1400.

A. D. sultan of Egypt had again established a route for the commerce of India by the Persian Gulf. By these means, the merchandise could be conveyed in the cheapest possible manner, because the only land-carriage was over that narrow strip between the Persian Gulf and the river Nile. Since that time, and more especially subsequently to the year 134 A.D., the Venetians obtained the goods of Alexandria and Damietta, and the routes by the Black Sea and Mediterranean were less frequented, till at last they were altogether abandoned. All the productions of India were procured through Egypt, and now flowed into Europe in much greater abundance; however, the demand increased with the supply, and when at last the sultan of Egypt refused the Europeans the privilege of passing through his territories, endeavouring to monopolise all the traffic for himself, a general endeavour was made, in the year 1400 A.D., to discover a passage to India by sea.

GEOGRAPHICAL

CHAP. XLIX.

DISCOVERY.-CAPE OF GOOD

HOPE.

A. D. THE people of Portugal, which was at first only a province of Spain, after driving the Arabians out

1560.

1433

of Europe, pursued them into Africa, and in the a. d. year 1415 A.D. conquered Ceuta, which lies opposite to Gibraltar. This conquest brought the Portuguese into close communication with the Arabians in Africa, and the Infant Henry, who was fond of studying the sciences, and took a particular interest in geography, made many inquiries to ascertain if it were possible to discover a passage by sea to the East Indies round the western coast of Africa. This object of his investigation was attained, though he did not live to hear it; for at that time the progress of discovery was very slow. The first men sent by Henry to ascertain the truth of his theory returned without having accomplished their purpose. But in 1420 A.D., Gonzales, driven on by successive gales of wind, discovered the small island of Porto Santo, and, also in the year 1420, the island of Madeira; both of which islands were at that time uninhabited. In Madeira Henry founded a colony, and sent also various seeds and domestic animals. The produce proved valuable, especially the wine and the sugar. The discovery, in the year 1432 A.D., of the Azores, islands lying between Portugal and America, about 900 miles from the coast, was a yet bolder enterprise; and the wonder became universal when, in 1433 A.D., the adventurous Gilianez sailed round Bajador, a cape on the western coast of Africa, hitherto supposed the southernmost part of the earth. Nothing was found at Bajador of any particular

H

A. D.

1486.

value. In the year 1442 A.D., the first negroes, so remarkable for their short black curly hair, were brought to Europe. The negroes offered gold-dust as their ransom; and, from this time, that love of gain so natural to mankind caused a general effort to be made for further discoveries. All the world seemed bent upon finding new islands, or lands rich in mines or rivers of gold. Disappointed in this expectation, they had recourse to stealing the negroes, in the hopes of a ransom of gold; and so, by degrees, arose the slave-trade, that shame to the civilised world. In the year 1450, the Portuguese reached the Senegal; and in 1456 they discovered the islands of Cape de Verd, so called from their constant verdure. Guinea was first known in the year 1462 A.D., the last discovery which Henry lived to hear, for he died in the year 1463 A.D. Although gold had been discovered in Guinea, and numbers had made voyages to procure it, still the spirit which had excited former discoveries lay for some time dormant; nor was it till the year 1481 A.D. that Henry's scheme was again taken up. In that year, a voyage of discovery was undertaken still further beyond the equator, and it was found that Africa extended continually further to the east; and in the year 1486 A.D., Bartholomew Diaz arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, a name given by King John the Second of Portugal, who now considered that the passage to the East Indies by sea was beyond all

doubt discovered Eleven years, however, inter• aa vened before a second attempt was made to die. 149 cover the route. At last, in the year 1497 A.D., Vasco de Gama, with four small vessels and one hundred and sixty men, set sail, and arrived, after terrific storms, at the Cape of Good Hope; and, sailing up the eastern coast of Africa, passed Mozambique as far as Melinda. Here he received certain information of the existence of a trade with the East Indies by sea, and, guided by African seamen, he arrived, in the year 1498 A.D., at Calicut, in the island of Malabar; and here, to his great astonishment, he found a fourishing and prosperous people, and endeavoured to enter into a treaty with the Zamorin of Calicut for the advancement of commerce. But the Mahomedans, who, up to this time, had monopolised the trade of India in Egypt, succeeded in casting suspicion on the Portuguese character, and Vasco with difficulty escaped with his ships, 1499 A.D. Still, the route to the East Indies had at last been discovered.

CHAP. L.

COLUMBUS, AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

BEFORE this discovery was effected, a native of Ge- an noa, named Christopher Columbus, born in the year 1445

A. D.

1492.

1445, who had made the science of geography a part of his studies at the university of Pavia, conceived an opinion that it would be possible to reach India by steering right across the ocean towards the west: "because," said he, "the world is like a ball: India lies far to the east; it perhaps extends round nearly to Europe." In addition to this, he had seen, on his voyage to the Azores, that a particular kind of reed, carved wood, and bodies of remarkable formation, were driven on the land from the west. Columbus applied to the government of Genoa to furnish him with ships to try this passage; but the Genoese merely offered excuses. Columbus next laid his schemes before John the Second of Portugal; but there he received most dishonourable treatment: the commission was given to another, who returned without any discovery. In the year 1484 A.D., Columbus went to Spain, and applied to Ferdinand and Isabella, where, after he had been kept in a state of uncertainty for five years, he was at last on the point of starting for England, when he was detained by a person in the confidence of Isabella, and, in the year 1492 A.D., he was provided for this great undertaking with only three small ships and ninety men. The king and queen entered into a deed of covenant to appoint Columbus viceroy of all the land he could discover, and to settle the tenth part of the proceeds on him and his heirs for ever. On the 3rd of August he set sail. At first his crew were all in high