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

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PORTUGUESE ROTEIROS, I500-I700 173
where he copied this manuscript, which is now preserved at
Munich; but from another part of this same Codex we gather
the names of two navigators of the period, namely Gon~alo
Pires and Joao Rodrigues. This earliest Roteiro does not go
further than the Gulf of Guinea, but in the next landmark we
are well on the way to India.
II. In the Esmeralda of the famous hero Duarte Pachecothe
Portuguese Achilles-we have a detailed Roteiro of the
coasts of West Africa, [and] passing the Cape of Good Hope until
the River of the Infante, written about I505-8. In this the
language is a good deal more polished than in the first Roteiro
mentioned, as might be expected from so cultured and erudite
a scholar, whilst the information given is likewise more detailed
1 •
III. We now come to the earliest Roteiros of the Indian
Ocean, namely those of Joao de Lisboa and Andre Pires. The
first of these, namely the Livro das Rot as of J oao de Lis boa, is an
improved copy of an earlier fifteenth-century one, extended to
include the coasts of India and Malaisia. It seems certain that
the work includes many passages from contemporary Arab
sailing directions, since no Portuguese ship had yet reached the
islands of the East Indian Archipelago which are recorded in
this work. The original dating from 1 5 I 4 has been lost; but a
fine contemporary copy exists in the Library of the Duke of
Palmella, which was printed by J. I. de Brito Rebello in I903,
and to this work, entitled Livro de Marinharia. Tratado de
Agulha de Marear de ]oao de Lisboa, etc. the reader is referred
for further details. This pilot Joao de Lisboa, who was still
alive in I 52 8, enjoyed a great reputation amongst his contemporaries,
although critics were not wanting among his own
countrymen, amongst these latter being the celebrated Chronicler
of India, Diogo do Couto (I 54 2-I 6 I 6), who sarcastically
observes in one of his works that he had little use for such pilots,
who were so clever at drawing charts, or making great play with
mathematical instruments, but who invariably ended by wrecking
their ships on some shore, thus losing their own lives
I Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, two editions, both published at Lisbon in I 892 and
I 90 5 respectively.