Food production: Crops-Animals

End of the Middle-Ages View on 'Food production: Crops – Animals' by the Portuguese.

----------------------------------

Selling sugar-cane against the wall of the fortress of Zanzibar.

During the first couple of trips the Portuguese made across East Africa they were amazed by what they saw, and so wrote it down. Later they got used to it a no new facts about many subjects appear in their writings; so also where food is concerned.

Mogadishu

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

MAGADOXO.

……………. In this town there is plenty of meat, wheat, barley, and horses, and much fruit; it is a very rich place. …………..

Malindi

Taken from: The first Booke of the Historie of the Discoverie and Conquest of the East Indias by the Portingals, in the time of King Don John, the second of that name. By Hernan Lopes de Castaneda. Translated into English by Nicholas Lichefield 1582.

(When describing the first trip of Vasco da Gama to India: 1497–1499).

………….. many palms, and other sorts of trees, which are green the whole year. It has also many gardens and orchards, abounding with all kinds of herbs and fruits, and many fountains of good water. Their oranges are particularly excellent, very large and sweet. They have also abundance of millet and rice, plenty both of cattle and sheep, and great store of fine poultry, which are very cheap. ………….

(Voyage of Pedro Alvarez Cabral to India in 1500)

………….. On coming to anchor the general saluted the king with all his ordnance; on which the king sent a complimentary message of welcome, with a present of many sheep, hens, and ducks, and great quantities of fruits. ……

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

…………. There are plenty of provisions in this town, of rice, millet, and some wheat, which is brought to them from Cambay, and plenty of fruit, for there are many gardens and orchards. There are here many of the large- tailed sheep, and of all other meats as above; there are also oranges, sweet and sour. ……………..

Taken from: Álvaro Velho: Roteiro da primeira viagem de Vasco da Gama. (1497-1499).

Álvaro Velho was on board but left on the return at Sierra Leone.

[Mombasa to Malindi]

…………. we saw two boats (barcas) ………. capturing them, ………. In the one we took we found ……… and an abundance of corn and other provisions;……

[Malindi]

……. he also brought three sheep ………… The king sent the captain-major six sheep, besides quantities of cloves, cumin, ginger, nutmeg and pepper, ……….

(On the return voyage)

………. instructions to bring off a supply of oranges, …. These he brought on the following day, as also other kinds of fruit; …. Moors also came on board, by order of the king, offering fowls and eggs. ……

…………… The town of Malindi lies in a bay and extends along the shore. It may be likened to Alcochete (Town in Portugal). Its houses are lofty and well white-washed, and have many windows; on the landside are palm-groves, and all around it corn and vegetables are being cultivated. …………

Mombasa

Taken from: The first Booke of the Historie of the Discoverie and Conquest of the East Indias by the Portingals, in the time of King Don John, the second of that name. By Hernan Lopes de Castaneda. Translated into English by Nicholas Lichefield 1582.

(When describing the first trip of Vasco da Gama to India: 1497–1499).

……….. Mombaza is on an island very near the shore of the continent, and has plenty of provisions, such as millet, rice, and cattle, both large and small, all well grown and fat, especially the sheep, which are uniformly without tails; and it abounds in poultry. It is likewise very pleasant, having many orchards, abounding in pomegranates, Indian figs, oranges both sweet and sour, lemons, and citrons, with plenty of pot-herbs, and it has an abundant supply of excellent water. …………

………….. it receives from the African continent in its neighbourhood, great quantities of honey, wax, and ivory. ………………

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

ISLAND OF MOMBAZA.

……….. This Monbaza is a country well supplied with plenty of provisions, very fine sheep, which have round tails, and many cows, chickens, and very large goats, much rice and millet, and plenty of oranges, sweet and bitter, and lemons, cedrats (citrus medica), pomegranates, Indian figs, and all sorts of vegetables, and very good water ………………

Taken from : Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol I

ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE OF D. FRANCISCO DE ALMEIDA, VICEROY OF INDIA, ALONG THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA (Manuscrito de Valentim Fernandes d1519)

[1506] (This is the eyewitness account of Hans Mayer)

(While looting Mombaza)

……… they took supplies of rice honey butter corn without count camels and a great number of smaller cattle …………

………………. Its island abounds in fruit. It has quantities of oranges and very sweet ones, pomegranates, lemons and is more abundant than Kilwa in all things and in sugar cane. …………..

Taken from: Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama, and his Viceroyalty. From the Lendas da India of Gaspar Correa (1492-1563); accompanied by original documents. Transl Stanley.

(First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1498)

(Arrival at Mombaza)

…… the King, who was already prepared to act treacherously, at once sent a large boat laden with fowls, sheep, sugar-canes, citrons, lemons, and large sweet oranges, the best that had ever been seen ……………….

