The roses of Bojador

From a certain moment on, in the Country onde a terra acaba e o mar começa , “where the land ends and the sea begins”, the navigation on the open sea becomes possible . The stern helm and the triangular sails, bigger and more manoeuvrable ships, the compass and the astrolabe, the sailing directions and the rose of winds, the roteiros – accurate descriptions of coasts and littorals – make surer the navigation. The headwind does not scare anymore: it is captured and used to sail close- hauled. There are some certainties: the earth is spherical , the measure of the earth’s meridian is known, there are some maps of Africa with its deserts, its oasis, its caravan paths , its littorals. In one of these maps, the whole western African coast is described till to the future Cape of Good Hope. Truth or dream of a visionary? And there are smart people, in particular. Fishermen accustomed to chase schools of herrings and whales and ready, at the occasion, to become corsairs and pirates have gained experience. They know where and how the winds blow and the streams flow; they know how to manage the sails and the helm, how to take their bearings looking at the sun and at the stars, how to repair the flanks of their ships, how to use the compass and the sword, how to manage the situations of danger. Many of them will be on board of the ships of the overseas expansion. More and more, people talk about magic lands and enchanted islands, about powerful and mysterious kingdoms, but even about dreadful monsters. Because of the Arab merchants and sailors, eager to keep away dangerous competitors, the Ocean Sea is the point of no return, the huge black hole where everything vanishes, the kingdom of the storms, of the eternal darkness and terror. But, despite these rumours, in people talk, more and more, also about Asia, in particular about , about gold and spices, about mythical animals and slaves. Day by day, month by month, the Portuguese caravels sail further and further away from the coasts. They reach an archipelago . Its biggest island is called by the inhabitants Legname ( Timber), and the smallest Deserta ( Desert). Both are Italian names: it is a clear sign that Italian navigators had arrived there. The Portuguese rename them: no more Legname , but – “wood “ in Portuguese—no more Deserta , but – the difference is minimal – Desertas. Northwest of Madeira there are other islands. Big birds of prey flap over them. From the Portuguese word that indicates the goshawk ( Açor ) , those islands, when they are reached, are named Açores (). Some look for reaching, by land, the Christian kingdom of the legendary Priest John ( O Preste João ), the emperor of Ethiopia: the objective is to forge an alliance with him for holding in a vicelike grip the Infidels and for bringing the crusade to an end. But it is still early for the crusade. The Portuguese – Henry the Navigator included – in a first time do not look at the sea, they look at Africa. And from Africa , Gil Eanes, courageous , stubborn and lucky navigator, has come back. He has made an epic enterprise: after fifteen failed attempts( this is what the official history tells, at least) he has rounded Cape Bojador, the point of no return according to the concepts of that time. He has picked up a bunch of wild roses – roses born in Africa – and has brought them to Portugal as a proof of his enterprise. In Portugal those roses cause new emotions: if the world does not end at Bojador, then, beyond Bojador, there is place for other fears and for other dreams. Africa becomes, thus, a sort of promise land. It is 1434 and in Portugal Dom Duarte is on the throne. Three years after, as we have seen, the African dream shatters, for the moment, at Tangier: who wants to sail beyond Bojador, he has to go beyond the sorrow, Pessoa will write. (Quem quer passar além do Bojador/ Tem que passar além da dor). Henrique o Navegador ( Henry the Navigator), third male son of Dom João and of Philippa of Lancaster, is the soul of the Moroccan expansion. He is always in chase of money and, both in Africa and in fatherland, he wants to increase his own properties, his own privileges , his own earnings. He demands the tenths on the fish, demands a percent over the whole earnings gained with the trade of sugar, of sangue de dragão -- ( blood of drake) , a colouring extracted from a plant – on the timber and on many other goods, slaves included. But he gathers also at Sines, in , in the famous Vila do Infante ( the prince’s villa) , cartographers, navigators, sailors, geographers, mathematicians. They were to collect and order the available knowledge, to learn from experience, to order the data. He supports and sponsors Eanes’ enterprise. Does he have a plan for a Portuguese overseas expansion? Maybe. According to some historians, however, Henry’s initiative is still a limited initiative. It is the attempt done by a feudal lord to use the information not for dealing Portugal’s expansion, but for adding new properties to his patrimony, not for increasing the Crown’s power, but his own power. According to others, Dom Henrique’s action is the develop of an intuition, the crowning of a dream. Anyway, a fact is sure: Henrique’s job – at Sagres, in the Açores, at Madeira, "discovered" and populated in the meanwhile – will be precious. And thus, today, from the top of the Padrão dos Descobrimientos in Lisboa -- Stone of the Discoveries – the infante dom Henrique – during his life a complex, enigmatic, and under many aspects, controversial personality – can, quite rightly, stretch out a caravel toward the sea and, in Pessoa’s verses, can have at his feet a “new sea and dead eras” ( o mar novo and mortas eras) and , in his hand , the whole world. And, of course, the Divine Unction. ( Sagrou-te , ( [ God] has consecrated thee).

Note:

It is common belief that the imagine painted in the Saint Vincent Panels (Panel of the Prince) conserved in the Museu National de Arte Antiga ( Museum of Ancient Art) in Lisbon is the portrait of Henry the Navigator. However, according to different interpretations, the man with the oriental style hat painted in the Panel of the Prince would not be Henry, but his brother, the King Dom Duarte. Instead, Henry would be the purple-dressed knight, on his knees, in the foreground and bareheaded in the so called Panel of the Knights. See below

1 2 3 4 5 6 From left to right: 1. Panel of the friars; 2. Panel of the Fishermen; 3. Panel of the Prince; 4. Panel of the Archbishop; 5. Panel of the Knights; 6. Panel of the Relic.