieze, with whom Pinteado left them when he departed on his unfortunate voyage to Guinea. But, notwithstanding these friendly letters and fair promises, Pinteado durst not venture to return to Portugal, neither indeed durst he trust himself in company with any of his own countrymen, unless in the presence of other persons, as he had secret intimation that they meant to have assassinated him, when time and place might serve their wicked purpose.

*****

The papers alluded to in this concluding paragraph by Richard Eden, do not seem necessary to be inserted. They consist of, a commission or patent dated 22d September 1551, appointing Pinteado one of the knights of the royal household, with 700 rees, or ten shillings a month, and half a bushel of barley every day so long as he should keep a horse; but with an injunction not to marry for six years, lest he might have children to succeed in this allowance. The second document is merely a certificate of registration of the first. The third is a letter from the infant, Don Luis, brother to the king of Portugal, dated 8th December 1552, urging Pinteado to return to Lisbon, and intimating that Peter Gonzalvo, the bearer of the letter, had a safe conduct for him in due form. From the introduction to these papers, it appears that Pinteado had suffered long disgrace and imprisonment, proceeding upon false charges, and had been at last set free by means of the king's confessor, a grey friar, who had manifested his innocence. –E.



SECTION I. Second Voyage of the English to Barbary, in the year 1552, by Captain Thomas Windham 184 | A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol.VII | SECTION III. Voyage to Guinea, in 1554, by Captain John Lok 198