It still remaineth for me to relate the hap of the caravel of John Gonçalvez Zarco, who, to my thinking, bore himself in this affair more without hope of gain than any of the others sent there; for all those others, as you have already heard, had a mind to profit themselves, as well as to do service to the Infant. But this John Gonçalvez was noble in all his actions, and so he wished the world to know that for his Lord's service alone he disposed himself to have that voyage made. And therefore he armed a very fine caravel, and the captaincy of this he bestowed on his nephew, named Alvaro Fernandez, whom the Infant had brought up in his household, and he ordered him to have regard to no other profit, save only to see and know any new thing he could. And he was not to hinder himself by making raids in the land of the Moors, but to take his way straight to the land of the Negroes and thenceforward to lengthen his voyage as much as he could,[N168] and endeavour to bring some new thing to the Infant his lord, such as he thought would give him pleasure. The caravel was well victualled and it was manned by men ready for toils, and Alvaro Fernandez was young in years and audacious. So they directed their voyage, determined to second the purpose of him who had dispatched them, and they went sailing over that great ocean sea until they reached the River of Nile,[N169] and they knew it by the signs I have before mentioned, and took on board two pipes of water, one of which they brought to the city of Lisbon. And I know not if Alexander, who was one of the monarchs of the world, drank in his days of water that had been brought him from so far. From hence they went forward until they passed Cape Verde, beyond which they descried an island[N170] on the which they landed to see if they could meet with any natives, but they observed that caution in their own regard which they felt to be proper in such a place. And as they were going through the island, they found tame goats without any persons guarding them, or indeed dwelling in any part of that island, and then they took their refreshment of them; and we have already told how the others found their tracks when they came to those islands, for this Alvaro Fernandez was there first, and because the story could not be told in any other manner we have related it first of all in the way you have heard. Thence they went forward to the spot where the palm tree is, and that huge tree of which we have left an account in the other chapters, and here they found the arms of the Infant, with his device and motto. There they came to an agreement to go and lie near unto the Cape, for it might be that some canoes would come to them with which they could hold converse, at least by signs, for they had no other interpreter. And when they were as near to the Cape as it might be a third of a league, they cast anchor and rested as they had arranged; but they had not been there long when from