n, or,
Book of the Conquest and Conversion of the Canaries_,
translated and edited by R. H. Major, London, 1872 (Hakluyt
Soc). In 1414, Bethencourt's nephew, left in charge of these
islands, sold them to Prince Henry, but Castile persisted in
claiming them, and at length in 1479 her claim was recognized
by treaty with Portugal. Of all the African islands, therefore,
the Canaries alone came to belong, and still belong, to Spain.]

[Sidenote: Gil Eannes passes Cape Bojador.]

The first achievement under Prince Henry's guidance was the final
rediscovery and colonization of Porto Santo and Madeira in 1418-25 by
Gonsalvez Zarco, Tristam Vaz, and Bartholomew Perestrelo.[385] This work
occupied the prince's attention for some years, and then came up the
problem of Cape Bojador. The difficulty was twofold; the waves about
that headland were apt to be boisterous, and wild sailor's fancies were
apt to enkindle a mutinous spirit in the crews. It was not until 1433-35
that Gil Eannes, a commander of unusually clear head and steady nerves,
made three attempts and fairly passed the dreaded spot. In the first
attempt he failed, as his predecessors had done, to double the cape; in
the second attempt he doubled it; in the third he sailed nearly two
hundred miles beyond.

[Footnote 385: Perestrelo had with him a female rabbit which
littered on the voyage, and being landed, with her young, at
Porto Santo, forthwith illustrated the fearful rate of
multiplication of which organisms are capable in the absence of
enemies or other adverse circumstances to check it. (Darwin,
_Origin of Species_, chap. iii.) These rabbits swarmed all over
the island and devoured every green and succulent thing,
insomuch that they came near converting it into a desert.
Prince Henry's enemies, who were vexed at the expenditure of
money in such colonizing enterprises, were thus furnished with
a wonderful argument. They maintained that God had evidently
created those islands for beasts alone, not for men! "En este
tiempo habia en todo Portugal grandisimas murmuraciones del
Infante, viendolo tan cudicioso y poner tanta diligencia en el
descubrir de la tierra y costa de Africa, diciendo que destruia
el reino en los gastos que hacia, y consumia los vecinos del en