ose in fury and only Henry was able to prevent a massacre
and a war that would have stopped the expansion of Portugal abroad for
many a day. He went straight to Alemquer (1439), talked Queen Leonor
into reason, and brought her back with him to Lisbon, where she
introduced Affonso to his people and his Parliament. For another year
Henry stayed at Court, completing his work of settlement and
reconciliation, and towards the end of 1440 that work seemed fairly
safe. The fear of civil war was over; Don Pedro's government was well
started; Henry could now go back to Sagres to his other work of
discovery.

It was time to do something on this side. For in the past five years
scarcely any progress had been made to Guinea and the Indies.

CHAPTER XII.

FROM BOJADOR TO CAPE VERDE.

1441-5.

But with the year 1441 discovery begins again in earnest, and the
original narratives of Henry's captains, which old Azurara has preserved
in his chronicle, become full of life and interest. From this point to
the year 1448, where ends the _Chronica_, its tale is exceedingly
picturesque, as it was written down from the remembrance of
eye-witnesses and actors in the discoveries and conquests it records.
And though the detail may be wearisome to a modern reader as a wordy and
emotional and unscientific history, yet the story told is delightfully
fresh and vivid, and it is told with a simple naivete and truth that
seems now almost lost in the self-consciousness of modern literature.

"It seems to me, says our author" (Azurara's favourite way of alluding
to himself), "that the recital of this history should give as much
pleasure as any other matter by which we satisfy the wish of our Prince;
and the said wish became all the greater, as the things for which he
had toiled so long, were more within his view. Wherefore I will now try
to tell of something new," of some progress "in his wearisome seedtime
of preparation."

"Now it was so that in this year 1441, as the affairs of the kingdom had
now some repose, though it was not to be a long one, the Infant caused
them to arm a little ship, which he gave to Antam Gonsalvez, his
chamberlain, a young captain, only charging him to load a cargo of skins
and oil. For because his age was so unformed, and his authority of needs
so slight, he laid all the lighter his commands upon him and looked for
all the less in performance."

But when Antam Gonsalvez had performed the voyage that had been o