256 Antonio Carreira
haphazardly and without any respect for chronological order. This is due to a
lack of trained personnel and financial resources. Despite this, most of the
documents are in a good state of preservation. Research into the slave trade
basically involves going labouriously through thousands of records and account
books.
The most important repositories of documentation in Lisbon are:
(a) Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo ; (b) Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino ;
(c) Arquivo Histórico do Ministerio das Finanças (covering a specific period) ;
(d) Biblioteca Nacional (particularly in the reserve stock); (e) Biblioteca do
Ministerio da Marinha; (f) Biblioteca da Ajuda (the latter two are not all that
important); (g) Biblioteca da Cámara Municipal de Lisboa; (h) Fundo do
Erario Público (the latter two house only certain types of documentation).
It would be extremely useful if Spanish research specialists were inter-
ested in this subject. This would facilitate access to the Madrid, Simancas and
other archives. In view of the obstacles involved, this kind of archive research
can only be undertaken with positive government support.
Private archivesTo the best of our knowledge, there are few private archives in Portugal (on
family estates, in churches, etc.) apart from the archive at the home of the
Marques do Lavradio (which has been the subject of research projects and a
number of brief publications). If any other private archives do esist, they are
not likely to house any significant material concerning the slave trade.
In the former Portuguese colonies (Cape Verde, Guinea, Sao Tomé and
Angola), there is hardly any documentation available on the slave trade, if we
discount Angola. A wealth of material (historical and recent) has been
destroyed through lack of suitable premises, indifference on the part of the
public authorities, the climate (hot and humid) and the usual pillagers. Coupled
with this, there is the difficulty (or impossibility) of reconstructing many of the
relevant facts. In Angola (and to some extent on Sao Tomé), a fair number
of documents have yet to be examined. This is not the case with Cape Verde.
Much of the Angolan archive material would have been lost had it not been
for the far-sightedness of a dedicated group of civil servants, who published
part of the catalogued documentation. We are referring to the publication
Arquivos de Angola, founded in 1933, which appeared fairly regularly over a
period of thirty years. It is the most important repository of documents relating
to the slave trade, the markets and the economic life of the territory since the
sixteenth century.
The parish registers in Portugal and in her former overseas territories
are another valuable source. These registers should contain useful information
on the slave trade.