Chapter XXVI

How the Infant Don Henry made Lançarote a Knight.

Although the sorrow of those captives was for the present very great, especially after the partition was finished and each one took his own share aside (while some sold their captives, the which they took to other districts); and although it chanced that among the prisoners the father often remained in Lagos, while the mother was taken to Lisbon, and the children to another part (in which partition their sorrow doubled the first grief)--yet this sorrow was less felt among those who happened to remain in company. For as saith the text,[N82] the wretched find a consolation in having comrades in misfortune. But from this time forth they[AV] began to acquire some knowledge of our country; in which they found great abundance, and our men began to treat them with great favour. For as our people did not find them hardened in the belief of the other Moors; and saw how they came in unto the law of Christ with a good will; they made no difference between them and their free servants, born in our own country; but those whom they took while still young, they caused to be instructed in mechanical arts, and those whom they saw fitted for managing property; they set free and married to women who were natives of the land;[AW] making with them a division of their property, as if they had been bestowed on those who married them by the will of their own fathers, and for the merits of their service they were bound to act in a like manner. Yea, and some widows of good family who bought some of these female slaves, either adopted them or left them a portion of their estate by will; so that in the future they married right well; treating them as entirely free. Suffice it that I never saw one of these slaves put in irons like other captives, and scarcely any one who did not turn Christian and was not very gently treated.

[Footnote AV: The black captives.]

[Footnote AW: Of Portugal.]

And I have been asked by their lords to the baptisms and marriages of such; at which they, whose slaves they were before, made no less solemnity than if they had been their children or relations.

And so their lot was now quite the contrary of what it had been; since before they had lived in perdition of soul and body; of their souls, in that they were yet pagans, without the clearness and the light of the holy faith; and of their bodies, in that they lived like beasts, without any custom of reasonable beings--for they had no knowledge of bread or wine, and they were without the covering of clothes, or the lodgment of houses; and worse than all, through the great ignorance that was in them, in that they had no understanding of good, but only knew how to live in a bestial sloth.

But as soon as they began to come to this land, and men gave them prepared food and coverings for their bodies, their bellies began to swell, and for a time they were ill; until they were accustomed to the nature of the country; but some of them were so made that they were not able to endure it and died, but as Christians.

Now there were four things in these captives that were very different from the condition of the other Moors who were taken prisoners from this part. First, that after they had come to this land of Portugal, they never more tried to fly, but rather in time forgot all about their own country, as soon as they began to taste the good things of this one; secondly, that they were very loyal and obedient servants, without malice; thirdly, that they were not so inclined to lechery as the others; fourthly, that after they began to use clothing they were for the most part very fond of display, so that they took great delight in robes of showy colours, and such was their love of finery, that they picked up the rags that fell from the coats of the other people of the country and sewed them on to their garments, taking great pleasure in these, as though it were matter of some greater perfection. And what was still better, as I have already said, they turned themselves with a good will into the path of the true faith; in the which after they had entered, they received true belief, and in this same they died. And now reflect what a guerdon should be that of the Infant in the presence of the Lord God; for thus bringing to true salvation, not only those, but many others, whom you will find in this history later on.

Now when the partition was thus accomplished, the captains of the other caravels came to the Infant, and with them some noblemen of his house, and said to him: "Sire, in that you know the great toil that Lançarote, your servant, hath undergone in this action just achieved, and with what diligence he effected it, by the which God hath given us so good a victory as you have seen; and also as he is a man of good lineage, who deserveth every good; we beg your grace that for his reward, you would be minded to knight him with your own hand. Since you see that for every reason he deserveth this honour; and even if he had not deserved it so well (said those captains of the caravels), we think it would be an injury to us (as he was our captain-general, and laboured so much before our eyes), if he did not receive for it some honour superior to that which he had before, being an upright man and your servant, as we have said."

The Infant answered that it pleased him greatly; and that besides he was much obliged for their having asked it of him; for by it they gave example to the others that might desire to act as captains of brave men, and toil for their honour.

And so forthwith he made Lançarote a knight, giving him a rich guerdon, according as his deserts and his excellence required. And to the other leaders also he gave increased advancement, so that besides their first profit they considered their labour right well bestowed.