a great European commerce, which was also among the first permanent
settlements of the new Christian exploration, one of the first steps of
modern colonisation.

And now the volunteer movement had fairly begun. Where in the beginning,
says Azurara, people had murmured very loudly against the Prince's
enterprise, each one grumbling as if the Infant was spending some part
of _his_ property, now when the way had been fairly opened and the
fruits of those lands began to be seen in Portugal in much greater
abundance, men began, softly enough, to praise what they had so loudly
decried. Great and small alike had declared that no profit would ever
come of these ventures, but when the cargoes of slaves and gold began to
arrive, all were forced to turn their blame into flattery, and to say
that the Infant was another Alexander the Great, and as they saw the
houses of others full of new servants from the new discovered lands and
their property always increasing, there were few who did not long to try
their fortune in the same adventures.

The first great movement of the sort came after Nuno's return at the end
of 1443. The men of Lagos took advantage of Henry's settlement so near
them in his town of Sagres, to ask for leave to sail at their own cost
to the Prince's coast of Guinea. For no one could go without his
licence.

One Lancarote, a "squire, brought up in the Infant's household, an
officer of the royal customs in the town of Lagos, and a man of great
good sense," was the spokesman of these merchant adventurers. He won his
grant very easily, "the Infant was very glad of his request, and bade
him sail under the banner of the Order of Christ," so that six caravels
started in the spring of 1444 on the first exploring voyage that we can
call national since the Prince had begun his work.

So, as the beginning of general interest in the Crusade of Discovery
which Henry had now preached to his countrymen for thirty years, as the
beginning of the career of Henry's chief captain, the head of his
merchant allies, as the beginning, in fact, of a new and bright period,
this first voyage of Lancarote's, this first Armada sent out to find and
to conquer the Moors and Blacks of the unknown or half-known South, is
worth more than a passing notice.

And this is not for its interest or importance in the story of discovery
pure and simple, but as a proof that the cause of discovery itself had
become popular, and as evidence that the cause