Publication Date
2009
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1. Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, 1,950 Km west of the south-western coast of Africa. Different versions exist concerning its discovery. According to the better-known one, it was found for the first time by João da Nova in 1502, but it has been argued that the true discoverer was rather D. Estevão da Gama, in 1503. Both men were Portuguese captains returning from India by the sea-route discovered by Vasco da Gama in 1498. Being well-supplied with fresh water, the island was to prove a convenient port of call for homeward-bound Portuguese Indiamen, which started to call regularly at its harbour in the second decade of the sixteenth century. The strong south east trade winds prevalent in the area prevented the south-bound outgoing ships of doing the same. The remoteness and economical unattractiveness of the island preserved it from being settled permanently by the Portuguese, who contented themselves with using it as a mid-ocean port of call. They were responsible for the introduction of livestock and fruit-trees, which increased the food reserves available during the stay (there was already plenty of fish for fishing). The Dutch and French travellers Jan Huygen van Linschoten and François Pyrard de Laval have left impressive descriptions of how the sojourn in Saint Helena was cherished by crew and passengers, usually exhausted by the difficult passage of the Cape of Good Hope.
2. In 1588, the English navigator Thomas Cavendish called at Saint Helena in the course of his voyage of circumnavigation of 1586-1588, putting an end to a period in which the Portuguese had had exclusive access to the island. This fact was probably behind the temporary prohibition of Portuguese Indiamen calling at the island in the following years, which must also be seen in the light of the events of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604, during which English privateers posed an unprecedented challenge to Iberian sea-power (it should be remembered that Portugal lived under Spanish rule from 1580 to 1640). The measure, however, was soon lifted and the stop in Saint Helena was even made mandatory, with the intention of turning it into a rendezvous for home-bound ships. After meeting at the island, the vessels would proceed to Lisbon together, a way of protecting themselves against English privateers. Around the same time, the Dutch and the English started to compete with the Portuguese by travelling regularly to Asia by the Cape route, a process that soon led to the foundation of the English East India Company (1600), and of its Dutch counterpart, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, better known as VOC (1602). Like their predecessors, the English and the Dutch became accustomed to stop at Saint Helena in their return journey. Encounters were inevitable and, after a tense meeting between Portuguese and Dutch in 1597, violent clashes ensued in 1600 and 1602, the last of which resulted in the capture of a Portuguese galleon, the Santiago, by two Dutch ships. This dictated the reinstatement of the prohibition of Portuguese ships calling at the island, which was not always easy to enforce. The measure was briefly suspended, in the aftermath of the Hispanic-Dutch truce of 1609-1621, but it was promptly resumed two years later, since the truce had proved very ineffectual away from Europe. Portuguese vessels continued, however, to call at the island, although probably not on a very regular basis. More violent incidents took place, in the form of a battle between a Portuguese and an Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1613, and two clashes in 1625, which resulted in the loss of the Dutch ships Witte Leeuw, in 1613, and Middelburgh (1625). We can conclude, therefore, that the Portuguese withdrawal from Saint Helena in the fist half of seventeenth century was not as complete as it is sometimes assumed. But there is no denying that the danger of unpleasant encounters succeeded in refraining them from calling at the island with the regularity that they did in the sixteenth century.
Bibliography:
DISNEY, Anthony, "The Portuguese and Saint Helena", in Portos, Escalas e Ilhéus no Relacionamento entre o Ocidente e o Oriente, Avelino de Freitas Meneses (ed.), vol. I, Lisboa, 2001. MURTEIRA, André, "Combates luso-neerlandeses em Santa Helena, 1597-1625", in Anais de História de Além-Mar, Vol.7, December, 2006. VIDAGO, João, "Ilha de Santa Helena, Ilha dos Amores, escala da Carreira da Índia, 1502-1625", in Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, July-December, 1976.
Author: André Murteira
2. In 1588, the English navigator Thomas Cavendish called at Saint Helena in the course of his voyage of circumnavigation of 1586-1588, putting an end to a period in which the Portuguese had had exclusive access to the island. This fact was probably behind the temporary prohibition of Portuguese Indiamen calling at the island in the following years, which must also be seen in the light of the events of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604, during which English privateers posed an unprecedented challenge to Iberian sea-power (it should be remembered that Portugal lived under Spanish rule from 1580 to 1640). The measure, however, was soon lifted and the stop in Saint Helena was even made mandatory, with the intention of turning it into a rendezvous for home-bound ships. After meeting at the island, the vessels would proceed to Lisbon together, a way of protecting themselves against English privateers. Around the same time, the Dutch and the English started to compete with the Portuguese by travelling regularly to Asia by the Cape route, a process that soon led to the foundation of the English East India Company (1600), and of its Dutch counterpart, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, better known as VOC (1602). Like their predecessors, the English and the Dutch became accustomed to stop at Saint Helena in their return journey. Encounters were inevitable and, after a tense meeting between Portuguese and Dutch in 1597, violent clashes ensued in 1600 and 1602, the last of which resulted in the capture of a Portuguese galleon, the Santiago, by two Dutch ships. This dictated the reinstatement of the prohibition of Portuguese ships calling at the island, which was not always easy to enforce. The measure was briefly suspended, in the aftermath of the Hispanic-Dutch truce of 1609-1621, but it was promptly resumed two years later, since the truce had proved very ineffectual away from Europe. Portuguese vessels continued, however, to call at the island, although probably not on a very regular basis. More violent incidents took place, in the form of a battle between a Portuguese and an Anglo-Dutch fleet in 1613, and two clashes in 1625, which resulted in the loss of the Dutch ships Witte Leeuw, in 1613, and Middelburgh (1625). We can conclude, therefore, that the Portuguese withdrawal from Saint Helena in the fist half of seventeenth century was not as complete as it is sometimes assumed. But there is no denying that the danger of unpleasant encounters succeeded in refraining them from calling at the island with the regularity that they did in the sixteenth century.
Bibliography:
DISNEY, Anthony, "The Portuguese and Saint Helena", in Portos, Escalas e Ilhéus no Relacionamento entre o Ocidente e o Oriente, Avelino de Freitas Meneses (ed.), vol. I, Lisboa, 2001. MURTEIRA, André, "Combates luso-neerlandeses em Santa Helena, 1597-1625", in Anais de História de Além-Mar, Vol.7, December, 2006. VIDAGO, João, "Ilha de Santa Helena, Ilha dos Amores, escala da Carreira da Índia, 1502-1625", in Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, July-December, 1976.
Author: André Murteira