454 THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY 
CHAP. XXIV. 
Prince Henry of Portugal.—Discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira.—Doubling of 
Cape Bojador. — Discovery of the Cape Verde Islands. — Bartholomew Diaz.— 
Vasco de Gama.—Columbus.— His Predecessors.— Discovery of Greenland by 
Giinnbjorn.— Bjorne Herjulfson.— Leif.— John Vaz Cortereal. — John and 
Sebastian Cabot.—Retrospective View of the Beginnings of English Navigation. 
— Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci.—Vincent Yanez Pinson.— Cortez. —Verazzani. 
—Cartier.—The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. 
Tue reigning idea of acentury finds always one or more eminent 
spirits, in whom and through whose agency the desires and 
hopes of thousands ripen into deeds, and are changed from 
dreams into realities. One of these rare and highly gifted men 
was Prince Henry of Portugal, a son of King John I., who 
made it the chief aim of his life to extend the boundaries of 
maritime discovery, and devoted with glowing ardour all the 
powers of his energetic mind, and all the influence of rank and 
riches to the attainment of this noble object. From the castle 
of Sagres near Cape St. Vincent, where, far from the court, he 
had fixed his residence in order to be less disturbed in his 
favourite studies, his eye glanced over the Atlantic, which 
constantly reminded him of the unknown lands which held out 
such brilliant prospects to the navigator who should venture to 
steer southwards along the African coast. The experienced 
seamen and learned geographers that surrounded him con- 
firmed him in his hopes, and encouraged him to attempt the 
realisation of his generous ideas. 
Fortunately all outward circumstances combined to favour 
the prince’s projects. At that time Portugal was not plunged, 
as at present, in a state of slothful lethargy, but full of the bold 
and enterprising spirit which the expulsion of the Moors and 
long intestine wars had called to life. The geographical posi- 
tion of the country, bounded on every side by the dominions of 
a mightier neighbour, forbade all extension by land, and pointed 
to the ocean as the only field in which a comparatively small 
