ising young Italian
disappearing from the pages of history.

[Illustration: A PORTION OF AFRICA FROM FRA MAURO'S MAP ILLUSTRATING
CADAMOSTO'S VOYAGE BEYOND CAPE BLANCO.]

And now we come to the last voyage planned by Prince Henry, that of
Diego Gomez, his own faithful servant. It followed close on
Cadamosto's return.

No long time after, the Prince equipped a ship called the _Wren_ and
set over it Diego Gomez, with two other ships, of which he was
commander-in-chief. Their orders were to go as far as they could. Gomez
wrote his own travels, and his adventures are best told in his own
words. We take up his story from the far side of Cape Blanco.

"After passing a great river beyond 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.
As the current grew even stronger we put back and came to a land, where
were groves of palms near the shore, with their branches broken. There
we found a plain covered with hay and more than five thousand animals
like stags, but larger, who showed no fear of us. Five elephants with
two young ones came out of a small river that was fringed by trees.
We went back to the ships, and next day made our way from Cape Verde
and saw the broad mouth of a great river, which we entered and guessed
to be the Gambia. We went up the river as far as Cantor (some five
hundred miles). Farther than this the ships could not go, because of
the thick growth of trees and underwood. When the news spread through
the country that the Christians were in Cantor, they came from Timbuktu
in the north, from Mount Gelu in the south. Here 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.
I asked the natives of Cantor about the road to the gold 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 this 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. While I was thus trafficking with these
negroes, my men became worn out with the heat, and so we returned
to