THE ALGARVE - Portugal - page 168

Henry ordered scared, superstitious sailors to press on. After 14 unsuccessful voy-
ages, Gil Eanes' crew returned (1437), unharmed and still white, with new knowledge
that was added to corporate Portugal's map library.
Henry himself gained a reputation as an intelligent, devout, nonmaterialistic, celib-
ate monk who humbled himself by wearing horsehair underwear. In 1437, Henry faced
a personal tragedy. His planned invasion of Tangier failed miserably, and his beloved
little brother Fernão was captured. As ransom, the Muslims demanded that Portugal
return Ceuta. Henry (and others) refused, Fernão died in captivity, and Henry was dev-
astated.
In later years, he spent less time at court in Lisbon and more in desolate Sagres,
where he died in 1460. (He's buried in Batalha; see here . ) Henry died before finding
a sea route to Asia and just before his voyages really started paying off commercially.
A generation later, Vasco da Gama would sail to India, capping Henry's explorations
and kicking off Portugal's Golden Age.
The row of buildings beyond the wind-compass is where the school once was. The
tower-cistern (abutting the end of the modern Exhibition Centre) is part of the original
dorms. The small, whitewashed, 16th-century Church of Our Lady of Grace replaced
Henry's church. The former Governor's House is now the restaurant/gift shop complex.
Attached to the gift shop is a windbreakwall that dates from Henry's time, but is largely
rebuilt.
The Sagres school taught mapmaking, shipbuilding, sailing, astronomy, and mathem-
atics (for navigating), plus botany, zoology, anthropology, languages, and salesmanship
for mingling with the locals. The school welcomed Italians, Scandinavians, and Germans,
and included Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Captured Africans gave guest lectures. (The
next 15 generations of Africans were not so lucky, being sold into slavery by the tens of
thousands.)
Besides being a school, Sagres was Mission Control for the explorers. Returning sail-
ors brought spices, gold, diamonds, silk, and ivory, plus new animals, plants, peoples, cus-
toms, communicable diseases, and knowledge of the routes that were added to the maps.
Henry ordered every sailor to keep a travel journal that could be studied. Ship designs
were analyzed and tweaked, resulting in the square-sailed, oceangoing caravels that re-
placed the earlier coast-hugging versions.
It's said that Ferdinand Magellan (circumnavigator), Vasco da Gama (found sea route
to India), Pedro Cabral (discovered Brazil), and Bartolomeu Dias (Africa-rounder) all
studied at Sagres (after Henry's time, though). In May 1476, the young Italian Christopher