CHAPTER LXIX

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How they took certain Canarians, despite the surety.

And when all were in their ships, they raised their sails and returned to the other island whence they had departed before; and because they had received much help from those first Canarians whom they had with them, they rendered great thanks to that Chief in the name of the Infant their lord for the toil that he had undergone for his service, and much more for the goodwill with which he had undertaken it, putting him in the hope of receiving for it many other and greater guerdons than those he had received before. And of a surety their promise was not in vain, for afterwards that Chief, who was called Piste came to this kingdom, with others from that land, and they obtained many favours and much hospitality from the Infant, on account of which I can well believe they did not repent of their former toil. And of this I, who collected and put in order this history, can be a sure witness; for it happened that I was in the Kingdom of the Algarve in the house of this Prince[N163] at the time when these Canarians were staying there, and I saw well how they were treated. And I believe that that Chief, and some of those who accompanied him, stayed so long in this kingdom, that they made an end of their lives there. And I have said already how John de Castilha, who was captain of that caravel of Alvaro Gonçalvez d'Atayde, did not arrive in Guinea as the others did, nor do I find that he made any other booty, but only those Canarians which they took there; and this seemed to him a very small thing with which to return to the Kingdom, especially as all the other caravels had a great advantage over him which he in his heart felt to be an injury. And so he imagined an ugly device by which he might make some increase in that little which he was carrying, and he began to treat with the others that they would be pleased to seize some part of these Canarians in spite of the sureties. And as covetousness is the root of all evils, though such a proceeding seemed devoid of reason to many, yet they had to consent to what John de Castilha on so many grounds showed them to be profitable. And because it seemed to them an ugly thing to take any of those men who had aided them so well, they moved from that place and went to another port. And there some Canarians, trusting in our men, went to the caravel, and these, I believe, were twenty-one in number, and with them they made sail to Portugal. But the Infant, having knowledge of this, was very wroth with those captains, and straightway he caused the Canarians to be brought to his own house, and had them very nobly attired and returned to their own land. And there the natives bestowed much praise on the Prince for such a virtuous act, and were on this account much the more inclined to serve him. And of the first coming of these Canarians to this our Kingdom, and of many other things that passed concerning them, we will speak more fully in the general chronicle of the acts of our Kingdom.

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