the Infant much, and he straightway took order for them to obtain what was needful to enable them to return to the said island. And as they were busied in the work of making ready for their departure, there joined himself to their company Bartholomew Perestrello, a nobleman of the household of the Infant Don John; and these men, having all their things ready, set out on their voyage to the said island. And it happened that among the things they took with them to stock the said island was a she-rabbit, which had been given to Bartholomew Perestrello by a friend of his, and the rabbit went in a hutch pregnant, and it came about that it gave birth to young on the sea, and so they took all these to the island. And when they were lodged in their huts, to make ready houses for themselves, they set free that female rabbit with her young to breed; and these in a very short time multiplied so much as to overspread the land, so that our men could sow nothing that was not destroyed by them. And it is a marvel how they found in the year following their arrival, that although they killed a very great quantity of these rabbits, there yet remained no lack of them. Wherefore they abandoned that island and passed over to the other isle of Madeira, which will be forty leagues in circumference, and twelve leagues distant from Porto Santo; and there stayed the two, to wit, John Gonçalvez and Tristam, and Bartholomew Perestrello returned to the kingdom. This second island they discovered to be good, especially in very noble flowing waters, which are made to irrigate what part they will; and there they began to make very great sowings, from the which they obtained most abundant crops. From that time they saw that the land had good air and was healthy, and they found many birds, which in the beginning they were wont to capture in their hands, and they discovered many other good things in the said island. So they let the Infant know all this, and he straightway laboured to send there other people and ornaments for a church, and clerics, so that in a very brief space a great portion of that land was put to use. And the Infant, considering how those two men were the pioneers of this settlement, bestowed on them the chief governance of the island, to wit, on John Gonçalvez Zarco, who was a noble man and had been made a knight at the siege of Tangier in a battle that the Infant won there upon a Thursday, of which the history of the Kingdom maketh a fuller mention. And this John Gonçalvez had already been present at very great actions, and especially at the raising of the siege of Ceuta and the overthrow of the Moors that took place on the day of arrival. And to this man the Infant gave the governance of the portion of the island called Funchal, and the other part called Machico[CI][N200] he bestowed on Tristam, who also was dubbed a knight in a foray that was made at Ceuta; and he was a very daring man, but not so noble in every other respect as John Gonçalvez.