Vacini (Wasini)

Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol I

LETTER FROM PERO FERREIRA FOGAÇA. CAPTAIN OF KILWA, TO THE KING; Kilwa, 1506 December 22

……………… the sheiks of four islands (from N of Mombasa) (this can be the islands in Kenya at the border with Tanzania) ……………… each one engaging himself and the residents of their islands to pay yearly to Your Highness in acknowledgement certain oxen and sheep and bales of corn and chickens and coconuts ………………

Tanga

Taken from: Álvaro Velho: Roteiro da primeira viagem de Vasco da Gama. (1497-1499).

Álvaro Velho was on board but left on the return at Sierra Leone.

………. We were here fifteen days, and from a town in front of us, called Tamugate (= around Tanga) many fowls were brought to us for sale or barter in exchange for shirts and bracelets. …………

Zanzibar

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

PENDA, MANFIA, AND ZANZIBAR.

Between this island of San Lorenzo and the continent, not very far from it, are three islands, which are called one Manfia, another Zanzibar, and the other Penda these are inhabited by Moors; they are very fertile islands, with plenty of provisions, rice, millet, and flesh, and abundant oranges, lemons, and cedrats (citrus medica). All the mountains are full of them; they produce many sugar canes, but do not know how to make sugar. These islands have their kings. The inhabitants trade with the mainland with their provisions and fruits; they have small vessels, very loosely and badly made, with-out decks, and with a single mast; all their planks are sewn …………………

Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol III

CHAPTERS RELATING TO EAST AFRICA IN THE ACCOUNT OF MARTIN FERNÁNDEZ DE FIGUEROA

1505-1511

……………… and Salabejar (Zanzibar) which is a kingdom; fifteen leagues from the island, towards the north, there lies a great city called Zanzibar, a very fertile and abundant island with a good port and provisions where there are better lemons and oranges than anywhere else. Near to it there is another fertile island, and there is peace in all of them. ………………

Kilwa

(Voyage of Pedro Alvarez Cabral to India in 1500)

…………. This island is full of gardens and orchards, with plenty of various kinds of fruits, and excellent water, and the country produces abundance of corn and other grain, and breeds great numbers of small cattle; and the sea affords great plenty of excellent fish. ………….. having abundance of provisions from its own island and from other places on the continent. ………….

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

ISLAND OF QUILOA.

……….. Quiloa, …………. with plenty of gardens, in which there are many fruit trees and much water. …

Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol I

ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGE OF D. FRANCISCO DE ALMEIDA, VICEROY OF INDIA, ALONG THE EAST COAST OF AFRICA (Manuscrito de Valentim Fernandes d1519)

[1506] (This is the eyewitness account of Hans Mayer)

…………… it grows quantities of fruits, it has a great deal of corn like Guinea, butter honey and wax. The hives in the trees —namely — in a jar of three almudes (=16.8L) with the mouth covered by a cloth made of palm-leaves with holes for the bees to go in and out.

Many trees mostly palms and the others different from those of Portugal and the same on the mainland, and from there to some places on the mainland is 2 leagues (2*6km) to at other places one.

Here grow very sweet oranges lemons radishes and tiny onions sweet marjoram (aromatic herb) and sweet basil in the gardens which they water from wells.

Here they grow betel which has a leaf like the ivy and is grown like peas each with a stick next to it; the Moors of quality eat this leaf with a kind of lime made to look like ointment and with the leaf as if they would use it to put on a sore. These leaves turn the mouth and teeth a deep red and it is said to be very refreshing.

In this land there are more Negro slaves than white Moors who work in the gardens tilling the corn etc.

Here grow large quantities of peas produced by plants as large as a pepper tree and they pick them ripe and store them. All the gardens are surrounded by wooden fences and corn canes, the hay is the height of a man, The soil is red on top and there is always some green to be seen. The meat is from fat beasts, oxen cows sheep lambs goats and lots of fish, whales circle the naos (ships), there is no fresh running water. ……………

………….. Here the palm trees do not bear dates, there are some that give a wine from which they also make vinegar but they do not bear coconuts which is the fruit of the others. These coconuts are as large as good sized melons with a thick skin from which they make all kinds of ropes, and inside them they have a fruit as large as a pine-apple, which holds about a quartilho (=0.5L) of water that is very tasty to drink, once they have taken out this water they break the fruit and eat it, its inside tastes like a walnut that is not quite ripe and they dry these coconuts and get from them oil in great abundance. …………… Large sacks of resin and gum ………… There is a great amount of very good cotton that is grown and sown on the island. The sheep and lambs have no more wool than the goats. …………

Taken from: Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama, and his Viceroyalty. From the Lendas da India of Gaspar Correa (1492-1563); accompanied by original documents. Transl Stanley.

