Read Online The Other Slavery by Andrés Reséndez - Free Book Online

162. For descriptions of Cape Verde at that time, see Anonymous Portuguese pilot, “Description of a Voyage from Lisbon to the Island of São Thomé,” n.p., n.d. (circa 1540), in John William Blake, Europeans in West Africa, 1450–1560, 2 vols. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1942), 1:147–149; Friar Baltasar Barreira, “Description of the Islands of Cape Verde and Guinea,” Cape Verde, August 1, 1606, in Avelino Teixeira da Mota and P.E.H. Hair, eds., Jesuit Documents on the Guinea of Cape Verde and the Cape Verde Islands, 1585–1617 (Liverpool: Department of History, University of Liverpool, 1989), parts 5 and 13; and, more generally, Brooks, Landlords and Strangers, 143–163.
    5. On Cape Verde’s commercial activities, see especially Madeira Santos, História Geral de Cabo Verde, 18–112; Brooks, Landlords and Strangers, 143–163; and Blake, European Beginnings in West Africa, 73–75.
    6. Unfortunately, Carvajal did not leave a paper trail regarding his work as treasurer. Given the obvious economic orientation of the Cape Verde Islands, however, it is clear that he dealt primarily with slaves. Later in life, Carvajal would describe his position as “treasurer and accountant for the king of Portugal.” See Carvajal’s testimony during his inquisitorial process in Alfonso Toro, ed., Los judíos en la Nueva España (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1982), 281; Madeira Santos, História Geral de Cabo Verde, 522; and “Oficio para Luis de Carvalhal tesoreiro das fazendas dos difuntos no islas de Santiago e Fogo no Cabo Verde,” Lisbon, December 3, 1559, in Temkin, Luis de Carvajal, 23.
    7. It is known for sure that Duarte de León and Antonio González owned the contract for Cape Verde and Guinea between 1566 and 1574. Other commercial transactions suggest that they already had this contract in 1562 and quite likely years before that. Madeira Santos, História Geral de Cabo Verde, 21 n. 5. On São Domingos, see André Álvares de Almada, “Tratado Breve dos Rios de Guiné . . . ,” in Antonio Brásio, ed., Monumenta Missionária Africana, vol. 3 (Lisbon: Agência Geral do Ultramar, 1958), 307. Plenty of evidence confirms that Duarte de León dealt in African slaves. For instance, in 1566 the Council of the Indies initiated proceedings against him and hispartners for sending the slave ship Nuestra Señora de la Victoria from Lisbon to the Spanish province of Cartagena without a license or authorization. See Jerónimo de Ulloa, fiscal of the Council of the Indies, against Blas de Herrera, Duarte de León, and Antonio Gómez González de Guzmán residing in the city of Lisbon, Madrid, May 5, 1566, “Receptoría pedida por Jerónimo de Ulloa,” AGI, Patronato, 291, R. 145. See also the legal proceedings initiated by Duarte de León’s heirs over three hundred African slaves from Cape Verde and Guinea sold in Española and Puerto Rico, 1588, “Sentencias del Consejo,” and 1589, “Pleitos de la gobernación de Puerto Rico,” both in AGI, Escribanía, 953 and 119A, respectively; and the proceedings of Duarte de León and his partner Antonio González, both of whom are identified as “contratadores de los Ríos de Guinea,” n.p., December 17, 1571, “Pleito Fiscal: Herederos de Hernando del Cardoso,” AGI, Justicia, 889, N. 6. Duarte de León and his partner may have had other resident agents in Upper Guinea, including Marcus Fernandes, who was “chief of the contract in the Rio Grande,” and Simon de León, who resided in the port called Begundo on the Rio Farim. Blake, Europeans in West Africa, 38.
    8. On the negotiations between the two monarchies, see Madeira Santos, História Geral de Cabo Verde, 23. For an excellent study of how Portuguese families involved in the slave trade were able to increase their economic influence in the port of Seville in the middle decades of the sixteenth century, see Manuel F. Fernández Chaves and Rafael M. Pérez García, “La penetración económica