VOYAGES OF DIEGO GOMEZ.
1458-60.
The last voyage of Henry's lifetime was that of his faithful servant,
Diego Gomez, by which the Cape Verde islands first became clearly and
fully known. It followed close upon Cadamosto's venture.
"No long time after, the Prince equipped at Lagos a caravel, called the
_Wren_, and set over it Diego Gomez, with two other caravels, of which
the same Gomez was captain-in-chief. Their orders were to go as far as
they could.
"But after passing a great river beyond the Rio Grande, we met such
strong currents in the sea that no anchor could hold. The other captains
and their men were much alarmed, thinking we were at the end of the
ocean, and begged me to put back. In the mid-current the sea was very
clear and the natives came off from the shore and brought us their
merchandise, cotton cloth, ivory, and a quart measure of malaguette
pepper, in grain and in its pods as it grows, which delighted us.
"As the current prevented our going farther, and even grew stronger, we
put back and came to a land where there were groves of palms near the
shore with their branches broken, so tall that from a distance I thought
they were the masts or spars of negroes' vessels.
"So we went there and found a great plain covered with hay and more than
five thousand animals like stags, but larger, who shewed no fear of us.
Five elephants came out of a small river that was fringed by trees,
three full grown, with two young ones, and on the shore we saw holes of
crocodiles in plenty. We went back to the ships and next day made our
way from Cape Verde and saw the broad mouth of a great river, three
leagues in width, which we entered and guessed to be the Gambia. Here
wind and tide were in our favour, so we came to a small island in
mid-stream and rested there the night. In the morning we went farther
in, and saw a crowd of canoes full of men, who fled at the sight of us,
for it was they who had killed Nuno Tristam and his men. Next day we saw
beyond the point of the river some natives on the right-hand bank, who
welcomed us. Their chief was called Frangazick and he was the nephew of
Farosangul, the great Prince of the Negroes. There they gave us one
hundred and eighty pounds worth of gold, in exchange for our goods. The
lord of the country had a negro with him named Buka, who knew the tongue
only of Negroland, and finding him perfectly truthful, I asked him to go
with me to Cantor and promised him all he needed. I made the same
promise to his chief and kept it.
[Illustration: THE BORGIAN MAP OF 1450. (SEE LIST OF MAPS)]
"We went up the river as far as Cantor, which is a large town near the
river-side. Farther than this the ships could not go, because of the
thick growth of trees and underwood, but here I made it known that I had
come to exchange merchandise, and the natives came to me in very great
numbers. When the news spread through the country that the Christians
were in Cantor, they came from Tambucatu in the North, from Mount Gelu
in the South, and from Quioquun, which is a great city, with a wall of
baked tiles. Here, too, I was told, there is gold in plenty and caravans
of camels cross over there with goods from Carthage, Tunis, Fez, Cairo
and all the land of the Saracens. These are exchanged for gold, which
comes from the mines on the other side of Sierra Leone. They said that
range ran southwards, which pleased me very greatly, because all the
rivers coming from thence, as far as could be known, ran westward, but
they told me that other very large rivers ran eastward from the other
side of the ridge.
"There was also, they said, East of these mountains, a great lake,
narrow and long, on which sailed canoes like ships. The people on the
opposite sides of this lake were always at war; and those on the eastern
side were white. When I asked who ruled in those parts, they answered
that one chief was a negro, but towards the East was a greater lord who
had conquered the negroes a short time before.
"A Saracen told me he had been all through that land and had been
present at the fighting, and when I told this to the Prince, he said
that a merchant in Oran had written him two months before about this
very war, and that he believed it.
"Such were the things told me by the negroes at Cantor; I asked them
about the road to the gold country, and who were the lords of that
country. They told me the King lived in Kukia, and was lord of all the
mines on the right side of the river of Cantor, and that he had before
the door of his palace a mass of gold just as it was taken from the
earth, so large that twenty men could hardly move it, and that the King
always fastened his horse to it and kept it as a curiosity on account of
its size and purity. The nobles of his Court wore in their nostrils and
ears ornaments of gold.
