And he went there several nights before he was able to secure anything; till he captured one Moor, already old, who by signs told him of the whereabouts of a settlement, about two leagues from there. But the distance might just as well have been greater, for Nuno Tristam, with the delay he had made before accomplishing any capture, would equally have adventured it. But the Moor was not able to tell him how many were the dwellers in that settlement towards which he was guiding them; or, to speak more accurately, they could neither have asked nor yet have understood him;[BF] and this, it appears to me, should have put our men in some fear, because they knew not what the enemy's numbers might be; but, where there is enough of good will, determinations are never closely examined. [Footnote BF: His reply.] And in the night following that in which the Moor was discovered, they attacked the settlement, but they did not capture there more than twenty-one persons; and we do not find any record whether there were any boys or women among these twenty-one, nor how many men Nuno Tristam took with him, nor if he had to do any fighting there before making his capture. Nor could we find out about these matters, because Nuno Tristam was already dead at the time when King Don Affonso commanded this history to be written.[N92] And so we leave this matter thus without saying any more. CHAPTER XXXI. How Dinis Diaz went to the land of the Negroes, and of the Captives that he took. There was in Lisbon a noble squire, who had been a servant of the King Don John (the grandfather of the king Don Affonso, and father of this virtuous prince),[BG] who was called Dinis Diaz. [Footnote BG: Henry.] And he hearing news of that land,[BH] and how the caravels were already sailing so far from this coast;[BI] and also because he was a man desirous of seeing new things and of trying his strength (although he was now settled in that city,[BJ] which is one of the noblest in Spain, with profitable offices which had been given him in reward for his services), now went nevertheless to the Infant Don Henry to beg him to despatch him to that land. For considering that he was a servant of his father, and that all his rise was through him, and that he had both the courage and the youth to serve him withal, he had no mind to let his life slip away in the pleasures of repose. [Footnote BH: Of Guinea.] [Footnote BI: Of Portugal.] [Footnote BJ: Lisbon.] The Infant thanked him for his good will, and had a caravel armed and got ready for the aforesaid Dinis Diaz to go and accomplish his purpose. And he, leaving Portugal with his company, never lowered sail till he had passed the land of the Moors and arrived in the land of the blacks, that is called Guinea.