[BG] Blow upon these mountains.
[BH] Aurego.
CHAPTER LXIII.
How the Caravels set forth from the river, and of the voyage which they made.
All these secrets and marvels did the genius of our prince bring before the eyes of the people of our kingdom, for although all the matters here spoken of concerning the marvels of the Nile[[154]] could not be witnessed by his own eyes, for that were impossible, it was a great matter that his ships arrived there, where 'tis not recorded that any other ship of these parts had ever come. And this may truthfully be affirmed according to the matters which at the beginning of this book I have related concerning the passage of Cape Bojador, and also from the astonishment which the natives of that land showed when they saw the first ships, for they went to them imagining they were fish, or some other natural product of the sea.[[155]] But now returning to our history, after that deed was thus concluded, it was the wish of all the three captains to endeavour to make an honourable booty, adventuring their bodies in whatsoever peril might be necessary; but it appeareth that the wind veered sharply round to south, wherefore it was convenient to set sail at once. And as they were cruising up and down in order to see what the weather purposed to do, the wind turned to the north, and with this they made their way towards Cape Verde, where Dinis Diaz had been the other year. And they went on as far as was possible for all the caravels to join them, except that of Rodrigueannes de Travaços, which lost its company and made thereafter that voyage which will be related.
And the five caravels being directly over against the Cape, saw an island, where they landed to see if it were peopled; they found that it was deserted, only they discovered there a great multitude of she goats. And of these they took some to refresh themselves withal; and they reported that these were in no way different from the goats of our country, except that their ears were larger. From the same island also they took water and went on further, until they found another island, in the which they saw fresh skins of goats and other things, from which they understood that other caravels had gone on in front of them; and in further proof of this they found the Arms of the Infant carved upon the trees, and also the letters which composed his motto. "Of a surety I doubt," saith our author, "if since the great power of Alexander and of Cæsar, there hath been any prince in the world that ever had the marks of his conquest set up so far from his own land."
And by those signs, which those men of the caravels found there on the trees, they understood that some others had already gone on in front, and so they decided to turn back to their ships; and, as they afterwards discovered, it was the caravel of John Gonçalves Zarco, captain of the isle of Madeira, that had preceded them.
And because there were so many of those blacks[[BI]] on land that by no means could they disembark either by day or night, Gomez Pirez sought to show that he desired to go among them on peaceful terms, and so placed upon the shore a cake and a mirror and a sheet of paper on which he drew a cross. And the natives when they came there and found those things, broke up the cake and threw it far away, and with their assegais they cast at the mirror, till they had broken it in many pieces, and the paper they tore, showing that they cared not for any of these things.
"Since it is so," said Gomez Pirez to his crossbowmen, "shoot at them with your bows that they may at least understand that we are people who can do them hurt, whenever they will not agree to a friendly understanding." But the blacks seeing the others' intention, began to pay them back, launching at them also their arrows and assegais, some of which our men brought home to this kingdom. And the arrows are so made that they have no feathers, nor a notch for the string to enter, but they are all smooth and short, and made of rushes or reeds, and their iron points are long and some are made of wood fixed in the shafts, which are like the iron spindles with which the women of this country spin. And they use also other little harpoons of iron, the which darts are all equally poisoned with plants. And their assegais are each made with seven or eight harpoon-like prongs, and the plant they use is very venomous.
And in that island in which the arms of the Infant[[156]] were carved they found trees of great size, and of strange forms, and among these was one which was not less than 108 palms in circuit at the foot. And this tree[[157]] doth not grow very high, but is about as lofty as the walnut-tree, and from its middle bark they make very good thread for cordage, and it burneth like flax. The fruit is like a gourd, and its seeds are like filberts, and this fruit they eat green, and the seeds they dry. And of these there is a great abundance, and I believe they use them for their maintenance after the green faileth them. And some there were who said they saw there birds which appeared to them to be parrots.
So all the captains there agreed to make sail, with the intention of entering into the River of Nile, but no one was able to light upon it save Lawrence Diaz, that squire of the Infant's. And he, because he was alone, did not dare enter into the river, but he went with the little boat to the place where they took the blacks on the outward voyage; howbeit he turned back without doing anything worthy of mention. And since he did not fall in with the convoy again he came straight to Lagos. And in this wise Gomez Pirez lost the company of the other caravels; and following his course towards Portugal, after taking in water at the isle of Arguim, he came to the Rio do Ouro,[[158]] and sailed as far up as the port where he had been the preceding year with Antam Gonçalvez and Diego Affonso, and there presently the Moors came, and in taking security of them he learnt there were no merchants there. But they sold him a black for the price of five doubloons, which he paid them by certain things he gave them in their stead. Also they brought him water on their camels, and gave him meat and made him a sufficiency of good reception; and above all they showed such confidence that without any hesitancy so many entered into the caravel, that he was not very well pleased, and would not consent that any more should enter; but at last, without causing them[[BJ]] any injury, he had them put on land, making an agreement with them that next year, in the month of July, he would return there, when he would find blacks in abundance, and gold, and merchandise by which he might gain much profit. Moreover, Gomez Pirez brought back from that voyage a great many skins of sea-calves, with the which he loaded his ship and so returned to the kingdom.[[159]]