GOLD. 329 



It was to this fiery land that the Prince kept sending 

 vessel after vessel. The Portuguese did not see what 

 would come of these expeditions except to make widows 

 and orphans. " The Prince seems to think," said they, 

 " that because he has discovered two desert islands he has 

 conferred a great blessing upon us ; but we have enough 

 uncultivated land without going across the seas for more. 

 His own father, only a little while ago, gave land to a 

 nobleman of Germany, on condition that he should people 

 it with emigrants. But Dom Henry sends men out of 

 Portugal instead of asking them in. Let us keep to the 

 country that God has given us. It may be seen how 

 much better suited those lands are for beasts than men 

 by what happened with the rabbits. And even if there 

 are in that unfound land as many people as the Prince 

 pretends, we do not know what sort of people they are; 

 and if they are like those in the Canaries who jump 

 from rock to rock, and throw stones at Christian heads, 

 of what use is it to conquer a land so barren, and a 

 people so contemptible ? " 



However, an incident occurred which produced a 

 revolution in popular and ecclesiastic feeling. The 

 prisoners captured on the desert coast offered a ransom 

 for their release ; and this ransom consisted of negro 

 slaves and Gold. The place where this metal first made 

 its appearance was called the Golden River. It was 

 not in reality a river but an arm of the sea, and the 

 gold had been brought from the mines of Bambouk in 

 the country of the negroes. Its discovery created an 

 intense excitement : the priests acknowledged that it 

 could not have been placed there for the use of the 

 wild animals. Companies were formed and were 

 licensed by the crown, which assigned to the Prince a 

 fifth part of the cargoes returned. He himself cared 



