ABSTRACT
Some time after this 1 the Prince equipped at Lagos a caravel, named Picanso, and appointed Diogo Gomes captain, together with two other caravels, of which he appointed Diogo Gomes captain-in-chief. The captain of one of these was João Gonçalves Ribeiro, of the Prince’s household, and of the other Nuño Fernandes de Baya, the Prince’s esquire-at-arms. The Prince gave them orders to proceed as far as they could. After passing the river of S. Domingos 2 , and another great river called Fancaso 3 beyond the Rio Grande, we encountered strong currents in the sea, so that no anchor could hold. These are called macareo 4 . The other captains, therefore, and their men were greatly alarmed, thinking that they were at the extremity of the ocean, and they begged me to return. In the middle of the current the sea was very clear, and the Mouros came from the shore in their canoes and brought us their merchandise, viz., cotton cloth, or algodão, elephants’ teeth, and a quart measure of malagueta, in grain and in its pods as it grows, with which I was much delighted. The current prevented our proceeding farther, and in fact increased so much that it obliged us to put back.
