the time of Azurara's writing. Gongalvez desired to exchange the Moors he had recently taken for Negroes, and urged that from the Negroes they could obtain information of a more distant region, and that he would make every effort to secure such information. Prince Henry replied that not only of that land did he desire information, but also of the Indies, and of the land of Prester John, if it were possible.
In one of the earlier chapters of his work, Azurara gives in detail the objects which Prince Henry had in view. He tells us that the Prince was of a temper that prompted him to be ever beginning or finishing great deeds, and "consequently after the capture of Ceuta he continually kept vessels armed against the Infidels, and because he desired to know the land which is beyond the Canaries and a cape called Cape Bojador, since till that time, neither by writing, nor by the memory of men was the character of the land beyond that cape definitely known. To be sure some said St. Brandan had passed that way, and others that two galleys had been there but never returned.[1] … And because the Prince desired to know the truth of this, it seeming as if he or some other lord did not seek to know it, no mariners or merchants would ever go there, since it is evident that they would not try to sail to a place unless they might hope for profit from it, and seeing that no other prince was working at this he sent his ships to these parts, acting in the service of God and of King Dom Eduarte, his lord and brother. … And the second reason was, because he expected that he would find in these lands some Christians or some harbors to which they might safely sail and derive much merchandise from these kingdoms which they could get on good terms, since with them no one traded from these parts, nor for any other so far as was known, and that likewise the products of these kingdoms
- ↑ Probably a reference to the Doria Expedition of 1291, for which see Pertz Der Ælteste Versuch zur Entdeckung des Seeweges nach Ostindien, Berlin, 1859. Pertz's discussion is reproduced by Major in his Prince Henry, 99 ff. My references are to the original edition of Major's book.
