126 Françoise Latour da Veiga Pinto,
A. CarreiraTABLE 1—contdDate Area farmed out Contractor Notes1583-89 Cape Verde and Alvaro Mendes do Because of the great drought
Guinea rivers Crato and Diogo of 1585-87, the contractors
Fernandes were granted an extension
of the contract to the
end of 1590 by way of
compensation.
7-15911587-93
1600-03
1613-14
1607-08
1609-14
1615-?
1616-?
1617-23
1624-27
1627-32
1632-42
Cape Verde
(Windward
Islands)
Angola, Congo
and Sao ToméAngolaAngola and Cape
Verde
Cape Verde
Cape Verde
Cape Verde
Cape Verde
Cape VerdeCape Verde
Cape Verde and
Angola
Cape VerdeAlvaro VieiraPedro de Sevilha and
Antonio Mendes de
Damego
Joäo Rodrigues
Coutinho
Antonio Fernandes de
Elvas
(unidentified)
Joäo Soeiro
Duarte Pinto de Elvas
Joäo de Sousa
Antonio Fernandes de
Elvas
Jácome Fixer
André da FonsecaJoäo Gonçalves da
FonsecaThere are some gaps in the list. It gives the dates of the drawing-up of the
contracts but not of their signature. It also shows how vaguely geographical
areas were defined, thus demonstrating: (a) the lack of accurate geographical
knowledge of the African hinterland (only the points on the coast are stated);
and (b) the fact that the crown had no control over the contractors.
Examples of licences granted by the king north of the Equator, quite
apart from and contemporaneously with farming-out contracts, include one
to Lourenco Alvares for 100 Negroes in 1563; to Dento Vaz for 600 Negroes
in 1565; to Manual Caldeira for 2,000 Negroes in 1568 (he also had a farming-
out contract for Sao Tomé and Mina); to Alvaro Mendes de Crasto for 3,000
Negroes in 1583; to Joäo Batista Ravalesca for 1,800 Negroes in 1583; and to
Joseph Ardevicus for 600 Negroes in 1680 for Para and Maranhäo. It is inter-
esting to note that these avengas were issued in large numbers: thus, from 1604
to 1608 the contratador for Angola issued 17,000 licences, while himself remain-
ing in Lisbon.