Câmara (João Gonçalves da)

When João Gonçalves Zarco came to settle on this island soon after the discovery of Madeira, he brought with him, as members of his family, his wife, Dona Constança Rodrigues de Almeida, his eldest son, João Gonçalves da Câmara, and his daughter, Dona Helena Gonçalves da Câmara, both still of tender age.

The discoverer and 1st captain-donatary (capitão-donatário) died around 1467 and was succeeded in the captaincy of Funchal by his son João Gonçalves da Câmara. He must have been born in 1414, for Frutuoso states that he died in 1501 at the age of 87. While his father was still alive he fought valiantly in Africa, and was present at the siege of Asilah when this Moroccan stronghold was taken by Afonso V. On other occasions he went there to aid our fortresses when they were threatened by attacks from the Moors, rendering notable services and always giving proof of strenuous valour. He distinguished himself remarkably, together with his brother Luís Gonçalves da Câmara, in the defence of Ceuta, when the town was under siege and in danger of falling into the hands of the besiegers. When an expedition was organised to relieve the stronghold of Larache, to be led by John II, João Gonçalves da Câmara fitted out a fleet on this island at his own expense, which went to the Algarve to join the main body of the army. There the second captain-donatary of Funchal was received by the monarch with marks of such particular esteem and regard that, says an old chronicler, he even wished ‘that he should pour water over his hands at table, which at that time was one of the highest marks of consideration bestowed on a vassal’.

Shortly after he took over the government of his captaincy, while our country was at war with Spain, Madeira was attacked by a Spanish fleet of a good many ships carrying large numbers of armed men. Despite the scant means of defence at his disposal, João Gonçalves displayed such energy and gave such examples of extraordinary valour that he succeeded in putting the Castilians to flight. They then went on to attack the island of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), which they seized without the slightest resistance from its inhabitants. The captain-donatary went to Porto Santo to dislodge the Spaniards, who suffered considerable losses, hastily withdrew to their ships and sought, in headlong flight, to escape pursuit by the forces that had come from Madeira.

João Gonçalves da Câmara devoted himself tirelessly to the progress and prosperity of his donatary captaincy (donataria), and especially of its capital. Raised to the status of town (vila) in the last years of his father’s government or already during his own administration, it rapidly gained importance and grew, and soon became a notable centre of trade. It attracted a considerable number of foreigners, drawn to the young town of Funchal by the fame of its commercial and agricultural wealth.

The surname Câmara, used by the second donatary, derives from the well-known fact that the discoverer of Madeira found, on the coast of what later became the settlement and parish (freguesia) of Câmara de Lobos (‘seals’ den’), a cave of sea wolves [monk seals], which gave their name to the lugar (settlement ranking between a town and a parish) and which strikingly marked Zarco’s first voyage of exploration along the island’s south coast. In 1460 Afonso V granted João Gonçalves da Câmara the following coat of arms: on a green field a silver tower with two merlons and a spire topped by a gold cross, and two wolves in their natural colour standing upright and rearing against the tower, with one of the wolves as the crest. The second captain-donatary (capitão-donatário) was thereafter called João Gonçalves de Câmara de Lobos, a surname his successors were also to use, but ‘this addition of the Lobos to the surname, as we read in an old manuscript, was gradually dropped over time, and only that of Câmara remained’.

He built up a great house, and on this subject we read somewhere ‘that it was a remarkable thing among the splendours of this magnificent man that, having spent great sums in the King’s service in the garrisons of Africa, on himself, on his sons and on the large reinforcements he sent there, on the marriages of his sons and daughters, on continual journeys to court, on the foundation of the monastery and on other works, he should be found at his death with twenty-two thousand seven hundred cruzados in unencumbered property, seven contos and four hundred thousand réis in real estate and two contos in movable goods...’, all of which represented, four centuries ago, a considerable fortune.

This second donatary of Funchal was the founder of the Convent of St Clare (Santa Clara), begun in 1492. It was attached to the church of Conceição de Cima, later called Santa Clara, which the discoverer João Gonçalves Zarco had ordered to be built as a family vault for himself and his descendants. Referring to the building of the convent, we find in an old manuscript, published a few years ago in the Heraldo da Madeira (‘Madeira Herald’), ‘that the work was so arranged that Zargo’s grave lay in the middle of the chancel, with a stone tomb above it so tall that it makes it singularly venerable and worthy of respect’.

It was also in the centre of the chapel, beside the steps of the high altar, that in March 1919 the grave of the second captain-donatary João Gonçalves da Câmara was discovered. Its dark marble tombstone bears in the centre this brief epitaph: ‘Grave of João Gonçalves da Câmara, second captain of this Island.’ He died in what was then the town of Funchal on 26 March 1501.