7^ DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
the king, as a part of his new profession, that he 
must dismiss the numerous wives whom he now 
maintained, and confine himself to one. This re- 
striction appeared so intolerable to the aged mo- 
narch, that, rather than submit to it, he renounced 
Christianity, and returned, with all his nobles, to 
the practice of Paganism. The ladies, in parti- 
cular, are said to have taken a most active part in 
opposing such an innovation. Amidst this gene- 
ral defection, the only person who remained 
steady was the king's eldest son, called by the 
Portuguese Don Alfonso ; and who, it appears, 
willingly submitted to the privation which his fa- 
ther judged so insupportable. A dissension thus 
arose between the father and son, which was fo- 
mented by Panso Aquitimo, another brother, who 
had, from the first, shown himself an enemy to the 
new faith. He and his emissaries studiously col- 
lected every report which could imbitter the mind 
of the king against his heir apparent. They as- 
sured him that, by the power of Fetiches, taught 
him by the Christians, Alfonso came every night 
from his residence at Cabo de Reyno, eighty 
leagues distant, carried thither one of the king's 
wives, and conveyed her back in the morning. 
They added, that, by the same power, he dried 
up the rivers, and injured the fruits of the earth, 
that the king's territories might not yield their 
usual revenue. These atrocities moved the mo- 
