h the fiery
heat. So any sailors would of course be boiled alive as soon as they got
near to the Torrid Zone.

It was this kind of learning, discredited but not forgotten, that was
still in the minds of Gil Eannes and his friends when they came home in
1433, with lame excuses, to Henry's Court. The currents and south winds
had stopped them, they said. It was impossible to get round Bojador.

The Prince was roused. He ordered the same captain to return next year
and try the Cape again. His men ought to have learned something better
than the childish fables of past time. "And if," said he, "there were
even any truth in these stories that they tell, I would not blame you,
but you come to me with the tales of four seamen who perhaps know the
voyage to the Low Countries or some other coasting route, but, except
for this, don't know how to use needle or sailing chart. Go out again
and heed them not, for by God's help, fame and profit must come from
your voyage, if you will but persevere."

The Prince was backed by the warm encouragement of the new King, Edward,
his eldest brother, who had only been one month upon the throne when he
bestirred himself to shew his favour to a national movement of
discovery. King John had died on August 14, 1433 (the anniversary of
Aljubarrota), and on September 26th, of the same year, by a charter
given from Cintra, King Edward granted the islands of Madeira and Porto
Santo, with the Desertas, to Henry as Grand Master of the Order of
Christ.

With this encouragement the Infant sent out Gil Eannes in 1434 under the
strongest charge not to return without a good account of the Cape and
the seas beyond. Running far out into the open, his caravel doubled
Bojador, and coming back to the coast found the sea "as easy to sail in
as the waters at home," and the land very rich and pleasant. They landed
and discovered no trace of men or houses, but gathered plants, "such as
were called in Portugal St. Mary's roses," to present to Don Henry. Not
even the southern Cape of Tempests or Good Hope was so long and
obstinate a barrier as Bojador had been, and the passing of this
difficulty proved the salvation of the Prince's schemes. Though again
and again interrupted by political troubles between 1437 and 1449, the
advance at sea went on, and never again was there a serious danger of
the failure of the whole movement through general opposition and
discontent.

In 1435 Gil Eannes was sent out again to follow