el it less on that account. He
began to think: Was it for him to hope to discover that land which had
been hidden from so many princes? Still, he felt within himself the
incitement of "a virtuous obstinacy," which would not let him rest.
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 intrusted 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 had 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 honor and profit."

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 labor 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 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;