As this work is being compiled by the application of our limited skills, it seemed to us to be a good and worthy gesture that those who were the Master's companions in his great and virtuous labours should share in some commemoration, even if it is only to be set down in writing. For, if the slipping away of great epochs erodes the fame of excellent princes, so much more do long ages bury with them in their tomb the names of other people.

Since, at the start of his good deeds, the Master had nobles and citizens who served him well and loyally, laying down their lives and possessions for the honour of the kingdom, it seems to us that an injury would be done to them if they were allowed to fall into perpetual oblivion. For, just as the great lord of whom we speak, with his immense largesse in distributing special gifts, rewarded them all without leaving anybody out, so past authors should have made some mention of them, which in our view should have been like this: first by naming those of noble birth who at such uncertain times rallied to the Master and remained to serve him; then the governors of castles who voiced their support for Portugal without changing sides; and finally the residents and the sons of Lisbon citizens who always acted in his service.

In our attempt to be of assistance in this as in other shortcomings where past authors do not fulfil our expectations, we have found that it is no longer possible to fully succeed in this endeavour because, as the names of such people have aged, the brightness of their nobility has also died. Who would you now expect to drag out of the obscurity of so many years the names which can scarcely be found of those who have no other witness except ashes and oblivion? Who would you think would not grow weary of perusing cartularies of rotting documents whose age and decay deny a man what he wants to know? Who would be able to find, among so many ancient inscriptions written on tombs, any evidence of who lies in them? Who would assuage other people's feelings and the varied opinions of men, so that everyone should be pleased with what we want to say? It would be quite impossible.