Zurara's description of the landing of slaves at Lagos has been much quoted by historians. Portugal had been involved in sporadic slaving in the Canaries and off the coast of Morocco throughout the fourteenth century, so slaves were not in themselves a novelty. The return of Lançarote's caravels, however, brought the first large slave consignment to reach Portugal from the Sahara and its arrival greatly stimulated interest, both among the nobility and fidalgos, and among ordinary seamen, in undertaking further voyages. Indeed, Peter Russell believed that this open display of the slaves was a deliberate public relations exercise by Prince Henry ‘the Navigator’ to increase support for the west African expeditions. Zurara's long discussion of the moral issues involved in the slave trade is of great interest. Although he reaches the conclusion that the trade is justified because the souls of the slaves will be saved, and piously concludes that this was Prince Henry's primary concern, the passage demonstrates that the morality of the trade was being questioned and actively debated in Portugal at the time. There are few such public expressions of concern about the slave trade in any subsequent public document.