How they went to Cape Branco, and of what they did there.
Then on board it was determined that next day they should start for Cape
Branco. The which matter, as soon it was dawn, they put in execution,
making sail for the said Cape, where they arrived after two days, and
some landed at once--about twenty or twenty-five men--to see what the
land was like; and when they were a little distance from where they
landed, they saw a number of Moors go by, fishing. And though they
appeared to them to be rather great in number, they had a mind to
attempt that matter by themselves, without acquainting those who were in
the ships with their project; and they made after them. And the Moors,
on seeing them, began to fly; but when they saw they were so few in
number, they awaited them as men who desired to fight, in the hope of
victory. The Christians reached them, and the battle began, without
anyone shewing to his enemy any signs of fear; and at last He from whom
(as saith St. James) cometh down every good thing, and who had already
given our men such a good beginning and middle, as hath been said, was
pleased that in the end[N79] they should have a complete victory over
their enemies, and that their lives should be saved and their honours
increased; for after a little skirmish the Moors began to get the worst
of it, each flying as best he could; and the Christians, following them
a long distance, took fourteen of them captive, besides those that died;
and so with this victory, and filled with great joy, they returned to
their ships. And if their fortune was good against their enemies, it was
not less good in the refreshment they had afterwards, for they had there
many eels and crowfish,[AP] which they found in the nets that the Moors
had thrown out.
[Footnote AP: Named after their black fins.]
Then Lançarote, as a man who did not forget his first purpose, said he
thought it well, before they departed from that place, that some men
should go along the land and see if they could find any native
settlements; and at once five set out, and lighted on a settlement, and
returned to tell Lançarote and the others. But although they set off
very speedily, their journey was fruitless, for the Moors had caught
sight of the first party, and fled at once from that place; so that they
only found one girl, who had stayed sleeping in the village; whom they
took with them, and returning to the caravels, made sail for Portugal.