452 THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 
knowledge of the compass than before the beginning of the 
fourteenth century, since its use by the mariners of his time is 
expressly mentioned by that author. 
Confidently following this unerring guide, the Catalonians 
sailed at an early period to the north coast of Scotland, and even 
preceded the Portuguese in their discoveries on the west coast of 
Africa, since Don Jayme Ferrer penetrated to the mouth of the 
Rio de Ouro as early as August 1346. About the same time the 
long-forgotten Canary Islands were rediscovered by the Spaniards; 
and at a later period (1402—1405) conquered and depopulated 
by some Norman adventurers, the Bethencourts. 
While thus the South-European navigators unfurled their sails 
ou the Atlantic, and gave the first impulse to the glorious dis- 
coveries that in the following century were destined to open up 
the ocean, and reveal its hitherto unknown greatness to mankind, 
the Indian Sea still remained closed to their enterprise; for 
though the Venetians by this time rivalled, if they did not sur- 
pass the aneient maritime greatness of the Tyrians in the Medi- 
terranean, they did not, like them, directly fetch the rich produce 
of the South in their own ships from the East-African and 
Indian ports, but received them at second hand from the Arabian 
masters of Syria and Egypt. 
But though no ship of theirs was ever seen in the Indian 
seas, through them the knowledge of the Arabian discoveries 
in those parts penetrated to Europe, and widely extended the 
knowledge of the ocean. For when the Arabs, fired by the pro- 
phetic ardour of Mahomet, suddenly emerged from the obscurity 
of pastoral life, and appeared as conquerors before the astonished 
world, the trade of the Indian Ocean fell into the hands of these 
new masters of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, who soon learnt 
to pursue it with an energy which the Romans and Persians had 
never known. The town of Bassora was founded by the caliph 
Omar on the western shore of the great stream formed by the 
confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, and soon emulated 
Alexandria lierself in the greatness of its commerce. From Bas- 
sora the Arabs sailed far beyond the Siamese Gulf, which had 
formerly bounded European navigation. They visited the un- 
known ports of the Indian archipelago, and established so active a 
trade with Canton, that the Chinese emperor granted them the 
use of their own laws in that city. 
