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.