Chapter II consists of a long and most eloquent invocation to D. Henrique, and a recital of his manifold good deeds to all sorts and conditions of men and his mighty accomplishments. Azurara presents them to us as in a panorama, and his simple, direct language reveals a true, though unconscious, artist in words.
Chapter III deals with the ancestry of D. Henrique, and Chapter IV describes the man himself, "constant in adversity and humble in prosperity", his appearance, habits, and manner of life, all with much force of diction.
In Chapter V we have an account of the early life of D. Henrique, of his prowess at the capture of Ceuta, and during its siege by the Moors, with his fruitless assault on Tangiers, which resulted in the captivity of the Holy Infant. His peopling of Madeira and other islands in "the great Ocean sea", and presence at the gathering that ended in the battle of Alfarrobeira are referred to, as also his governorship of the Order of Christ and the services he rendered to religion by the erection and endowment of churches and professorial chairs. The chapter ends with a description of the Town of the Infant at Cape St. Vincent, "there where both the seas meet in combat, that is to say, the great Ocean sea with the Mediterranean sea", a place designed by the Prince to be a great mercantile centre, and a safe harbour for ships from East and West.
In Chapter VI, Azurara returns to his laudations of the Infant, whom he apostrophises thus: "I know that the seas and lands are full of your praises, for that you, by numberless voyages, have joined the East to the West, in order that the peoples might learn to exchange their riches"; and he winds up with some remarks on "distributive justice", the non-exercise of which had been attributed to D. Henrique as a fault by some of his contemporaries.
Chapter VII is occupied with a recital of the reasons that impelled the Infant to send out his expeditions. They were shortly as follows. First and foremost, pure zeal for knowledge; secondly, commercial considerations; thirdly, his desire to ascertain the extent of the Moorish power in Africa; fourthly, his wish to find some Christian King in those parts who would assist in warring down the Moors; and last but not least, his purpose to extend the Faith. To these reasons Azurara, quite characteristically, adds a sixth, which he calls the root from which they all proceeded—the influence of the heavenly bodies, and he essays to prove it by the Prince's horoscope.
The narrative of the expeditions really begins in Chapter VIII, which opens with an account of the reasons why no ship had hitherto dared to pass Cape Bojador, some of them being at first sight as sensible as others are absurd. The fears of the mariners prevented for twelve years the realisation of their master's wish, and for so long the annual voyages were never carried beyond the terrible cape.
Chapter IX relates how at length, in 1434, Cape Bojador was doubled by Gil Eannes, a squire of D. Henrique, and how, on a second voyage with one Affonso Gonçalvez Baldaya, Eannes reached the Angra dos Ruivos, fifty leagues beyond it.
In the next Chapter (X) Baldaya passes one hundred and twenty leagues beyond Cape Bojador to the Rio d'Ouro, and a short way beyond; but failing to take any captives, as the Prince wished him to do, he loads his ship with the skins of sea-calves and returns to Portugal in 1436.
Chapter XI is a short one, and merely tells that for three years, i.e., from 1437 to 1440, the voyages were interrupted by the affairs of the Kingdom, which required all the attention of D. Henrique. These affairs were the death of D. Duarte, and the struggle that followed between the Queen, supported by a small section of the nobles, and the Infant D. Pedro, backed by Lisbon and the people as a whole, over the question of the Regency and the education of the young King Affonso.
Chapters XII and XIII relate how Antam Gonçalvez took the first captives, and how Nuno Tristam went to Cape Branco.
In Chapter XIV Azurara dwells on the delight D. Henrique must have felt at the sight of the captives, though he opines that they themselves received the greater benefit: "for, although their bodies might be in some subjection, it were a small thing in comparison with their souls, that would now possess true liberty for evermore."
Chapter XV contains an account of the embassy sent to the Holy Father by D. Henrique to obtain "a share of the treasures of Holy Church for the salvation of the souls of those who in the labours of this conquest should meet their end." The Pope, Eugenius IV, granted a plenary indulgence, on the usual conditions, to all who took part in the war against the Moors under the banner of the Order of Christ; and D. Pedro, the Regent, made D. Henrique a present of the King's fifth to defray the heavy expenses he had incurred by the expeditions.
In Chapter XVI Antam Gonçalvez obtains the Infant's leave for another voyage, and is charged to collect information about the Indies and the land of Prester John. He receives ten negroes, in exchange for two Moors whom he had previously taken, together with some gold dust, and then returns home.
In Chapter XVII Nuno Tristam goes as far as Arguim Island and makes some captures; this in the year 1443.
Chapter XVIII begins the relation of the first expedition on a large scale, and the first that sprang from private enterprise—namely, that of Lançarote and his six caravels from Lagos. Azurara takes the opportunity to insert here a short but interesting sketch of the change that had taken place in public opinion with reference to these voyages. In the beginning, they were decried by the great not a whit less than by the populace, but the assurance of commercial profit had now converted the dispraisers, and the voyage of Lançarote gave a tangible proof of it.
The next six Chapters (XIX to XXIV) relate the doings of this expedition, which ended in the capture of two hundred and thirty-five natives.
Chapter XXV, which treats of the division of the captives at Lagos, is the most pathetic in the book, and one of the most powerful by virtue of the simple realism of the narrative.
Chapter XXVI gives a lucid summary of the after-lives of the captives, and their gradual but complete absorption into the mass of the people.
Chapter XXVII narrates the ill-fated expedition of Gonçalo de Cintra and his death near the Rio d'Ouro; while, in the next, Azurara refers the accident to the heavenly bodies, and draws a profitable lesson from it, which he divides into seven heads, for the benefit of posterity.
Chapter XXIX contains a short notice of a voyage undertaken by Antam Gonçalvez, Gomez Pirez, and Diego Affonso to the Rio d'Ouro, which had no result.
Chapter XXX deals with the voyage of Nuno Tristam, who passed the furthest point hitherto discovered, and reached a place he named Palmar. Azurara confesses himself unable to give more details about this expedition, "because Nuno Tristam was already dead at the time King Affonso ordered this Chronicle to be written"—a statement which proves that he did not rely only on documents for the facts he related, but was careful to glean as much as possible from the actors therein.
Chapter XXXI tells how Dinis Dyaz sailed straight to Guinea without once shortening sail, and how he was the first to penetrate so far, and take captives in those parts. He pushed on to Cape Verde, and, though he brought back but little spoil, he was well received by the Infant, who preferred discoveries to mere commercial profits.
Chapters XXXII to XXXVI recite the expedition of Antam Gonçalvez, Garcia Homem and Diego Affonso to Cape Branco, Arguim Island and Cape Resgate, where, besides trafficking, they took on board a squire, Joham Fernandez, who had stayed full seven months at the Rio d'Ouro, among the natives, to acquire for the Infant a knowledge of the country and its products.
Azurara refers in Chapter XXXII to Affonso Cerveira, whose history of the Portuguese discoveries on the African coast, now lost, was used by him in the compilation of this Chronicle; and in the next chapter he employs one of those rhetorical periphrases of which his other works afford many an example, though they are rather scarce in this his masterpiece in point of style.
Chapters XXXVII to XLVIII relate the doings of the first expedition from Lisbon, which was under the command of Gonçalo Pacheco, and penetrated to Guinea, or the land of the Negroes, the result being a large number of captives, seemingly the chief object it had in view.
Chapters XLIX to LXVII contain the acts of the great expedition