Between the tragic and Salvation: How shipwrecks in the “História trágico-marítima” teach pilgrimage on the Southeast Coast of Africa

Abstract:

This article reveals how sixteenth century shipwreck reports, originally published in the form of pamphlets and transcribed by Bernardo Gomes de Brito, in the following century, in the História trágico-maritima (1735), were fundamental in enabling successive survivors of shipwrecks along the coast of Southeast Africa to find the means of subsistence, the route to be followed on land, and the native peoples to be contacted in order to be saved, which I call the Route of Salvation. Amidst the tragedy and the loss of human life and materials, reports of shipwrecks played a positive role in disseminating the knowledge necessary for the journeys or pilgrimages of survivors.

Keywords:
Ivory; História trágico-marítima; Africa