The Atlas chain of N. Africa has been the subject of persistent exaggeration. The Greek pillar of heaven (derived from Carthaginian? seamen) probably referred to Teneriffe. No summit in the Atlas range answers to the legend. Though Miltsin rises to 11,400 feet, neither this nor any other peak can be supposed to represent the idea of towering height embodied in the story. We may notice the enormous over-proportion of the Atlas in some of the most important maps which Prince Henry and his seamen had to consult (_e.g._, Dulcert of 1339, the Catalan of 1375). See Introduction, vol. ii, pp. cxxiii-iv, cxxvi.] [Endnote 21: (p. 14). _Tangier ... the most perilous affair in which he ever stood before or after_, viz., in 1437. The conquest of Ceuta (aided perhaps by the earlier discoveries of Prince Henry's seamen) had made some in Portugal eager for more African conquests, and in 1433 King Duarte (Edward) on his accession was induced by his brothers Henry and Ferdinand, against the opinion of his next brother Pedro, to take up the project of an attack on Tangier. The Papal Court gave only a very doubtful approval to the war, but on August 22, 1437, an expedition sailed for Ceuta. Tetuan was captured, and on September 23 Prince Henry began the siege of Tangier, but his attacks on the town were repulsed; the Portuguese were surrounded by overwhelming forces which had come down from Marocco, Fez, and Tafilet for the relief of the city; and on October 25 the assailants surrendered with the honours of war, on condition that Ceuta should be given up with all the Moorish prisoners then in Portuguese hands, and that the Portuguese should abstain for 100 years from any further attack upon the Moors of this part of Barbary. Prince Ferdinand was left with twelve nobles as hostages for the performance of the treaty. The convention was repudiated in Portugal, and Ferdinand, the "constant Prince," died in his captivity June 3, 1443. Like Regulus in Roman tradition, he advised his countrymen against the enemy's terms of ransom, "Lest bought with price of Ceita's potent town To public welfare be preferred his own." Camöens: _Lusiads_, iv, 52 (Burton).] [Endnote 22: (p. 14). _Because Tully commandeth._--It is characteristic of Azurara's school and time that he should declare his preference for truthful writing because a great classic recommended the same.] [Endnote 23: (p. 15). _College of Celestial virtues._--Contrasted with the previous reference, this gives a good idea of Azurara's mental outlook--on one side towards Greek and Latin antiquity, on another to the Catholic theology. The Christian side of the Mediæval Renaissance had not, in Portugal, been overpowered by the Pagan. We may remember, as to the context here, that on the capture of Ceuta the chief mosque was at once turned into the Cathedral.]