[Cortar & Editat] Artigo - BOXER, C.R - Portuguese Roteiros, 1500-1700_removed

PORTUGUESE ROTEJROS, I500-I700
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down to us, either in manuscript or in print, yet there can be
no doubt that the first Portuguese Roteiros began to be compiled
some time after the doubling of Cape Bojador in 1434. The
actual Roteiro of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama in 1497 is
unfortunately very deficient in scientific nautical observations,
systematically noted and recorded, it being rather a simple
description of the voyage, and hence scarcely deserves its title.
With the discovery of India, however, as a result of this momentous
voyage, a fresh impulse was given to the describing and
recording of the new sea route; and during the ensuing century
were compiled those works on navigation and sailing directions
which served as guides and models to the early English and
Dutch navigators, who were destined to deprive their Lusitanian
predecessors of their hard-won inheritance, and were the
origin of the magnificent English Pilot series of the present day.
For practical purposes it is best to divide Portuguese Roteiros
written during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries into the
following three groups:
(A) Roteiros before Dom Joao de Castro (1500-40).
(B) Roteiros from the time ofDom Joao de Castro until 1 6oo.
(C) Seventeenth-century roteiros.
(A) Roteiros before Dom 'Joao de Castro.
I. Although, as has been stated, the earliest Portuguese
Roteiros must already have been in circulation in manuscript
during the last quarter of the fifteenth century, yet the oldest
document we have is a copy of some Roteiros of this period
recorded by the famous German bombardier, printer and author,
Valentim Fernandes, and probably written down in Lisbon
about the year I so6. The language is simple-not to say rude
-in the extreme, as may be seen from the following passage:
And the cape of Saint Paul lies east north east and west south west with the
River of Lago. And this distance is 72 leagues straight along the shore.
This is followed by a description of the villages, woods, and
recognisable features which lie along the coast between the Cape
and river referred to. Valentim Fernandes does not tell us from