And in these troubles the presence of the Infant was so necessary, that of all other matters he clean forgot himself, to bring a remedy to the perils and travail in which the realm was. And it was so that the King Don Affonso, who ordered the writing of this history, was at the age of six, and had to be tutored and protected, he and his realm, by governors; and about the authority of these there followed great contentions, in which the Infant Don Henry toiled much for peace and a good settlement of affairs, as you may find more at length in the Chronicle of the reign of this King Don Affonso.[N58] And so it was that in those years there went no ships beyond that Cape, for the reasons that we have said. True it is that in the year 1440 there armed themselves two caravels to go to that land, but because they had hap that was contrary, we do not tell further of their voyage. CHAPTER XII. How Antam Gonçalvez brought back the first Captives. I think I can now take some sort of pleasure in the narrating of this history, because I find something wherewith to satisfy the desire of our Prince; the which desire was so much the greater as the matters for which he had toiled so long were now more within his view. And so in this chapter I wish to present some novelty in his toilsome seed-time of preparation. Now it was so that in this year 1441, when the affairs of this realm were somewhat more settled though not fully quieted, that the Infant armed a little ship, of the which he made captain one Antam Gonçalvez, his chamberlain, and a very young man; and the end of that voyage was none other, according to my Lord's commandment, but to ship a cargo of the skins and oil of those sea-wolves of which we have spoken in previous chapters. But it cannot be doubted that the Infant gave him the same charge that he gave to others, but as the age of this captain was weaker, and his authority but slight, so the Prince's orders were less stringent, and in consequence his hopes of result less confident.