456 THE PROGRESS DOF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 
{he known earth were extended as far as the islands of the saine 
uname and the Azores, those advanced sentinels in the bosom of 
the Atlantic. It may easily be imagined how much these suc- 
cesses contributed to encourage the universal ardour for dis- 
covery. Adventurers from all countries hastened to Portugal, 
hoping to gratify their ambition or avarice under the auspices of 
a prince who had already achieved so much; and even many 
Venetians and Genoese, who were at that time superior to all 
other nations in naval science, reckoned it as an honour to serve 
under a flag which might justly be considered as the high school 
of theseaman. Thus before Prince Henry closed his eyes (1463 ) 
the aim of his glorious life had been attained; for, though he 
did not live to see his countrymen penetrate into the Indian 
Ocean, yet he witnessed the mighty impulse which in a short 
time was to lead to that important result. 
In the year 1471 the line was crossed for the first time, and 
the Portuguese thus detected the error of the ancients, who 
believed that the intolerable heat of a vertical sun rendered the 
equatorial regions uninhabitable by man. 
Under John the Second a mighty fleet discovered the 
kingdoms of Benin and Congo (1484), followed the coast above 
1500 miles beyond the equator, and revealed to Europe the 
constellations of another hemisphere. 
The farther their ships penetrated to the south, the higher 
rose the flood tide of their hopes. As the African continent 
appeared sensibly to contract itself, and to bend towards the 
East as they proceeded, they no longer doubted that the way to 
the Indian Ocean would now soon be found, and give them the 
exclusive possession of a trade which had enriched Venice, and 
made that city the envy of the world. The ancient Jong- 
forgotten tale of the Phoenician circumnavigation of Africa now 
found belief, and Bartholomew Diaz sailed from Lisbon for the 
purpose of solving the important problem. The storms of an 
unknown ocean, the famine caused by the loss of his store-ship, 
and the frequent mutinies of a dispirited crew, could not stop 
the progress of this intrepid mariner, who, boldly advancing in 
the face of a thousand difficulties, at length discovered the high 
promontory which forms the southern extremity of Africa. 
But, as his weather-beaten ships were no longer able to con- 
