it, they sailed on along the coast of the
mainland, till they came to the Place of the Two Palms, between the
Senegal and Cape Verde, "and since the whole land was known to us
before, we did not stay, but boldly rounded C. Verde and ran along to
the Gambra." Up this they at once began to steer.

No canoes came out upon them this time, and no natives appeared, except
a few who hung about some way off and did not offer to stop them. Ten
miles up they found a small island, where one of the sailors died of a
fever, and they called the new discovered land "St. Andrew," after him.
The natives were now much more approachable and Cadamosto's men
conversed with the bolder ones who came close up to the caravel. Like
the men of Senegal, two things above all astonished and confounded them,
the white sails of the ships and the white skins of the sailors. After
much debate, carried on by yelling from boat to boat, one of the negroes
came on board the caravel and was loaded with presents, to make him more
communicative. The ruse was successful. The string of his tongue was
quite loosed and he chattered along freely enough. The country, like the
river, was called "Gambra"; its king, Farosangul, lived ten days'
journey toward the south, but he was himself under the Emperor of Melli,
chief of all the negroes.

Was there no one nearer than Farosangul? Oh, yes, there was Battimansa,
"King Batti," and a good many other princes who lived quite close to the
river. Would he guide them to Battimansa? Yes, safe enough, his country
was only some forty miles from the mouth of the Gambra.

"And so we came to Battimansa, where the river was narrowed down to
about a mile in breadth," where Cadamosto offered presents to the King,
and made a great speech before the negro magnates, which is abridged in
the narrative, "lest the matter should become a great Iliad." King Batti
returned the Portuguese presents with gifts of slaves and gold, but the
Europeans were sadly disappointed with the gold. It was not at all equal
to what they expected, or what the people of Senegal had talked of;
"being poor themselves, they had fancied their neighbours must be rich."
On the other hand, the negroes of Gambra would give almost any price for
trinkets and worthless toys, because they were new. Fifteen days, or
nearly that, did the Portuguese stay there trading, and immense was the
variety of their visitors in that time. Most came on board simply from
wonder and to sta