All these secrets and marvels did the genius of our prince bring before the eyes of the people of our kingdom, for although all the matters here spoken of concerning the marvels of the Nile[N154] could not be witnessed by his own eyes, for that were impossible, it was a great matter that his ships arrived there, where 'tis not recorded that any other ship of these parts had ever come. And this may truthfully be affirmed according to the matters which at the beginning of this book I have related concerning the passage of Cape Bojador, and also from the astonishment which the natives of that land showed when they saw the first ships, for they went to them imagining they were fish, or some other natural product of the sea.[N155] But now returning to our history, after that deed was thus concluded, it was the wish of all the three captains to endeavour to make an honourable booty, adventuring their bodies in whatsoever peril might be necessary; but it appeareth that the wind veered sharply round to south, wherefore it was convenient to set sail at once. And as they were cruising up and down in order to see what the weather purposed to do, the wind turned to the north, and with this they made their way towards Cape Verde, where Dinis Diaz had been the other year. And they went on as far as was possible for all the caravels to join them, except that of Rodrigueannes de Travaços, which lost its company and made thereafter that voyage which will be related. And the five caravels being directly over against the Cape, saw an island, where they landed to see if it were peopled; they found that it was deserted, only they discovered there a great multitude of she goats. And of these they took some to refresh themselves withal; and they reported that these were in no way different from the goats of our country, except that their ears were larger. From the same island also they took water and went on further, until they found another island, in the which they saw fresh skins of goats and other things, from which they understood that other caravels had gone on in front of them; and in further proof of this they found the Arms of the Infant carved upon the trees, and also the letters which composed his motto. "Of a surety I doubt," saith our author, "if since the great power of Alexander and of Cæsar, there hath been any prince in the world that ever had the marks of his conquest set up so far from his own land." And by those signs, which those men of the caravels found there on the trees, they understood that some others had already gone on in front, and so they decided to turn back to their ships; and, as they afterwards discovered, it was the caravel of John Gonçalves Zarco, captain of the isle of Madeira, that had preceded them.