CHAPTER XXX - How Nuno Tristam went to Tira, and of the Moors that he took captive there

Summary

For a better understanding of the matter that now happened, we will here tell how Nuno Tristam, of whom we have already spoken, first saw the land of the Negroes. And it was so, that being sent in a caravel, by order of the Infant, to those parts, he went straight to those islands where they had been already. Now these were then left desolate, for the inhabitants, perceiving the damage they were receiving, had forsaken their land and betaken themselves for a time to other islands, of which they presumed that their enemies had no knowledge. “Seeing that this is so,” said Nuno Tristam, “and that we can find no booty in these islands, my wish is to proceed as far as I can, till I come to the land of the Negroes—for you know well,” said he, “the desire which the Infant our Lord hath in this matter, and we cannot employ our time better than in doing what we know will most please him.”

All said this was well, and that it should be his business to direct them; for they were ready for any emergency, as men who possessed no other good thing except the favour of that lord who sent them there. And they proceeded so far that they passed that land and saw a country very different from that former one—for that was sandy and untilled, and quite treeless, like a country where there was no water—while this other land they saw to be covered with palms and other green and beautiful trees, and it was even so with all the plains thereof.