ce Henry's ships had now come to the
Equator. "When we were in the river of Gambra, once only did we see the
North Star, which was so low that it seemed almost to touch the sea." To
make up for the loss of the Pole Star--sunk to "the third part of a
lance's length above the edge of the water,"--Cadamosto and his men had
a view of six brilliant stars, "in form of a cross," while the June
night was "of thirteen hours and the day of eleven."

Cadamosto only went home to refit for a second voyage. Though at first
he had been baffled by the "savagery of the men of Gambra" from finding
out much about them, he resolved to try again, sailed out the very next
year by way of the Canaries and Cape Blanco, and found, after three
days' more sailing, certain islands off Cape Verde, where no one had
been before. The lookouts saw two very large islands, towards the larger
of which they sailed at once, in the hope of finding good anchorage and
friendly natives. But no one, friend or foe, seemed to live there.

So next morning, says Cadamosto, that I might satisfy my own mind, I
bade ten of my men, armed with missiles and cross-bows, to explore the
inland. They crossed the hills that cut off the interior from the coast,
but found nothing except doves, who were so tame that they could be
caught in any number by the hand.

And now from another side of the first island they caught sight of three
others towards the north, and of two more towards the west, which could
not be clearly seen because of the great distance. "But for the matter
of that, we did not care to go out of our way to find what we now
expected, that all these other islands were desolate like the first. So
we went on our way (due south) and so passed another island, and, coming
to the mouth of a river, landed in search of fresh water and found a
beautiful and fruitful country covered with trees. Some sailors who went
inland found cakes of salt, white and small, by the side of the river,
and immense numbers of great turtles, with shells of such size that they
could make very good shields for an army."

Here they stayed a couple of days, exploring in the country and fishing
in the river, which was so broad and deep that it would easily bear a
ship of one hundred and fifty tons burden and a full bowshot would not
carry across it. Then, naming their first discovered island Boa Vista,
and the largest of the group St. James, because it was on the feast of
the Apostle they found