INTRODUCTORY. 1 1 



were gained so many of our famous victories, which the 

 names of Corunna, Vigo, and Trafalgar call up before our 

 minds. But, far above all, to these waters came direct 

 from Genoa the far-seeing Columbus, big with the project 

 he had not yet divulged; and as Portugal was at that 

 period the country to which adventurous spirits from all 

 parts of the woi'ld resorted, as the great theatre of mari- 

 time enterprise, his first proposal was made to King 

 Joao II. to sail under the flag of that monarch, and to 

 seize for the crown of Portugal that land beyond the 

 Atlantic, of whose existence his courageous heart never 

 suffered him for one monient to doubt. And now, as we 

 sat on the deck of the Shannon and watched the great 

 waves rolling in from the west, it was interesting to think 

 Avith what a full heart, and with what powerful feelings of 

 hope and expectation, the great discoverer must have set 

 out on his voyage after all the tedious delays and bitter 

 disappointments which beset him ; and with what trium- 

 phant feelings of deserved success he must have returned 

 to Lisbon, to the delight of his generous patron, Isabella 

 of Spain, and to the intense mortification of the King of 

 Portugal,* 



We slackened speed as we ran down the coast, for we 

 could not cross the bar at the mouth of the Tagus till day- 

 light ; and our captain had no desire to increase unneces- 

 sarily his enormous consumption of coal, and before sunset 

 the sea had subsided into a perfect calm, and our last 

 evening on board the Shannon was as peaceful and pleasant 

 as we could desire. 



* Prescott's History of the Bcign of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. ii. 

 pp. 141, 154. 



