growing at the mouth of the Senegal or western Nile, by which he was
able to guide the caravels he sent out to find that river." By the time
Henry was ready to return from Ceuta to Portugal for good and all, in
1418, there were clearly before his mind the five reasons for exploring
Guinea given by his faithful Azurara:

First of all was his desire to know the country beyond Cape Bojador,
which till that time was quite unknown either by books or by the talk of
sailors.

Second was his wish that if any Christian people or good ports should be
discovered beyond that cape, he might begin a trade with them that would
profit both the natives and the Portuguese, for he knew of no other
nation in Europe who trafficked in those parts.

Thirdly, he believed the Moors were more powerful on that side of Africa
than had been thought, and he feared there were no Christians there at
all. So he was fain to find out how many and how strong his enemies
really were.

Fourthly, in all his fighting with the Moors he had never found a
Christian prince to help him from that side (of further Africa) for the
love of Christ, therefore he wished, if he could, to meet with such.

Last was his great desire for the spread of the Christian Faith and for
the redemption of the vast tribes of men lying under the wrath of God.

Behind all these reasons Azurara also believed in a sixth and deeper
one, which he proceeds to state with all gravity, as the ultimate and
celestial cause of the Prince's work.

"For as his ascendant was Aries, that is in the House of Mars and the
Exaltation of the Sun, and as the said Mars is in Aquarius, which is the
House of Saturn, it was clear that my lord should be a great conqueror,
and a searcher out of things hidden from other men, according to the
craft of Saturn, in whose House he was."[35]

[Footnote 35: The attempts of Henry and his family to conquer a
land-empire in northern Africa are not to be separated from the maritime
and coasting explorations. They were two aspects of one idea, two faces
of the same enterprise.

In the same way the new bishopric of Ceuta, now founded, was a first
step towards the organised conversion of the Heathen of the South. The
Franciscans had founded the See of Fez and Morocco in 1233, but it had
not till now been followed up.]

CHAPTER IX.

HENRY'S SETTLEMENT AT SAGRES AND FIRST DISCOVERIES.

1418-28.

Whatever the Prince owed to his stay at Ceuta beyond the gener