O fortunate prince, honour of our kingdom, what single thing was there in thy life which they who praise thee ought to pass by in silence: what moment of thy time was barren of good deeds or empty of praise? I consider how thou didst welcome all, how thou didst listen to all; how thou didst pass the greater part of thy days and nights among such great cares, that many might be profited. Wherefore I know that lands and seas are full of those that praise thee, for by thy continual voyagings thou hast joined the East with the West, in order that the nations might learn to exchange their riches. And in truth, though I have said many things about thee, many more remain for me to say.
But before I end this chapter I believe that it beseemeth me, of necessity, to show what I think about that matter on which I touched—to wit, distributive justice—so as not to pass it by without some declaration of my mind, as I promised before. And certainly that was a beautiful ordinance that Tully made upon this matter, for it standeth to reason that the verdict of the historian should have greater authority upon that matter of which he treateth than any other person, because he enquireth about the truth of things with greater care: Now this dutyN will be either that of martial correction or of humanity and clemency. If it be an affair of correction or martial justice, it is impossible to excuse shortcomings, for we read in the histories of the Romans that the fathers slew their sons for such faults, and made other very bloody executions: but, contrariwise, on the side of clemency and humanity, this must needs be praised as a great virtue, since its third part, according to Seneca, lieth in reconciling familiars to oneself; yet the extreme of both these two things is of doubtful merit, to wit, whether one should prefer discipline to clemency or clemency to discipline.43
But under correction of him who better understandeth it, I say it appeareth to me that the better part of the matter should take precedence of the other part of less value, and considering the particular case and the circumstances of the time and how no correction could bring about amendment,O we ought to give praise rather than blame to the Infant for his conduct, inasmuch as it sheweth a liberal heart to offer kindness to those whom one might with good reason have denied.
And be this as it may, let not these matters, most excellent prince, seem serious unto thee, for it was not so much my intent to praise thy deeds as to praise thee. For the wicked do many deeds worthy of praise, but no man should be praised save he who is truly good in himself. Where is the man whose virtues are not offended by some accretion of vices? Certainly I am not one to write or say it of thee, O Prince, for one who hath a place prepared among the celestial thrones cannot receive offence from the deeds he did on earth, though to some they appear worthy of blame; for one may quote the saying of Saint Chrysostom, that there is nothing so holy, but that an evil-minded interpreter thereof can find something to asperse.44
O how few there be, as said Seneca in his first tragedy,45 who turn to good account the time of their life or ever think upon its brevity. But of a surety thou, O prince, wast never of the number of these men, since by thy glorious and lofty deeds and cruel sufferings, thou didst add to thyself, among many princes of most excellent dignity, an eternal and undying memory, and, what is of more value, a heavenly throne, as I piously believe. O fortunate Kings, who after his death shall possess the royal seat of his ancestors, I beg you always to keep the sepulchre of this great and noble duke in your especial remembrance, since the splendour of his virtues doth form a great part of your honour. For verily the exclamations and the praises which I tell you of him, were not invented by my own wit, but are as it were the living voices of his virtues and his great merits, which would be of great profit to every one of you, if you could keep them whole and sound in your thought, not desiring that I had related them more briefly, since it would be a trouble to find his like among the men of our time.
N Of shewing distributive justice.
O I.e., on that occasion.
CHAPTER VII.
In which five reasons appear why the Lord Infant was moved to command the search for the lands of Guinea.
We imagine that we know a matter when we are acquainted with the doer of it and the end for which he did it. And since in former chapters we have set forth the Lord Infant as the chief actor in these things, giving as clear an understanding of him as we could, it is meet that in this present chapter we should know his purpose in doing them. And you should note well that the noble spirit of this Prince, by a sort of natural constraint, was ever urging him both to begin and to carry out very great deeds. For which reason, after the taking of Ceuta he always kept ships well armed against the Infidel, both for war, and because he had also a wish to know the land that lay beyond the isles of Canary and that Cape called Bojador, for that up to his time, neither by writings, nor by the memory of man, was known with any certainty the nature of the land beyond that Cape. Some said indeed that Saint Brandan had passed that way; and there was another tale of two galleys rounding the Cape, which never returned.46 But this doth not appear at all likely to be true, for it is not to be presumed that if the said galleys went there, some other ships would not have endeavoured to learn what voyage they had made. And because the said Lord Infant wished to know the truth of this—since it seemed to him that if he or some other lord did not endeavour to gain that knowledge, no mariners or merchants would ever dare to attempt it—(for it is clear that none of them ever trouble themselves to sail to a place where there is not a sure and certain hope of profit)—and seeing also that no other prince took any pains in this matter, he sent out his own ships against those parts, to have manifest certainty of them all. And to this he was stirred up by his zeal for the service of God and of the King Edward his Lord and brother, who then reigned. And this was the first reason of his action.
The second reason was that if there chanced to be in those lands some population of Christians, or some havens, into which it would be possible to sail without peril, many kinds of merchandise might be brought to this realm, which would find a ready market, and reasonably so, because no other people of these parts traded with them, nor yet people of any other that were known; and also the products of this realm might be taken there, which traffic would bring great profit to our countrymen.
The third reason was that, as it was said that the power of the Moors in that land of Africa was very much greater than was commonly supposed,47 and that there were no Christians among them, nor any other race of men; and because every wise man is obliged by natural prudence to wish for a knowledge of the power of his enemy; therefore the said Lord Infant exerted himself to cause this to be fully discovered, and to make it known determinately how far the power of those infidels extended.
The fourth reason was because during the one and thirty years that he had warred against the Moors, he had never found a Christian king, nor a lord outside this land, who for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ would aid him in the said war. Therefore he sought to know if there were in those parts any Christian princes, in whom the charity and the love of Christ was so ingrained that they would aid him against those enemies of the faith.
The fifth reason was his