island."

There is much here of the usual captiousness [Transcriber's note: Finding
trivial faults.] to be found in the criticism of bystanders upon action,
mixed with a great deal of false assertion and assumed knowledge of
the ways of Providence. Still, it were to be wished that most criticism
upon action was as wise; for that part of the common talk which spoke of
keeping their own population to bring out their own resources, had a
wisdom in it which the men of future centuries were yet to discover
throughout the Peninsula.


MISGIVINGS OF PRINCE HENRY; GIL EANNES.

Prince Henry, as may be seen by his perseverance up to this time, was not
a man to have his purposes diverted by such criticism, much of which must
have been, in his eyes, worthless and inconsequent in the extreme.
Nevertheless, he had his own misgivings. His captains came back one after
another, with no good tidings of discovery, but with petty plunder gained
as they returned from incursions on the Moorish coast. The prince
concealed from them his chagrin at the fruitless nature of their attempts,
but probably did not feel it less on that account. He began to think, was
it for him to hope to discover that land which had been hidden from so
many princes? Still he felt within himself the incitement of "a virtuous
obstinacy," which would not let him rest. Would it not, he thought, be
ingratitude to God, who thus moved his mind to these attempts, if he were
to desist from his work, or be negligent in it? He resolved, therefore, to
send out again Gil Eannes, one of his household, who had been sent the
year before, but had returned, like the rest, having discovered nothing.
He had been driven to the Canary Islands, and had seized upon some of the