462 THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 
tigated the Bay of St. Lawrence, did not indeed widely extend 
geographical knowledge, as these navigators, who had been sent 
out by Francis I., did no more than examine more closely the 
previous discoveries of Cabot and Cortereal; their explorations 
however had the result of giving France possession of Canada, 
aud of entitling her to a share in the fisheries of Newfoundland. 
Thus within half a century after the ever memorable day when 
Columbus first landed on Guanahani, we find almost the whole 
eastern coast of America rising into light from the deep dark- 
ness of an unknown past. 
But while the western shores of the Atlantic were thus un- 
rolling themselves before the wondering gaze of mankind, the 
Indian Ocean was the scene of no less remarkable events; for 
in the same year (1498) that Columbus first visited the American 
continent, Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, which 
thus fully justified its auspicious name, crossed the Eastern Ocean, 
and on the 22nd of May landed at Calicut on the coast of Malabar, 
ten months and two days after leaving the port of Lisbon. 
And now, as if by magic, the great revolution in commerce 
took place which the Venetians long had feared and the Portu- 
guese had no less anxiously hoped for; for the latter lost no time 
in reaping the golden fruits of the glorious discoveries of Gama 
and his predecessors. In less than twenty years their flag waved 
in all the harbours of the Indian Ocean, from the east coast of 
Africa to Canton; and over this whole immense expanse a row 
of fortified stations secured to them the dominion of the seas. 
Their settlements in Diu and Goa awed the whole coast of 
Malabar, and cut off the intercourse of Egypt with India by 
way of the Red Sea. They took possession of the small island. 
of Ormus, which commands the entrance of the Persian Gulf, 
and rendered this important commercial highway likewise tribu- 
tary to their power. In the centre of the East-Indian world 
rose their chief emporium, Malacca, and even in distant China 
Macao obeyed their laws. The discovery of the Molucca 
Islands gave them the. monopoly of the lucrative spice trade, 
which was destined at a later period, and more permanently, to 
enrich the thrifty Dutchman. 
What vast changes had taken place since Prince Henry’s 
first expeditions to the coast of Africa! How had old Ocean 
