Vaz (Tristão)

Tristão Vaz is the well-known and intrepid companion of João Gonçalves Zarco in the discovery of this archipelago. We share the opinion of the distinguished annotator of the ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) when he states that the surname Teixeira attached to the name of Tristão Vaz was an addition made by the chroniclers. This was certainly because the navigator’s descendants used that surname, which came from Branca (‘white’) Teixeira, Tristão Vaz’s wife. The letter of grant (carta de doação) of the captaincy of Machico (Capitania de Machico), dated 1440, says only Tristão, and that is also what he is called by Gomes Eanes de Zurara, the earliest chronicler to deal with our archipelago, who wrote his chronicle around 1453. João de Barros, in the mid-16th century, and Damião de Góis, at roughly the same period – that is, a century after the death of the illustrious discoverer – name him, the former Tristão Vaz and the latter Tristão Vaz Teixeira; this is the first occasion on which the surname Teixeira appears.

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But suppose all these reasons were ineffective; suppose the word of Góis, Galvão, Cordeiro and Soares da Silva prevailed over that of Frutuoso, over the testimony of Zurara, over the authentic proof furnished by the letter of grant, and over the ideas and customs of the age; suppose the first donatary of Machico were called Tristão Vaz Teixeira: for that very reason the heading in the Cancioneiro de Resende, “Tristão Teixeira, captain of Machico”, would not refer to him. It lacks the Vaz, a surname that all the authorities favouring Teixeira place before it. None of them calls the first donatary of Machico Tristão Teixeira. This – not the addition but the substitution of a surname – appears only among the descendants of Tristão Vaz, as can be seen in the ‘Longing for the Homeland’, the ‘Island History’ (Historia Insulana) and the Madeiran Nobiliarios.

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Therefore, and for the further reasons given in the places to which we append this addendum, we are convinced that Tristão Vaz, first donatary of Machico, did not take the surname Teixeira, and that the poet referred to in the heading of the Cancioneiro de Resende was Tristão Teixeira, “das Damas”, the second donatary.

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In the charter by which Prince Henry the Navigator grants a considerable part of Madeira to Tristão Vaz, he calls this navigator ‘knight of my household’. Azurara, in the Chronica da Guiné, says that the two discoverers of this archipelago were ‘noble squires brought up in that lord’s household, who asked him to provide for them as best he could, in keeping with their honour’. From these words, says Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo, it follows ‘that Tristão was not a person of low condition, but a noble and honourable squire.’ A further presumption of Tristão Vaz’s nobility is that he married Branca Teixeira, a lady of one of the leading families of the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal), and that he came to the island of Madeira already married to her and with children, before he was given the captaincy of Machico. This shows that the marriage was not obtained on account of this royal grant.

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This captain of Machico, Tristão, says Frutuoso, was so outstanding for his valour at the time when he served Prince Henry that he was commonly called Tristão, with no further surname, in honour of his knighthood. For the King, because he was such a man, gave him as arms of knighthood a phoenix on a blue field; and just as this bird is unique in the world, so he was the one and only knight of his name, Tristão. This was shown by many warrants and letters that the King and the Princes wrote to him, and they always named him Tristão da Ilha, Knight of their Household; and in his will he names himself thus, with no further adornment of surname. For in this way he was distinguished by his arms, which were (as I have said) a phoenix, which his descendants always bore in their arms, quartered with others that they added from the female line of the Teixeiras, namely a cross fleury and a fleur-de-lis, which are today carved on the arch of his chapel of São João Baptista in the main church of Machico.

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We must nevertheless recall here, as we have noted elsewhere, that in the old chronicles and the old Madeiran genealogies the name of João Gonçalves Zargo is always surrounded by an aura of greater prestige and higher regard than that of Tristão Vaz. This leads us to believe that the first discoverer, through his personal qualities, his social position or perhaps distinguished services rendered earlier, had won the rights of precedence and superiority that placed him above his companion in the discovery. Dr Gaspar Frutuoso writes: ‘The deed held by the heirs of João Gonçalves says that he was the principal in this feat (the discovery), naming Tristão Vaz as Tristão da Ilha, as the King and the Prince named him in their warrants and grants, as a less principal person, and not of such age or quality as João Gonçalves.’ And elsewhere the historian of the Islands says further, referring to the first colonisation: ‘he sent two captains with João Gonçalves, namely Bartolomeu Perestrelo, who was to remain on Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), and Tristão, knight of the Prince’s household, both of whom came under the banner of the said João Gonçalves Zargo (although there is no lack of many who say otherwise)...

Tristão Vaz is thought to have been born in the last years of the 14th century. He served in Africa, where he was knighted by Prince Henry the Navigator, to whose household he belonged as one of his noble squires, as already mentioned.

After the discovery of the island of Madeira, a brief account of which is given elsewhere, the author of the ‘Longing for the Homeland’ states that Tristão Vaz settled on this island with his wife and children in May 1425. Madeira was then divided between him and Gonçalves Zargo into two captaincies, and the jurisdiction of the two captains-donatary (capitão-donatário) was defined, as already described in the articles Donataries, Captaincies, Captaincy of Machico and Ponta da Oliveira, to which we refer the reader to avoid needless repetition. In those articles we also briefly discussed Tristão Vaz’s administration as captain-donatary, which seems to have left a good deal to be desired.

For the punishment he inflicted on Diogo Barradas (volume I, page 128), he was summoned to court by the king and handed over to justice. He was sentenced to penal exile (degredo) on the island of São Tomé, where he remained for some time. His social standing, the services he had rendered and the influence exerted on his behalf restored him to possession of the captaincy of Machico.

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On account of certain business he had in the Algarve,’ says Frutuoso, ‘this Tristão, the first captain, went to Silves, where he departed this present life, leaving his jurisdiction peopled with sons and daughters and with so noble a line as descended from him. He was more than eighty years of age, of which he would have governed some fifty, more or less.