Navy and Overseas Archive

Until 1834 the Madeira archipelago was an overseas province and colony whose administration came chiefly under the Navy Ministry. In that year, with the creation of the island districts, it became part of the Adjacent Islands (Ilhas Adjacentes), with an administration entirely identical to that of the mainland districts. The official correspondence sent from Madeira at that time was addressed mainly to the Minister of the Navy and to the Overseas Council (Conselho Ultramarino), which handled a large part of the business concerning the administration of our overseas provinces. The valuable and extremely numerous documents on our colonial administration held at the Ministry of the Navy and Overseas were moved a few years ago to the National Library in Lisbon (Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa), where they were duly arranged and catalogued. The worth of this priceless treasure then became better known, as did the outstanding service these papers could render to any studies that might be undertaken on the whole of our colonial and maritime life. When the National Library created the Navy and Overseas Archive (Arquivo da Marinha e Ultramar) section, which comprises some thousands of codices and a countless number of loose documents, Dr Eduardo de Castro e Almeida was entrusted with inventorying and cataloguing them. He began his arduous and most useful task by arranging the loose manuscripts relating to Madeira and Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), which cover the period from 1613 to 1833. Under the title Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa. Archivo da Marinha e Ultramar. inventario . . . Madeira e Porto Santo, I, 1613-1819, he published in 1907 a volume of 402 pages in folio, and in 1909 volume II, of 487 pages in the same format. Together they form a rich and most valuable repository of news and information, absolutely indispensable to anyone wishing to study the history of this archipelago in the period to which those documents refer.

Dr Castro e Almeida did not confine himself to a simple inventory, as he modestly titles his important work. Besides cataloguing the various documents in chronological order, with a brief indication of their subjects, he gives several extracts of their most interesting passages, according to the nature and importance of the matter, always chosen with the soundest and most discerning judgement. As we were able to verify in person, these documents relating to Madeira, numbering more than ten thousand, are carefully kept in sheet-iron boxes, duly numbered and placed on shelves, so that with the inventory in hand it is extremely easy to find the manuscript one wishes to consult.

In the two volumes of the Navy and Overseas Archive containing the inventory and catalogue of the documents concerning our archipelago, we found many notes and details that served as a valuable aid for some of the articles in this Elucidario.

Among the hundreds of codices belonging to the Navy Ministry and now deposited in the Public Library of Lisbon, many valuable documents concerning Madeira will undoubtedly be found; but only a lengthy search of an official character could bring them to light and give them the due and indispensable publicity.