The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. Written
by Gomes Eannade /aurora. Now first done into English by C. R. Beazley, M.A.., and E. P. Prestage, B.A. Vol. I. (For the Hakluyt Society.)—In 1450 Azurara wrote an account of the siege and capture of Ceuta, an event which had happened thirty-five years before. Two years afterwards be composed the work of which we have a part in this volume. It begins with an account of Prince Henry the Navigator, and proceeds to tell the story of various expeditions that had been made to the African Coast up to the year 1445. Whatever value may be attached to these two chronicles, they cannot be held to compensate for the incalculable mischief of the occupation to which Azurara devoted the last years of his life, the destruction of documents preserved in the national registers, on the ground that they were prolix and useless. Of course he was merely acting in the spirit of the time. The introduction is copious and minute, telling us, we may con- jecture, all that there is to be told about its subject.
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