Chapter XXXIX

How they landed another time, and of the things that they did.

We can well understand, from the hap of these men, that the greater part of the actions achieved in this world are more subject to fortune than to reason. And what man in his right judgment could trust in the motions of the head, or the signs of the hands, which a Moor made him? Might it not chance, too, that that Moor, for the purpose of getting free, or perchance to get vengeance over his enemies, should show them one thing for another, and (under pretence of bringing them to a place where, on his showing, our people might expect to win a victory) should lead them into the middle of such a host of foes that they would escape little less than dead? Certainly no judgment in the world could think the contrary. Yet I believe that the chief cause of these matters lay in the understanding that our men already had of these people,[CF] perceiving their cunning to be but small in this part of the world.[N111]

[Footnote CF: Moors.]

So Mafaldo arrived with his booty, where he had such a reception from the other captains as the presence of the booty, gained by his toil, required of them. And making an end of recounting his joyful victory, he said he thought they ought to ask each one of the Moors they brought with them if, peradventure, beyond that settlement where they were taken, there was any other in which they could make any booty? And after getting the consent of all, he took aside one of those Moors in order to put him the aforesaid question; and he answered that there was.[CG] And they were already so much emboldened, that they waited not to ask if the enemy were many or few, or how many fighting men they numbered, or any of the other matters which it was fitting for them to ask in such a case. But like men who had fully determined upon their action, they started off the same afternoon, where by the signs of that Moor they were guided to a village, at which on their arrival they found nothing they could make booty of. And when they threatened the Moor for this, he made them understand that, as the people were not there, they must be in another settlement not very far from this. But here they only found one old Moor in the last infirmity; and seeing him thus at the point of death they left him there to make his end; not wishing to molest that little part of life that from his appearance was left him. And as it appeareth, the Moors, having already perceived the Christians to be among them, had left that village and moved off to another part of the country. And so our people who were there took counsel not to go further on, because it seemed to be a toil without hope of profit; but they agreed to return there in the future, presuming that the Moors, knowing of their coming and departure, would feel secure and return to their huts. But that was not so, for the Moors that time went a very long way off; where they still felt fearful of being sought out, even though they were so distant. True it is that our men (following their counsel as already taken) went to their caravels, from which they again returned to the village; and seeing they could not find anything, but only that Moor whom they had left before, it now seemed better to them to take him with them. Well might that poor man curse his fortune; that in so short a time it revoked his first sentence, conforming so many wills on each occasion regarding the fate of his happiness. And other times also our men went on shore, but they found nothing of any profit, and so returned to their ships.

[Footnote CG: Such a settlement.]