"The parts to the East were full of gold mines, but the men who went
into the pits to get gold did not live long, because of the foul air.
The gold sand was given to women to wash the gold from it.
"I enquired the road from Cantor to Kukia and was told the road ran
eastward; where was great abundance of gold; as I can well believe, for
I saw the negroes who went by those roads laden with it.
"While I was thus trafficking with these negroes of Cantor, my men
became worn out with the heat and so we returned towards the ocean.
After I had gone down the river fifty leagues, they told me of a great
chief living on the South side, who wished to speak with me.
"We met in a great wood on the bank, and he brought with him a vast
throng of people armed with poisoned arrows, assegais, swords and
shields. And I went to him, carrying some presents and biscuit and some
of our wine, for they have no wine except that made from the date-palm,
and he was pleased and extremely gracious, giving me three negroes and
swearing to me by the one only God that he would never again make war
against Christians, but that they might trade and travel safely through
all his country.
"Being desirous of putting to proof this oath of his, I sent a certain
Indian named Jacob whom the Prince had sent with us, in order that in
the event of our reaching India, he might be able to hold speech with
the natives, and I ordered him to go to the place called Al-cuzet, with
the lord of that country, to find Mount Gelu and Timbuctoo through the
land of Jaloffa. A knight had gone there with him before.
"This Jacob, the Indian, told me that Al-cuzet was a very evil land,
having a river of sweet water and abundance of lemons; and some of these
he brought to me. And the lord of that country sent me elephants' teeth
and four negroes, who carried one great ivory tusk to the ship.
"Now the houses here are made of seaweed, covered with straw, and while
I stayed here (at the river mouth) three days, I learned that all the
mischief that had been done to the Christians had been done by a certain
king called Nomimansa, who has the country near the great headland by
the mouth of the river Gambia. So I took great pains to make peace with
him, and sent him many presents by his own men in his own canoes, which
were going for salt along the coast to his own country, for this salt
is plentiful there and of a red colour. Now Nomimansa was in great fear
of the Christians, lest they should take vengeance upon him.
"Then I went on to a great harbour where I had many negroes come to me,
sent by Nomimansa to see if I should do anything, but I always treated
them kindly. When the King heard this, he came to the river side with a
great force and sitting down on the bank, sent for me. And so I went and
paid him all respect. There was a Bishop there of his own faith who
asked me about the God of the Christians, and I answered him as God had
given me to know; and then I questioned him about Mahomet, whom they
believe. At last the King was so pleased with what I said that he sprang
to his feet and ordered the Bishop to leave his country within three
days, and swore that he would kill any one who should speak the name of
Mahomet from that day forward. For he said he trusted in the one only
God and there was no other but He, whom his brother Prince Henry
worshipped.
"Then calling the Infant his brother, he asked me to baptize him and all
his lords and women. He himself would have no other name than Henry, but
his nobles took our names, like James and Nuno. So I remained on shore
that night with the King but did not baptize him, as I was a layman. But
next day I begged the King with his twelve chief men and eight of his
wives to dine with me on my caravel; and they all came unarmed and I
gave them fowls and meat and wine, white and red, as much as they could
drink, and they said to one another that no people were better than the
Christians.
"Then again on shore the King asked me to baptize him but I said I had
not leave from the Pope; but I would tell the Prince, who would send a
priest. So Nomimansa at once wrote to Prince Henry to send him a priest
and some one to teach him the faith, and begged him to send him a falcon
with the priest, for he was amazed when I told him how we carried a bird
on the hand to catch other birds. And with these he asked the Prince to
send him two rams and sheep and geese and ganders and a pig, and two men
to build houses and plan out his town. And all these wishes of his I
promised him that the Prince would grant. And he and all his people made
a great noise at my going but I left the King at Gambia and started back
for Portugal. One caravel I sent straight home, but with the others I
sailed to Cape Verde.
