sed it must be wonderful
enchanters like the demons. "This specially they wondered, that we could
sail out of all sight of land and yet know well enough where we were,
all which, said they, could not happen, without black art. Scarcely less
was their wonder at the sight of lighted candles, as they had never
before seen any light but that of fire, when I shewed them how to make
candles from wax which before they had always thrown aside as worthless,
they were still more amazed, saying there was nothing we did not know."

And now Cadamosto was ready to put off from the coast into the ocean and
strike south for the kingdom of Gambro, as he had been charged by the
Prince, who had told him it was not far from the Senegal, as the
negroes had reported to him at Sagres. And that kingdom, he had been
told, was so rich in gold that if Christians could reach it they would
gain endless riches.

So with two aims, first to find the golden land, and second to make
discoveries in the unknown, the Venetian was just beginning to start
afresh, when he was joined by two more ships from Portugal, and they
agreed to round Cape Verde together. It was only some forty miles beyond
Budomel and the caravels reached it next day.

Cape Verde gets its name from its green grass and trees, like C. Blanco
from its white sand. Both are very prominent, lofty, and seen from a
great distance, as they run out far into the sea, but Cape Verde is more
picturesque, dotted as it is with little native villages on the side of
the ocean, and with three small desert islands a short distance from the
mainland, where the sailors found birds' nests and eggs in thousands, of
kinds unknown in Europe, and, above all, enormous shell-fish (turtles),
of twelve pounds' weight.

Soon after passing C. Verde, the coast makes a great sweep to the east,
still covered with evergreen trees, coming down in thick woods to within
a bowshot of the sea, so that from a distance the forest line seems to
touch the high-water mark, "as we thought at first looking on ahead from
our ships. Many countries have I been in to East and West, but never did
I see a prettier sight."

From the place the description again changes to the people, and we are
told once more with wearisome repetitions about the people beyond C.
Verde, in most ways like the negroes of the Senegal but "not obedient to
that kingdom and abhorring the tyranny of the negro Princes, having no
King or laws themselves, worshipp