RELATIVE VALUE OF GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION 675 



or Portugal. That the initiative came from Portugal was partly due 

 to the fact that that country had freed itself from the Moors, before 

 the Christian reconquest of Spain was complete, but chiefly to the birth 

 of one of those remarkable personalities that leave a permanent 

 mark on the history of mankind. 



In A. D. 1415, when just of age, Prince Henry of Portugal, third 

 surviving son of the reigning king, distinguished himself so preemin- 

 ently at the capture of Ceuta that he was offered the dignity of 

 knighthood before his elder brothers, an added honor which he 

 modestly declined. The fame of his attainments brought brilliant 

 offers from other countries, but all were refused. Accepting the 

 governorship of the southern province of his native land, he settled 

 at Sagres near Cape St. Vincent, and practically devoted the rest of his 

 life to one great idea, the unveiling of the coast of Africa, in pursu- 

 ance of the search for an ocean highway to the East. It is not easy 

 to realize the difficulties that checked the work: the terrors of the 

 unknown, the superstitions of his sailors, which long prevented their 

 penetrating beyond the latitude of the Canaries, then the farthest 

 limit known along the western coast of Africa. His indomitable per- 

 sistence, however, prevailed. Gradually the inhospitable edge of the 

 Sahara was passed, and the rich region of Senegambia discovered, so 

 that, ere his death in 1460, Cape Verde, the westernmost point of the 

 continent, had been rounded, and a district a little beyond the Gambia 

 reached, while the island groups of the Madeiras, the Azores, and the 

 Cape Verdes had been added to his country's dominions. 



Compared with the long stretch of the African coasts, this may 

 seem but a small achievement, but in itself is an indication of the 

 initial difficulties to be overcome. 



The first step had been taken; the rest was comparatively easy. 

 As an example of the far-reaching designs of Prince Henry, it might 

 be noted that at an early stage he obtained from Rome Papal bulls 

 granting to Portugal all countries found, not in the possession of 

 a Christian monarch, usque ad Indos. And so, after his death, the 

 quest for the Indies was resumed, and gradually the long eastern 

 trend of the Guinea Coast explored, and then the still longer southern 

 stretch, until, after a little more than twenty-five years had elapsed, 

 an end to Africa was found, and a cape hard-by happily named the 

 Cape of Good Hope. The way seemed clear, and ten years later was 

 proved to be so, when the gallant Vasco da Gama led the first expedi- 

 tion along a continuous ocean highway from Europe to India. 



The first shot fired by the Portuguese on the Malabar Coast of 

 India was the signal for the downfall of the commercial supremacy 

 of Venice, and for three and a half centuries the great trade with the 

 East was diverted, for some time to the exclusive benefit of Portugal, 

 from its normal and ancient route up the Red Sea into a new Atlantic 



