Finding All His
Representations In Vain, He Wrote A Letter To The Merchants At Court,
Informing Them Of All That Had Happened At The Ships, Promising, If God
Spared His Life, That He Would Return As Soon As Possible For Them.
[Footnote 197:
This Lambert was a Londoner born, his father having been
Lord Mayor of London. - Hakluyt.]
Pinteado, thus kept on board against his will, was thrust among the
cabin-boys, and worse used than any of them, insomuch that he was forced
to depend on the favour of the cook for subsistence. Having sunk one of
their ships for want of hands to navigate her, the people departed from
the coast with the other. Within six or seven days, Pinteado died
broken-hearted, from the cruel and undeserved usage he had met with, - a
man worthy to have served any prince, and most vilely used. Of 140 men
who had sailed originally from Portsmouth on this unfortunate and
ill-conducted voyage, scarcely 40 got back to Plymouth, and many even
of those died soon afterwards.
That no one may suspect that I have written in commendation of Pinteado
from partiality or favour, otherwise than as warranted by truth, I have
thought good to add copies of the letters which the king of Portugal and
the infant his brother wrote to induce him to return to Portugal, at the
time when, by the king's displeasure, and not owing to any crime or
offence, he was enforced by poverty to come to England, where he first
induced our merchants to engage in voyages to Guinea. All these writings
I saw under seal in the house of my friend Nicholas Lieze, with whom
Pinteado left them when he departed on his unfortunate voyage to Guinea.
But, notwithstanding these friendly letters and fair promises, Pinteado
durst not venture to return to Portugal, neither indeed durst he trust
himself in company with any of his own countrymen, unless in the
presence of other persons, as he had secret intimation that they meant
to have assassinated him, when time and place might serve their wicked
purpose.
* * * * *
The papers alluded to in this concluding paragraph by Richard Eden, do
not seem necessary to be inserted. They consist of, a commission or
patent dated 22d September 1551, appointing Pinteado one of the knights
of the royal household, with 700 _rees_, or ten shillings a month, and
half a bushel of barley every day so long as he should keep a horse; but
with an injunction not to marry for six years, lest he might have
children to succeed in this allowance. The second document is merely a
certificate of registration of the first. The third is a letter from the
infant, Don Luis, brother to the king of Portugal, dated 8th December
1552, urging Pinteado to return to Lisbon, and intimating that Peter
Gonzalvo, the bearer of the letter, had a safe conduct for him in due
form. From the introduction to these papers, it appears that Pinteado
had suffered long disgrace and imprisonment, proceeding upon false
charges, and had been at last set free by means of the king's confessor,
a grey friar, who had manifested his innocence.
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