Chapter LXXXVII

Of how Alvaro Fernandez returned again to the land of the Negroes, and of the things he accomplished there.

One of the signs by which a noble heart is recognised is that it hath no contentment in small matters, but ever seeketh some betterment, that its honour may be increased among the deeds of the noble both in its own land and outside it. And this may we justly say of John Gonçalvez, captain of the island;[CP] for he, not satisfied by the other voyage that his ship had made in the previous year to the land of the Negroes, made ready once more to dispatch there that same Alvaro Fernandez with his caravel well armed, and charged him to make his way still further onward to the utmost of his power, and to toil for some booty which by its novelty and greatness might give testimony of the good will he had to serve that lord who had brought him up. Now Alvaro Fernandez undertook this matter as an honourable burden, like one who had no less desire[CQ] to carry through the mandate which his uncle had laid upon him. And when the ship had been provisioned, they made their voyage straight to Cape Verde, whereat in the past year they had captured the two Guineas of whom we have spoken in another place, and thence they passed on to the Cape of Masts,[N205] and made a stay there to put some men on shore. And for the sole purpose of seeing the land, seven of them joined together, and these, when they had been landed upon the beach, discovered the footprints of men leading along a certain path. And they followed them up and reached a well where they found goats, which it seemeth the Guineas had left there, and this would be, I think, because they perceived that they were being followed. The Christians went so far and no further, for they dared not pursue their course, and returning to their caravel, they voyaged on, and putting out their boat, found on land some elephant's dung of the bigness of a man, according to the judgment of those that saw it; and because it seemed not a place wherein to make booty they returned again to their caravel. And so journeying along the sea coast, in a few days they went on shore again, and came upon a village, and its inhabitants issued forth like men who showed they had a will to defend their houses, and among them came one armed with a good buckler and an assegai in his hand. And Alvaro Fernandez seeing him, and judging him to be the leader of the band, went stoutly at him, and gave him such a great wound with his lance that he fell down dead, and then he took from him his shield and assegai; and these he brought home to the Infant along with some other things, as will be related further on.

[Footnote CP: Madeira.]

[Footnote CQ: Than his uncle.]

Now the Guineas, perceiving that man to be dead, paused from their fighting, and it appeared to our men to be neither the time nor the place to withdraw them from that fear. But rather they returned to their ship and on the next day landed a little way distant from there, where they espied some of the wives of those Guineas walking. And it seemeth that they were going nigh to a creek collecting shell-fish, and they captured one of them, who would be as much as thirty years of age, with a son of hers who would be of about two, and also a young girl of fourteen years, who had well-formed limbs and also a favourable presence for a Guinea; but the strength of the woman was much to be marvelled at, for not one of the three men who came upon her but would have had a great labour in attempting to get her to the boat. And so one of our men, seeing the delay they were making, during which it might be that some of the dwellers of the land would come upon them, conceived it well to take her son from her and to carry him to the boat; and love of the child compelled the mother to follow after it, without great pressure on the part of the two who were bringing her. From this place they went on further for a certain distance until they lighted upon a river,[N206] into the which they entered with the boat, and in some houses that they found they captured a woman, and after they had brought her to the caravel, they returned once more to the river, intending to journey higher up in order to try and make some good booty. And as they were pursuing their voyage thus, there came upon them four or five boats of Guineas prepared like men who would defend their land, and our men in the boat were not desirous to try a combat with them, seeing the great advantage their enemies had, and especially because they feared the great peril that lay in the poison with which they shot. And so they began to retreat to their ship as well as they could, but seeing how one of those boats was much in front of the others, they turned round upon it, but it retired towards its companions, and as our men were trying to reach it before it escaped (for it seemeth that it was already distant a good way from the company) their boat came so near that one of those Guineas made a shot at it and happened to hit Alvaro Fernandez with an arrow in the leg. But since he had already been warned of its poison, he drew out that arrow very quickly and had the wound washed with urine and olive oil, and then anointed it very well with theriack, and it pleased God that it availed him, although his health was in very troublous case, for during certain days he was in the very act of passing away from life. The others on the caravel, although they saw their captain thus wounded, desisted not from voyaging forward along that coast until they arrived at a narrow strip of sand stretching in front of a great bay, and here they put out their boat and went inside to see what kind of land they would find; and when they were in sight of the beach they saw coming toward them full 120 Guineas, some with shields and assegais, others with bows. And as soon as they came near the water these began to play and dance like men far removed from any sorrow; but our men in the boat, wishful to escape from the invitation to that festival, returned to their ship. And this took place 110 leagues beyond Cape Verde,[N207] and all that coast trendeth commonly to the south. And this caravel went further this year than all the others, wherefore with right good will a guerdon of 200 doubloons was granted unto it, that is to say 100 which the Infant Don Pedro, who was then Regent, ordered to be given, and another 100 which it obtained from the Infant Don Henry. And had it not been for the illness of Alvaro Fernandez, by which he was much disabled, the caravel would have gone further still, but it was obliged to return from that last place I have mentioned, and it came straight to the Isle of Arguim, and thence to the Cape of the Ransom, where they found that Ahude Meymam of whom we have already spoken at times in this history. And although they did not carry an interpreter, yet by making signs they obtained a negress, whom the Moors gave them in exchange for some cloths they brought with them, and had they not brought so little they could have obtained much more, judging by the desire that the Moors showed. And thence they made their voyage towards the Kingdom, where they received the doubloons as I have already said, together with many other guerdons from the Infant their lord, who was very joyful at their coming on account of the advance they had made in their expedition.