"He was bold and valorous in war, versed in arts and
letters; a skilful fencer; in the mathematics superior to all men of his
time; generous in the extreme; most zealous for the increase of the faith.
No bad habit was known in him. His memory was equal to the authority he
bore, and his prudence equal to his memory." [Faria y Sousa.] And to
this character the chronicler, Azurara, who evidently knew the prince
well, and speaks with perfect honesty about him, adds two or three of
those little niceties of description which give life and reality to the
picture. He says that the prince was a man of great counsel and authority,
wise and of good memory, but in some things slow, whether it was through
the prevalence of the phlegmatic temperament in his constitution, or from
intentional deliberation, being moved to some end which men did not
perceive.

HIS CHARACTER.

It was this temperament, probably, that made the prince incapable of
"ill-will against any person, however great the injury he had received
from him," so that this placidity of disposition seemed an actual fault in
him. He was accordingly thought "deficient in distributive justice." There
are instances in his conduct which bear out this, and one especially, in
which he is stated to have overlooked the desertion of his banner, on an
occasion of great peril to himself, and afterwards to have unjustly
favoured the persons who had thus been found wanting in courage. This, no
doubt, was an error on his part, but at least it was an heroic one, such
as belonged to the first Caesar; and in the estimation of the prince's
followers, it probably added to their liking for the man what little it
may have taken away from their confidence in the precision of his justice
as a commander.

PRINCE HENRY'S CHARACTER.

We learn, from the same authority, that his house was the resort of all
the good men of the kingdom, and of foreigners, and that he was a man of
intense labour and study. "Often the sun found him in the same place where
it had left him the day before, he having watched throughout the whole arc
of the night without any rest."

Altogether, whether we consider this prince's motives, his objects, his
deeds, or his mode of life, we must acknowledge him to be one of the most
notable men, not merely of his own country and period, but of modern times
and of all nations, and one upon whose shoulders might worthily rest the
arduous beginnings of continuous maritime di