had with them; and all the more as the way[CA] was long, and they knew not what kind of a voyage they would have. [Footnote BZ: Of Portugal.] [Footnote CA: Home.] Wherefore they guided their caravels towards Portugal, making straight for Lisbon, where they arrived quite content with their booty. But who would not take pleasure at seeing the multitude of people that ran out to see those caravels? for as soon as they had lowered their sails, the officers who collected the royal dues[N103] took boats from the shore to find out whence the ships came and what they brought; and as soon as they returned and the news passed from one to another, in a short time there was such a multitude in the caravels that they were nearly swamped. Nor were there less on the next day, when they took the captives out of the ships and wished to convey them to a palace of the Infant, a good way distant from the Ribeira.[N104] For from all the other parts of the city they flocked on to those streets by which they had to convey them. Of a surety, saith the author of this history, many of those I spoke of at first, who murmured over the commencement of this action, might well rebuke themselves now, for there was no one there who would be then counted as of that number. And the noise of the people was so great, praising the great virtues of the Infant (when they saw them take the captives in bonds along those streets), that if anyone had dared to speak in the contrary sense he would very soon have found it well to recant. But perchance it would have availed him little, for the populace (and most of all in a time of excitement) but rarely pardoneth him who contradicteth what it willeth to hold established. Nor doth it appear to me that there could be a man of such evil condition that he could speak against so manifest a good, from which followed such great profits.[N105] The Infant was then in the district of Viseu, from which he sent to receive his fifth; and, of those who remained, the captains made a sale in the city, from which all received great advantage. CHAPTER XXXVII. How the caravel of Gonçalo Pacheco and two other ships went to the isle of Ergim. As the town of Lisbon is the most noble in the Kingdom of Portugal, so likewise its inhabitants (if we reckon the most for all) are the noblest and have the largest properties. And let no one be so simple as to take this word in a wrong sense, and think that this nobility is specially to be found in them[CB] more than in those of other cities and towns--for the Fidalgos and men of high family are noble wheresoever they be found--only I speak generally, because as Paulo Vergeryo said, in the instruction that he gave to the youth of the gentry, the splendour of the great city is a large part of nobility. And they,[CC] seeing before their eyes what wealth those ships brought home, acquired in so short a time, and with such safety, considered, some of them, how they could get a part of that profit.[N106]