Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

thirteenth century this condiment reached Barbary and
Europe by caravans crossing the Sahara.1 Their discovery
on the coast of Guinea dates back to the days of Prince
Henry.

The pepper of King Furfur's Land or Benin is the
pimenta de rabo, or " tailed " pepper, which Portuguese
historians tell us was first brought to Portugal by Joao
Affonso d'Aveiro. It is the fruit of Piper Clusii, D.C.
The discovery of this pepper caused a sensation, for
pepper, up till then obtained from India by way of
Venice, was a costly spice—" ter muita pimenta," pepper
is dear, is still said proverbially. Unfortunately this
Guinea pepper was not highly valued in Flanders. King
John told Dr. Monetarius (1. c, p. 68) that he believed
the superiority of the pepper of Malabar and Sumatra to
be due to the treatment of the berries, and that he had
sent an expert to Cairo to enlighten him on the subject.
After the discovery of India, when the trade in pepper
became a Portuguese monopoly, the export of this
pimenta de rabo was prohibited, in order that the high
price of Oriental pepper might be maintained.4

Cinnamon is not found in Africa at all, except where
its cultivation has been introduced in recent times from
Ceylon. O. Dapper, however, the learned Dutch physician
, apparently supports Behaim's statement as to cinnamon
, for he says8 that " black cinnamon " is found in
Loango and is used for the purpose of " divination"
(probably in the poison ordeal). I have searched in vain
for an authority for such a statement. Mr. R. C. Phillips
and Mr. R. E. Dennett, both men of education and of
inquiring minds, who resided for many years as merchants
to the north of the Congo, know nothing about " black "
cinnamon. Of course, there are several species of Cassia,
such as the Cassia occidentalis, the bitter root of which is
antifebrile, whilst the roasted seeds furnish the " Negro
coffee" of the Gambia; Cassia obovata, which yields
senna, and other species. The bark, a decoction of which
is most generally in use in the poison ordeals, is furnished
by the Erythrophlaeum guineense, Don., a tree found in
all parts of Africa, from the Senegal to the Zambezi.*

The Globe and contemporary Maps.5

I now proceed to examine more closely the delineation
of the west coast of Africa as given on the Globe, with
special reference to the voyages of Cao, and of other
expeditions of the period. I first of all compare the

1 Conde de Ficalho, ' Memoria sobre a Malagueta,' Lisbon (Academia
das Sciencias), 1878.

2 Conde de Ficalho, ' Plantas uteis da Africa Portugueza' (Lisbon,
1884), p. 245.

3 C. Dapper, 'Africa' (German edition), Amsterdam, 1670, p. 511.
Mr. Dennett is the author of ' Seven Years among the Fjort' (London,
1887) and ' Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort* (London, 1898).

4 Ficalho,' Plantas uteis,' pp. 157,164. Also Dr. M. Boehr,1 Correspon.
der Deutschen Afrik. Ges.,' vol. I., p. 382.

4 See Map of Guinea and South-Western Africa compiled from
materials available in 1492. Map 5.

longitudes of a few places as found on a map of " Ginea
Portugalexe," in all probability drawn by Christopher
Soligo of Venice, and on Behaim's Globe with what they
really are according to modern observations. Soligo's
map is contained in a codex, which originally belonged to
a Count Cornaro-Piscopi, then found its way into the
Palace of the Doges, and may now be consulted in the
British Museum, where it is labelled Eg. 73. The codex
contains 35 charts by various draughtsmen, or rather
copyists. The chart of " Ginea Portugalexe" which
concerns us is in three sheets, and depicts the entire coast
from Portugal to the " Ultimo padrao " set up by Cao on
Cape St. Mary in latitude 13° 16'. Its Portuguese original
was evidently drawn immediately after Cao's return from
his first voyage in 1484. The chart is furnished with a
scale, but is still without parallels. A legend written right
against the mouth of the Niger tells us " hie non apar
polus," but this invisibility of the pole-star is not borne
out by the scale of the chart, for if we place Lisbon,
according to Ptolemy, in latitude 38° 40' N. and allow 75
miglie6 to a degree, the latitude of the mouth of the Niger
would be 7° 30' N.

Localities.

Soligo, 1484.

IWiai ». 1492.

Actual, 1907.



o /

38 40 N.

O '

40 0 N.

38 42 N.



18 40 N.

11 0 N.

13 20 N.

Mina d'ouro (Elmina) ....

7 20 N.

4 ON.

5 ON.



9 20 N.

4 80 N.

6 80 N.



7 80 N.

2 80 N.

4 20 N.

Rio do Padrao (Congo), Cao's First!
Pillar, 1482 ......./

6 0S.

25 0 S.

6 0S.

Cabo do lobo, Cao's second pillar!
dedicated to St. Augustin, 1482 . /

18 0 S.

84 0 S.

18 26 S.

Monte negro, CSo's third pillar, 1495



38 0 8.

15 40 S.

Cabo do Padrao (Cape Cross), Cao's!





21 50 S.







84 22 S.

The next table gives the distances between certain
localities according to the same authorities and as measured
on a rather rude map of the world by Henricus Martellus
Germanus.7 This map is one of many in a manuscript
codex, " Insularium illustratum," now in the British

8 The Portuguese Legoaof 7,500 varas was equal to 6,269 meters, and
4-24 Italian miglie of 1,480 meters each were therefore equal to one
legoa. One degree of the Equator (111,307 meters) was consequently equal
to 17-75 legoas or 75*21 miglie (or miles). Pilots generally assumed that
4 miles were equal to a league. Girolamo Sernigi, who wrote a letter to a
gentleman at Florence about Vasco da Gama's first voyage, knew better,
for he reckoned -t J Italian miles to a league, and on the chart which
Alberto Cantino caused to be compiled at Lisbon, in 1502, for his patron,
Hercules d' Este, Duke of Ferrara, a degree is equal to 75 miglie (see
Ravenstein, 'A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama,' pp.
208, 245).

7 Henricus Martellus (Heinrich Hammer) was evidently a German
settled in Italy. A MS. Ptolemy in the Biblioteca Magliabechiana
contains a map of modern Italy drawn by him (A. Mori, 1 Atti.-sec. Congr.
Ital.,' Rome, 1896, p. 567). Facsimiles of his map of the world have been
published by Count Lavradio (1863) and in Nordenskiold's 'Periplus.'