And at these words of his all made great obeisance, kissing his hands in the name of all those others for whom they had come. Now, when all the others in the place had heard the message, they began at once to make ready to arm their caravels and pursue their voyage as speedily as they could; and the news of this armament went out through all parts of the Kingdom, which news stirred up others to join themselves to the said company. But I believe that this was not without the especial order of the Infant, since, as I have said before, no one could go to Guinea without the allowance of that lord.
CHAPTER LI.
How the caravels quitted Lagos, and what captains were in them.
On this occasion it happened that the Infant Dom Henry was summoned on the part of his brother Dom Pedro, who was Regent of the kingdom in the name of the King, as we have said already, to go to Coimbra and knight Dom Pedro of Portugal, eldest son of the said Regent, who was then Constable of these realms; and who was ordered to go to Castille, as in fact he did. Forasmuch as the King Don John the Second, who was then King of that realm, was in trouble with his cousins, the King of Navarre and the Infant Don Henry, who was master of the Order of Santiago, and other grandees of that kingdom who were with them, because of the great enmities which had sprung up between the said King and those lords, owing to the Constable Don Alvaro de Luna. For he, being a man of common origin and manners, by superabundance of fortune or some other hidden secret, came to such a pitch of power that he did whatever he pleased in the kingdom, so that for his sake were slain and destroyed the principal men of Castille, as you will learn more at length in the General Chronicle of the kingdom, since of necessity the said actions must be touched on there. Right well did the Infant Dom Pedro give the world to understand the great dignity that he recognised in his brother, for he held it as a greater honour that his son should receive knighthood at the hand of his uncle than at that of any other Prince of Spain.
And among the things which I have heard say the Infant spake to that son of his, when he left him, was this: that he charged him to remember the order of chivalry which he had received, and especially from whose hand he had received it, the which matter was no small charge for him. But before the Infant Dom Henry had thus set out from Lagos, he left in the chief command of all those ships, Lançarote, the same knight of whom we have already spoken; and this was done with the consent of all the other captains: for though there were then a sufficiency of notable persons worthy of great honour, yet, knowing the judgment and discretion of that man, it was their pleasure that he should have this charge. For there was there Sueiro da Costa, Alcayde of that city of Lagos, who was a nobleman and a fidalgo, brought up from boyhood in the court of the King, Dom Edward; and who happened to have been in many notable actions. For he was in the battle of Monvedro[[122]] with the King, Don Fernando of Aragon, against the men of Valencia,[[K]] and he was at the leaguer of[[123]] Balaguer,[[L]] in which were performed very great matters; and he was with the King Ladislaus[[M]] when he assailed the city of Rome; and he was with the King Louis of Provence in all his war; and he was at the battle of Agincourt, which was a very great and mighty battle, between the Kings of France and England; and he was in the battle of Vallamont[[N]] with the Constable of France against the Duke of Ossestre; and in the battle of Montsécur, in which were the Count of Foix[[O]] and the Count of Armagnac; and he was at the taking of Soissons[[P]] and at the raising of the sieges of Arrasa[[Q]] and Ceuta,[[R]] in which matters he always approved himself a very valiant man of arms. And this Sueiro da Costa was father-in-law of Lançarote.[[124]] And there were also in that captaincy Alvaro de Freitas, Commander of Aljazur, which belongeth to the order of Santiago, a nobleman, and one who had made very great prizes among the Moors of Granada, and of Bellamarim; and Gomez Pirez, commander of the King's galley, of whom we have already spoken in another chapter; and Rodriguez Eannes of Travaços, a servant of the Regent, who was a very zealous squire, and toiled to the utmost of his power to increase his honour. And there was also Pallenço, a man who had often fought against the Moors, and who spent his whole life in the service of God and of the kingdom, undertaking and accomplishing by himself very great actions (as we have said in the General Chronicle of the Kingdom) after Ceuta was taken. Other good and honourable persons chanced to be in the said company, whom we omit to mention, so as not to be too lengthy: such as Gil Eannes, a knight and dweller in that town, and Stevam Affonso, and others. And to speak briefly there were armed in that place and year[[125]] fourteen caravels, besides some others that were armed in Lisbon and in the Madeira Islands, to wit, those of Dinis Diaz,[[126]] who was the first to reach the land of the Negroes, and of Tristam,[[S]][[127]] one of the captains of the island,[[T]] who went there in person with his caravel; besides the vessel of Alvaro Gonçalvez d'Atayde, who was then preceptor to the King, and afterwards Count of Atouguya; moreover, John Gonçalvez Zarco, who had the other captaincy in Madeira,[[U]] sent there two caravels; and other ships were there, of whose masters we do not care to make express mention in this place. Only it were well you should know that in this year there were armed to go to that land of the Negroes twenty-six caravels, not counting the Fusta of Pallenço; and among these the thirteen ships of Lagos started first, and after them the others, each one as it best could; but they did not all together take part in the affair of Tider.
And as the history cannot be recounted as well as might be, for that the voyage was not made by all the caravels in company, we will only say what we can, in the best manner that we can speak.
[K] Vallença.
[L] Vallaquer.
[M] Lançaraao.
[N] Cabo de Caaes.
[O] Fooes.