. Would it not, he thought, be
ingratitude to God, who thus moved his mind to these attempts, if he were
to desist from his work, or be negligent in it? He resolved, therefore, to
send out again Gil Eannes, one of his household, who had been sent the
year before, but had returned, like the rest, having discovered nothing.
He had been driven to the Canary Islands, and had seized upon some of the
natives there, whom he brought back. With this transaction the prince had
shown himself dissatisfied; and Gil Eannes, now entrusted again with
command, resolved to meet all dangers, rather than to disappoint the
wishes of his master. Before his departure, the prince called him aside
and said, "You cannot meet with such peril that the hope of your reward
shall not be much greater; and, in truth, I wonder what imagination this
is that you have all taken up--in a matter, too, of so little certainty;
for if these things which are reported have any authority, however little,
I would not blame you so much. But you quote to me the opinions of four
mariners, who, as they were driven out of their way to Frandes or to some
other ports to which they commonly navigated, had not, and could not have
used, the needle and the chart: but do you go, however, and make your
voyage without regard to their opinion, and, by the grace of God, you
will not bring out of it anything but honour and profit."

GIL EANNES' SUCCESSFUL VOYAGE.

We may well imagine that these stirring words of the prince must have
confirmed Gil Eannes in his resolve to efface the stain of his former
misadventure. And he succeeded in doing so; for he passed the dreaded Cape
Bojador--a great event in the history of African discovery, and one that
in that day was considered equal to a labour of Hercules. Gil Eannes
returned to a grateful and most delighted master. He informed the prince
that he had landed, and that the soil appeared to him unworked and
fruitful; and, like a prudent man, he could not only tell of foreign
plants, but had brought some of them home with him in a barrel of the
new-found earth, plants much like those which bear, in Portugal, the roses
of Santa Maria. The prince rejoiced to see them, and gave thanks to God,
"as if they had been the fruit and sign of the promised land; and besought
our Lady, whose name the plants bore, that she would guide and set forth
the doings in this discovery to the praise and glory of God, and to the
increase of His holy faith."