Why ships had not hitherto dared to pass beyond Cape Bojador.
So the Infant, moved by these reasons, which you have already heard,
began to make ready his ships and his people, as the needs of the case
required; but this much you may learn, that although he sent out many
times, not only ordinary men, but such as by their experience in great
deeds of war were of foremost name in the profession of arms, yet there
was not one who dared to pass that Cape of Bojador and learn about the
land beyond it, as the Infant wished. And to say the truth this was not
from cowardice or want of good will, but from the novelty of the thing
and the wide-spread and ancient rumour about this Cape, that had been
cherished by the mariners of Spain from generation to generation. And
although this proved to be deceitful, yet since the hazarding of this
attempt seemed to threaten the last evil of all, there was great doubt
as to who would be the first to risk his life in such a venture. How are
we, men said, to pass the bounds that our fathers set up, or what profit
can result to the Infant from the perdition of our souls as well as of
our bodies--for of a truth by daring any further we shall become wilful
murderers of ourselves? Have there not been in Spain other princes and
lords as covetous perchance of this honour as the Infant? For certainly
it cannot be presumed that among so many noble men who did such great
and lofty deeds for the glory of their memory, there had not been one to
dare this deed. But being satisfied of the peril, and seeing no hope of
honour or profit, they left off the attempt. For, said the mariners,
this much is clear, that beyond this Cape there is no race of men nor
place of inhabitants: nor is the land less sandy than the deserts of
Libya, where there is no water, no tree, no green herb--and the sea so
shallow that a whole league from land it is only a fathom deep, while
the currents are so terrible that no ship having once passed the Cape,
will ever be able to return.[N49]
Therefore our forefathers never attempted to pass it: and of a surety
their knowledge of the lands beyond was not a little dark, as they knew
not how to set them down on the charts, by which man controls all the
seas that can be navigated. Now what sort of a ship's captain would he
be who, with such doubts placed before him by those to whom he might
reasonably yield credence and authority, and with such certain prospect
of death before his eyes, could venture the trial of such a bold feat as
that? O thou Virgin Themis, saith our Author, who among the nine Muses
of Mount Parnassus didst possess the especial right of searching out the
secrets of Apollo's cave, I doubt whether thy fears were as great at
putting thy feet on that sacred table where the divine revelations
afflicted thee little less than death, as the terrors of these mariners
of ours, threatened not only by fear but by its shadow, whose great
deceit was the cause of very great expenses. For during twelve years the
Infant continued steadily at this labour of his, ordering out his ships
every year to those parts, not without great loss of revenue, and never
finding any who dared to make that passage. Yet they did not return
wholly without honour, for as an atonement for their failure to carry
out more fully their Lord's wishes, some made descents upon the coasts
of Granada and others voyaged along the Levant Seas, where they took
great booty of the Infidels, with which they returned to the Kingdom
very honourably.[N50]