(Second voyage of Vasco da Gama 1502)

………… The country all round is very luxuriant with many trees and gardens of all sorts of vegetables, citrons, lemons, and the best sweet oranges that were ever seen, sugar-canes, figs, pomegranates, and a great abundance of flocks, especially sheep, which have their fat in the tail, which is almost the size of the body and very savoury. ……………

Mozambique

Taken from: Álvaro Velho: Roteiro da primeira viagem de Vasco da Gama. (1497-1499).

Álvaro Velho was on board but left on the return at Sierra Leone.

………….. The palms of this country yield a fruit as large as a melon, of which the kernel is eaten. It has a nutty flavour. There also grow in abundance melons and cucumbers, which were brought to us for barter. …………..

……… we were taking with us many fowls, goats and pigeons, which had been given us in exchange for small glass-beads. ………

……… we chased an almadia (dug-out), ……… laden with his chattels, ………... In the almadias we found …………… a glazed jar containing butter, ……… and many small baskets filled with millet. ………

Taken from: Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama, and his Viceroyalty. From the Lendas da India of Gaspar Correa (1492-1563); accompanied by original documents. Transl Stanley.

(Second voyage of Vasco da Gama 1502)

(Arrival at Mozambique)

From the shore people brought what they had to sell, which they paid for well, to the satisfaction of the owners. …………. the Sheikh at once went to the ship with a present of cows and sheep, goats and fowls, which he had ready for him ……………

Dandama (Angoche)

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

………….. And in this town of Angos there are plenty of provisions of millet, rice, and some kinds of meat………………

By looting Sambuk’s

Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol I

SUMMARY OF A LETTER FROM PERO FERREIRA FOGAÇA, CAPTAIN OF KILWA, TO THE KING

1506 August 31

…………

Item, a sambuk with 50 bales of corn and a Moor who was ransomed for 200 miticals (4.25gr*200) and with small trifles 108 miticals of silver.Item, two other brigantines with 42 marcos (230gr*42) of gold and 129 teeth of ivory and 20 marcos (230gr*20) of silver and seed-pearl (a tiny pearl weighing less than a quarter of a grain.) and a little amber and 180 slaves in both discounting quantities of corn and rice one of these carried a safe-conduct from Pero d’Anhaya and everything was given back save the gold and ivory.

……………….

Monomotapa

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

………… the king (of Benamatapa) immediately sends the number of people ………, and these pass through all the towns at their expense: their rations are meat, rice, and oil of sesame. ……….

Taken from: A general history and collection of voyages and travels, arranged in systematic order [microform]: forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time by Kerr, Robert, 1755-1813 Vol 6.

Taken from: Portuguese Asia, by Manuel de Faria y Sousa (1646).

…………….. The country of Monomotapa produces rice and corn, and has plenty of cattle and poultry, the inhabitant- addicting themselves to pasturage and tillage, and even cultivating gardens. …………..

………… They use no delicacy in cookery, having all their meats roasted or boiled; and they eat of such articles as are used by the Europeans, with the addition of rats and mice, which they reckon delicacies, as we do partridges and rabbits. …………….

Sofala

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

………… And their victuals are millet, and rice, and meat, and fish. ……………

…………… It is a country of plains and mountains, and well-watered. The Moors have now recently begun to produce much fine cotton in this country, ……………

A port for all the winds (Mambone).

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

THE LITTLE VCIQUES ISLANDS IN RIVERS.

…………… who also deal with the Gentiles of the mainland in their provisions, which are rice, millet, and meat, and which they bring in small barks to Sufala. ………………

Madagascar

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

ISLAND OF SAN LORENZO. (Madagascar)

………………… There is in it much meat, rice, and millet, and plenty of oranges and lemons, and there is much ginger in this country, which they do not make use of, except to eat it almost green. ………………… Their principal food is roots, which they sow, and it is called yname, and in the Indies of Spain it is called maize (should be yams). The country is very beautiful and luxuriant in vegetation, and it has very large rivers. ……………

Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol II

LETTER FROM AFONSO DE ALBUQUERQUE TO THE KING 1507 February 6

…………… Lulamguane (NW Madagascar) and lies within a bay on an island near the mainland about the distance of a cross-bow shot; it has its farms on the mainland with quantities of cattle and farmlands and slaves ………………

……………… (in Lulamguane) for every man to plunder as much as he liked, and each man chose what first came to his hands in the village; some cloths from Cambay were taken, a little silver some gold, but only a few of the naos (ships) of Malindi and Mombasa traded there in slaves and supplies; there was so much rice that twenty naos could not load it. We were three days in the village till each man had taken as much as he could stow, and what remained the captain-major traded for cows and goats ………………