CHAPTER LXXIV

.

Of how Rodrigueannes and Dinis Diaz returned to the kingdom,[BW] and of what befell them on their voyage.

And though it be that I have already told of noble and great deeds in this Chronicle, of a surety it is not without a cause that I add the toil of those fourteen men to the praise of all the good, for their merits are worthy of great honour among the living, and much more I believe before the face of that Eternal Lord (whose centre, as Hermes[N167] saith, is in every part in an infinite manner and whose circumference is nowhere), for from Him shall their souls receive glorious bliss. And to make an end of the actions of these two caravels, I will say briefly that as soon as this fight was over, the captains agreed to return straight to the Kingdom. But when they reached the Cape of Tira, they both came to an accord to put on shore certain men, to see whether they could still make any booty, though they knew for certain that the land had been searched many times before. And so when these were landed, to the number of fifty, they began to make their way along the beach until they met with the footprints of men that led towards the interior, and as the tracks appeared recent, they informed their captains of it. And from them they received commandment to set aside some of their number who should go forward and follow up the track until they came upon the Moors who had made it. And as the land was very level, the Moors caught sight of our men from a distance and began to flee, and though the Christians ran hard after them they were never able to follow them; but it happened that two youths of the company met with a Moor whom they brought back with them as an evidence of their great toil. And thence they forthwith made sail to Lisbon, where having paid to the Infant his due, they had of him honour and reward.

[Footnote BW: Of Portugal.]

##