The History of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. Gomes Eannes de Zurara

they perceived our people ready to receive them, they not only retreated to their former position, but departed elsewhere, turning their backs to their enemies. And so let us here leave Antam Gonçalvez to rest, considering this Chapter as finished, and in the following one we will knight him right honourably.

CHAPTER XIII.

       Table of Contents

      How Nuno Tristam reached the spot where Antam Gonçalvez was, and how he dubbed him knight.

      For that the philosopher saith, that the beginning is two parts of the whole matter,⁵⁹ we ought to give great praise to this noble youth, for this deed of his, undertaken with so great boldness; for since he was the first who made booty in this conquest, he deserveth advantage over and above all the others who in after time travailed in this matter. For the custom was among the Romans, as Saint Augustine saith in the book that he made De Civitate Dei, and as Titus Livius also saith in his Decades, that all those who struck the first blow in battles or were the first to enter into forts or to leap into ships, were granted in return a higher increase of honour, which they bore on the day of triumph in testimony of their valour, as Valerius telleth us more in detail, in the summary that he made of Roman history.⁶⁰ And so let Antam Gonçalvez receive his knighthood, as we purpose to describe in this chapter, and after this we will give him commanderies in the Order of Christ (whose habit he afterwards assumed), making him the private secretary to this great and noble prince. And for the remembrance of his honour, let him be satisfied that he is inscribed in this volume, whose tenor will for ever, so long as writing endureth among men, be a witness of his excellence.

Now you must know that Nuno Tristam, a youthful knight, very valiant and ardent, who had been brought up from early boyhood in the Infant's privy chamber, arrived at that very place where was Antam Gonçalvez, and brought with him an armed caravel, with the special command of his Lord, that he should pass beyond the Port of the Galley, as far as he could, and that he should bestir himself as well to capture some of the people of the country, as best he could. And he, pursuing his voyage, now arrived at the place where Antam Gonçalvez was. And you can well imagine how great was the joy of these two, being natives of the same Kingdom and brought up in one and the self-same Court, to meet again at so great a distance from their own land. But leaving out of this account the words we may suppose they would use—the one in asking for news of his lord, and of his friends and acquaintances; the other in his desire to know of the booty—Nuno Tristam said, that an Arab whom he had brought with him there, and who was a servant of the Infant his lord, should speak with one of those captives, to see if he understood their language, and that, if they could understand one another, it would be of great profit to know all the state and conditions of the people of that land. And so all three of them spoke,^R but their language was very different from that of the others, so that they were not able to understand one another. But as soon as Nuno Tristam perceived that he was not able to learn more of the manner of that land, than what Antam Gonçalvez had told him, he was eager to depart, but that emulation which Socrates⁶¹ praised in gallant youths, tormented his heart in such a manner that he wished first of all to see whether he could not do something of more account before the eyes of his fellows. "How is it right", said he to those of his company, "that we should allow these men to go on their way back to Portugal, without first shewing them some part of our labour? Of a surety, I say to you, that as far as it concerneth me, I trow I should receive disgrace, holding the order of knighthood as I do, if I gained here no booty richer than this, by which the Lord Infant may gain some first-fruits of a recompence for the great expense he has incurred."

      Thereupon he caused Antam Gonçalvez to be called, and the principal men whom he brought with him, that he might show them his mind. "You", said he, "my friend Antam Gonçalvez, are not ignorant of the will of the Infant our Lord, and you know that to execute this purpose of his he hath incurred many and great expenses, and yet up till now, for a space of fifteen years, he hath toiled in vain in this part of the world, never being able to arrive at any certainty as to the people of this land, under what law or lordship they do live. And although you are carrying off these two captives, and by their means the Infant may come to know something about this folk, yet that doth not prevent what is still better, namely, for us to carry off many more; for, besides the knowledge which the Lord Infant will gain by their means, profit will also accrue to him by their service or ransom. Wherefore, it seemeth to me that we should do well to act after this manner. That is to say, in this night now following, you should choose ten of your men and I another ten of mine—from the best which each of us may have—and let us then go together and seek those whom you have found. And since you say that, judging from the fighting you had with them, they were not more than twenty men fit for battle, and the rest women and boys, we ought to capture them all very quickly. And even if we do not meet with the very same that you encountered, nevertheless we shall surely find others, by means of whom we can make as good a booty, or perhaps even better."

"I cannot well believe", replied Antam Gonçalvez, "that our expedition in search of those we found before, will have any sure result, for the place is all one great bare hill, in the which there is no house or hut where one could fancy they would lodge, and the more so since we saw them turn again like men that had come there from another part. And what seemeth to me worst of all is that those men^S will have forewarned all the others, and, peradventure, when we think to capture them we may ourselves become their booty. But consider this well, and where we have been in a manner victorious, let us not return to suffer loss."

Yet, although this counsel of Antam Gonçalvez was good, according to the circumstances of the affair; and although Nuno Tristam was not unwilling to fall in with it; there were there two squires, in whom these reasons did not suffice to oppose their desire of doing brave deeds. Gonçallo de Sintra was the name of one of these—and of his valour you will know more fully in the progress of this history; the other was Diego Añes de Valladares, a squire, valiant in body, well proved in many great perils. And these two persuaded the Council to depart from the advice which Antam Gonçalvez had given, in this way, that as soon as it was night, they set out according to the order that Nuno Tristam gave at first. And so it chanced that in the night they came to where the natives lay scattered in two encampments, either the same that Antam Gonçalvez had found before or other like it. The distance between the encampments was but small, and our men divided themselves into three parties, in order that they might the better hit upon them. For they had not yet any certain knowledge of the place where they lay, but only a perception of them; as you see the like things are perceived much more readily by night than by day. And when our men had come nigh to them, they attacked them very lustily, shouting at the top of their voices, "Portugal" and "Santiago";⁶² the fright of which so abashed the enemy, that it threw them all into disorder. And so, all in confusion, they began to fly without any order or carefulness. Except indeed that the men made some show of defending themselves with their assegais (for they knew not the use of any other weapon), especially one of them, who fought face to face with Nuno Tristam, defending himself till he received his death. And besides this one, whom Nuno Tristam slew by himself, the others killed three and took ten prisoners, what of men, women and boys. And it is not to be doubted that they would have slain and taken many more, if they had all fallen on together at the first onslaught. But among those who were taken there was one greater than the rest, who was called Adahu, and was said to be a noble; and he shewed in his countenance right well that he held the pre-eminence of nobility over the others. Now, among those ten who I said were with Nuno Tristam, was one Gomez Vinagre, a youth of good family, brought up in the Infant's household, who showed in this battle what his valour was like to be in after time, for which in the result he was honourably advanced. When the action was thus accomplished, as we have described, all met together, even as they were in the fight, and began to request of Antam Gonçalvez, that he should be made a knight. But he, appraising his toil at far less than they did, answered that it was not right that he for so small a service should receive so great an honour, and one too that was more than his age did warrant. Of his own free will he said