Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis

1937

Journals G161 H2 Ser. 2 no. 79

London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society

Portuguese-born Duarte Pacheco Pereira (1460-1533) developed his skills as sailor and navigator after making several voyages to India and Africa. His Esmeraldo (c. 1505) is a ‘rutter’ (roteiro – Portuguese), a ‘mariner’s handbook of written sailing instructions’. It describes routes, hazards, soundings, tides, and much more, and it is the ‘only detailed contemporary eye witness’s description of the coasts of Africa’. However, in Pereira’s time, the Portuguese government were keen to maintain secrecy and protect their monopoly of trade in the region so they suppressed the work; as they did with other ‘maps, nautical instructions, and pilots’ observations’. Their eagerness to maintain secrecy hindered the development of nautical science.