CHAPTER LXVIII

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How the caravel of Alvaro Gonçalvez d'Atayde and that of Picanço and the other of Tavilla sailed in company, and of the Canarians that they captured.

We have told in other chapters how the caravel of Tavilla and the other of Picanço parted company with the others when they went to Guinea, where it befell that they agreed together to return to Portugal. And on their return voyage they met with the caravel of Alvaro Gonçalvez d'Atayde, whose captain was one John de Castilha, and on asking him whither he was going, he said that he was voyaging to Guinea. "But," said the others, "what availeth your going at such a time as this, for we have just come from there, as you see, and winter is beginning, and therefore if you pursue your journey further you will imperil your life and gain little honour and less profit; but if you think good to follow our advice, return with us and we will go to the island of Palma, and see if we can make a capture of some of those Canarians there."

And although John de Castilha had doubts about so returning, because it did not appear to him a sure thing from the accounts he had heard of the inhabitants of that island, how that they were difficult to capture, yet compelled by the reasons the others gave him, he had to return with them. And so, going all in company, they arrived at the island of Gomera, where, wishful to go on shore, they espied many Canarians, of whom they took security before wholly leaving their boats. The Canarians granted them this without any reluctance, like men whose wills were more inclined to do them service than to put difficulties in their way. And immediately came there two chiefs of that island, who said how they were servants of the Infant Don Henry (and not without good reason, for they had previously been in the house of the King of Castile and the King of Portugal), and how in neither of them had they met with the favours they afterwards received from the Infant Don Henry; for while they were in his house they had from him a right excellent entertainment as long as they stayed there; and, in short[BM] he had clothed them very well, and sent them in his ships to their own land, on which account they were very ready to do him every service. "But," said they of the caravels, "we are also his men and servants, and by his command we left our country; wherefore if such is your mind, you have now the occasion of showing it right well, for we would go to the island of Palma and essay to take some captives, in the which your assistance would be very useful to us, if you would send with us some of these your subjects to aid and direct us, for we are unacquainted with the land, and have no knowledge of the ways of its inhabitants in their fighting." Now Bruco was the name of one of these chiefs, and the other's name was Piste, and they replied together that they were well pleased to toil in any matter that was for the service of the lord Infant Don Henry, and that they rendered many thanks to God for giving them the opportunity of showing what a good will they had for it; "and that you may see," said Piste, "the desire I have to serve him, I will accompany you and bring with me as many Canarians as you wish."

[Footnote BM: They declared that.]

"It seemeth to me," saith the author, "that the gratitude of these men bringeth shame on many who had received greater and better things from this our Prince, and yet came not by a great way to so perfect a knowledge of it. Oh, what a dishonour for those who were brought up in his household, and whom he afterwards placed in dignities and lordships, but who, clean forgetful of this, deserted him when their service was of need; and the names and deeds of these we will relate in the history of the Kingdom when we come to speak of the siege of Tangier."

And so that captain offered himself with his person and men, of whom he straightway had embarked in the ships as many as the captains wished to receive, and then they set sail forthwith, directing their course to the other Island of Palma, where they arrived when it was almost morning. And although reason would not have allowed them to land at such an hour, nevertheless they agreed together to go on shore forthwith. "For," said they, "we have already been perceived, and if we wait at all, our booty will be labour lost, for the Canarians will put themselves in safety, while if we land forthwith we shall be able to capture some; for although they are fleet of foot, yet there will be men among us that will follow them; and for sure the owners of those flocks who are wandering there before our eyes, will hasten up and get them in, for it is their custom to take almost as much toil about them as on their own behalf." And although such a resolve was perilous, yet it met with the approval of all of them; and so in a very short space they were all set on shore, as well the Portuguese as the Canarians.[BN] And as they were pursuing their way at no great distance from the beach, they perceived that the Canarians[BO] were flying, and as they commenced to follow them, one of the company said to the others: "Wherefore undertake a vain toil in running after those men? for however much you labour, you will not be able to come up with them; but rather let us follow those ewes and rams which are going up that crag, for of a surety the most part of those who are with them are youths and women, and if we follow them well we are bound to capture some." And these words were scarcely finished when all our men began to run, leaving the other Canarians, whose track they had already commenced to follow up. But those shepherds entered with their flock into a valley so deep and so dangerous that it was easier to marvel at than to relate how any could make their passage through it.

