AZURARA, GOMES EANNES DE the sec ond notable Portuguese chronicler in order of date. He adopted the career of letters in middle life. He probably entered the royal library as assistant to Fernao Lopes (q.v.) during the reign of King Duarte (1433-38), and he had sole charge of it in 1452. His Chronicle of the Siege and Capture of Ceuta, a supplement to the Chronicle of King John I., by Lopes, dates from 145o, and three years later he completed the first draft of the Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, our authority for the early Portuguese voyages of discovery down the African coast and in the ocean, more especially for those undertaken under the auspices of Prince Henry the Navigator. It contains some account of the life work of that prince, and has a biographical as well as a geographical interest. On June 6 1454, Azurara became chief keeper of the archives and royal chronicler in succession to Fernao Lopes. In 1456 King Alphonso V. commis sioned him to write the history of Ceuta, "the land-gate of the East," under the governorship of D. Pedro de Menezes, from its capture in 1415 until 143 7, and he had it ready in 1463. A year afterwards the king charged him with a history of the deeds of D. Duarte de Menezes, captain of Alcacer, and, pro ceeding to Africa, he spent a twelvemonth in the town collecting materials and studying the scenes of the events he was to describe, and in 1468 he completed the chronicle. Azurara was laborious, accurate and conscientious, though his position did not allow him to tell the whole truth about his hero, Prince Henry. His works include: (I) Chronica del Rei D. Joam. I. Terceira parte em que se contem a tomada de Ceuta (1644) ; (2) Chronica do Desco brimento e Conquista de Guine (1841; Eng. version issued by the Hakluyt Society, 1896-99) ; (3) Chronica do Conde D. Pedro (de Menezes), printed in the Ineditos de Historia Portugueza, vol. ii. (1792) ; (4) Chronica do Conde Duarte de Menezes, printed in the Ineditos, vol. iii. (1793). The preface to the English version of the Chronicle of Guinea contains a full account of the life and writings of Azurara and cites all the authorities.