CHAPTER X - How Affonso Gonçalvez Baldaya reached the Rio d'Ouro

Summary

“As you have found traces of men and camels”, said the Infant to Baldaya, “it is evident that the inhabited region cannot be far off; or perchance they are people who cross with their merchandise to some seaport with a secure anchorage for ships to load in, for since there are people, they must of necessity depend upon what the sea brings them, and especially upon fish, however bestial they may be. Much more so the inland tribes. Therefore I intend to send you there again, in that same ‘barinel’, both that you may do me service and increase your honour, and to this end I order you to go as far as you can and try to gain an interpreter from among those people, capturing some one from whom you can obtain some tidings of the land—for according to my purpose, it will not be a small gain if we can get someone to give us news of this sort.” The ship was soon ready to sail, and Affonso Gonçalvez departed with great desire to do the Infant's will. And sailing on their way they passed seventy leagues beyond where they had been before, a space of 120 leagues beyond the Cape of Bojador, and found an estuary, as of a river of some size, in the which were many good anchorages.