[Footnote BN: Who were friendly.]

[Footnote BO: Natives of Palma.]

But the Christians, both Portuguese and Canarians, followed them up with such zeal that just as the first began to enter into the valley, ours were already nigh unto them, and so all together they entered the valley, in such a way that the shepherds were obliged to take shelter among an expanse of rocky crags, the roughness of which was a marvellous thing; but much more marvellous was the ease with which the Canarians of that island made their way among those rocks, as though in sucking the milk from their mothers' breasts, they had commenced to walk in those places. And as the Psylli and Marmaridae,[BP] who live beyond the Libyan desert, know their sons to be sprung from their own bodies if straightway in their first boyhood they handle without fear the great poisons of that desert as they are offered to them by their fathers; so the Canarians of this island consider that their sons, if they are not born with this agility, have been generated by some wicked adultery.

[Footnote BP: The text has "Sillos ou Marmorios."]

But what about our countrymen, desirous to follow after them, for although they saw the roughness of the ground, yet they did not desist from pursuing them; and there a youth of noble heart, in running over those rocks, slipped from a very large and rough crag, and falling down, died. And think not that this misfortune happened only to that native of our realm, for many Canarians fell in the same way and died: for although Nature from old time had given them to walk among those rocky hills, yet on account of the haste of their enemies, whom they perceived to be near them, and deeming that to be their last remedy, where the crags were roughest, thither with the better will they made their way, thinking that their foes would fear to pursue them.

And if that Diego Gonçalvez, a page of the Infant's household (of whom I have already spoken in the chapter where I related how he was the first to throw himself in and swim at the Island where they took the fifty-eight Moors), if he, I say, received praise for his excellent courage, I may truthfully increase it much more on this occasion unto him, as unto the man who before all others bore himself conspicuously on that day. And certainly with great reason may I here blame fortune for this youth, who had been rewarded by his lord the Infant with a recent marriage in the City of Lisbon, and had collected in his house a great abundance of wealth for the sustaining of his life, when a fire came upon it by the negligence of a servitor of his. And this burned all the things that he had, but fortune was so kindly to him that it left them some poor garments with the which they escaped from the said house. The toil of our men was great on that day, although not so much in the fighting. Yet that was perilous enough, especially on account of the multitude of stones with which the Canarians chiefly combat their enemies, for they are strong in the arm, and very deadly with their shots. And it is right hard for any one else to strike them, for so well do they know how to avoid blows, especially of anything thrown, that, marksman though a man be, only after a long time and through great good fortune is he able to hit them. And they carry other arms well according with their bestial mode of life, to wit, long lances with sharp horns at the heads instead of iron points, and others sharpened like them at the lower ends.

But although the labour was so great, yet was it a beautiful thing to look upon; for anyone who had seen their skirmish, so disordered and confused, and in such a place--(the Christians engaged in capturing the Canarians and separating the flock from amongst them for the better securing of their booty, and the enemy busying themselves for the saving of their lives and of their flocks as best they could)--would say that such a sight was more delectable than any other that fell short of this ending. And so the booty of that day was seventeen Canarians, what of men and women, and among the latter they captured one who was of wondrous size for a woman, and they said that she was Queen of a part of that island. And after they had collected together their prisoners and the flock, they began to retreat towards their boats, but they were followed up by the Canarians so closely that they were obliged to leave them the greater part of the flock they had taken from them, and owing to this our men had much toil in their retreating.

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