Freitas (João Joaquim de)

He was born in Machico on October 5, 1832, and died in Funchal on April 1, 1910. For over thirty years, he served as the librarian of the municipal library of Funchal and was also an interim professor of literature and Portuguese language at the central lyceum of this city. Despite having died almost unnoticed, he was a distinguished pedagogue, a man of extraordinary talent and erudition. He assisted the distinguished jurist Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo (see this name) in the interpretation and correction of the manuscript by Frutuoso, entitled 'As Saudades da Terra', and collaborated in some newspapers of the island. He left behind a rich library, which the English subjects W. and A. Reid acquired for two thousand escudos and offered to the Municipal Council of Funchal. The old street of Cruzes in Funchal currently bears the name of João Joaquim de Freitas. (1921).