"And as we came near the sea-shore we saw two canoes putting out to sea;
but we sailed between them and the shore, and so cut them off. Then the
interpreter came to me and said that Bezeghichi, the lord of the land
and an evil man, was in one of them.
"So I made them come into the caravel and gave them to eat and drink
with a double share of presents, and making as if I did not know him to
be the chief, I said 'Is this the land of Bezeghichi?' He answered 'Yes,
it is.' And I, to try him, exclaimed 'Why is he so bitter against the
Christians? He would do far better to have peace with them, so that they
might trade in his land and bring him horses and other things, as they
do for other lords of the negroes. Go and tell your lord Bezeghichi that
I have taken you and for love of him have let you go.'
"At this he was very cheerful and he and his men got into their canoes,
as I bade them, and as they all were standing by the side of the
caravel, I called out 'Bezeghichi, Bezeghichi, do not think I did not
know thee. I could have done to thee what I would, and now, as I have
done to thee, do thou also to our Christians.'
"So they went off, and we came back to Arguin and the Isle of the
Herons, where we found flocks of birds of every kind, and after this
came home to Lagos, where the Prince was very glad of our return.
"Then after this for two years no one went to Guinea, because King
Affonso was at war in Africa and the Prince was quite taken up with
this. But after he had come back from Alcaçer, I reminded him of what
King Nomimansa had asked of him; and the Prince sent him all he had
promised, with a priest, the Abbot of Soto de Cassa, and a young man of
his household named John Delgado. This was in 1458.
"Two years afterwards King Affonso equipped a large caravel and sent me
out as captain, and I took with me ten horses and went to the land of
the Barbacins, which is near the land of Nomimansa. And these Barbacins
had two kings, but the King of Portugal gave me power over all the
shores of that sea, that any ships I might find off the coast of Guinea
should be under me, for he knew that there were those who sold arms to
the Moors, and he bade me to seize such and bring them bound to
Portugal.
"And by the help of God I came in twelve days to this land (of the
Barbacins), and found two ships there,--one under Gonzalo Ferreira, of
Oporto, of the Household of Prince Henry, that was conveying horses; the
other was under Antonio de Noli, of Genoa. These merchants injured our
trade very much, for the natives used to give twelve negroes for one
horse, and now gave only six.
"And while we were there, a caravel came from Gambia, which brought us
news that a captain called De Prado was coming with a richly laden ship,
and I ordered Ferreira to go to Cape Verde and look for that ship and
seize it, on pain of death and loss of all his goods. And he did so, and
we found a great prize, which I sent home with Ferreira to the King. And
then I and Antonio de Noli left that coast, and sailed two days and one
night towards Portugal, and we sighted islands in the ocean, and as my
ship was lighter and faster than the rest, I came first to one of those
islands, to a good harbour, with a beach of white sand, where I
anchored. I told all my men and the other captains that I wished to be
first to land, and so I did.
"We saw no trace of natives, and called the island Santiago, as it is
still known. There were plenty of fish there and many strange birds, so
tame that we killed them with sticks. And I had a quadrant with me, and
wrote on the table of it the altitude of the Arctic Pole, and I found it
better than the chart, for though you see your course of sailing on the
chart well enough, yet if once you get wrong, it is hard by map alone to
work back into the right course.
"After this we saw one of the Canary islands, called Palma, and so came
to the island of Madeira; and then adverse winds drove me to the Azores,
but Antonio de Noli stayed at Madeira, and, catching the right breeze,
he got to Portugal before me, and begged of the King the captaincy of
the island of Santiago, which I had found, and the King gave it him, and
he kept it till his death.
"But De Prado, who had carried arms to the Moors, lay in irons and the
King ordered him to be brought out. And then they martyrised him in a
cart, and threw him into the fire alive with his sword and gold."
[Illustration: COIMBRA UNIVERSITY OF WHICH HENRY WAS THE OFFICIAL
PATRON.]