252 



COSMOS. 



er refer to the Zipangu of Marco Polo than to that of Pope 

 Pius ? 



While the diplomatic missions of Christian monks, and the 

 mercantile expeditions by land, which were prosecuted at a 

 period when the universal dominion of the Moguls had made 

 the interior of Asia accessible from the Dead Sea to the Wolga, 

 were the means of diffusing a knowledge of Khatai and Zi- 

 pangu (China and Japan) among the great sea-faring nations 

 of Europe ; the mission of Pedro de Covilham and Alonzo de 

 Payva (in 1487), which was sent by King John II. to seek 

 for the African Prester John, prepared the way, if not for Bar- 

 tholomew Diaz, at all events for Vasco de Gama* Trusting 

 to the reports brought by Indian and Arabian pilots to Cali- 

 cut, Goa, and Aden, as well as to Sofala, on the eastern shores 

 of Africa, Covilham sent word to King John II., by two Jews 

 from Cairo, that if the Portuguese would prosecute their voy- 

 ages of discovery southward, along the west coast, they would 

 reach the termination of Africa, from whence the navigation 

 to the Moon Island, the Magastar of Polo, to Zanzibar and 

 to Sofala. "rich in gold," would be extremely easy. But, be- 

 fore this news reached Lisbon, it had been already long known 

 there that Bartholomew Diaz had not only made the discov- 

 ery of the Cape of Good Hope (Cabo tormentoso), but that he 

 had also sailed round it, although only for a short distance.! 



* Barros, Dec. i., liv. iii., cap. 4, p. 190, says expi-essly that Barthol- 

 omew Diaz, "e os de sua companhiaper causa dos perigos e tormentas, 

 que em o dobrar delle passaraui, lhe pazeram nome Tormentoso." The 

 merit of first doubling the Cape does not, therefore, belong, as usually 

 stated, to Vasco de Gama. Diaz was at the Cape in May, 1487, nearly, 

 therefore, at the same time that Pedro de Covilham and Alonzo de Pay- 

 va set forth from Barcelona on their expedition. In December of the 

 same year (1487), Diaz brought the news of this important discovery 

 to Portugal. 



t The planispherium of Sanuto, who speaks of himself as " Marinus 

 Sanuto, dictus Torxellus de Veneicis," appertain to the work entitled 

 Secrctafidelium Cntcis. "Marinus ingeniously preached a crusade in 

 the interest of commerce, with a desire of destroying the prosperity of 

 Egypt, and directing the course of trade in such a manner as to carry 

 the products of India through Bagdad, Bassora, and Tauris (Tebriz), to 

 Kaffa, Tana (Azow), and the Asiatic coasts of the Mediterranean. Sa- 

 nuto, who was the cotemporary and compatriot of Polo, with whose Mil- 

 ione he was, however, unacquainted, was characterized by grand views 

 regarding commercial policy. He may be regarded as the Raynal of 

 the Middle Ages, without the incredulity of the philosophical abbe of 

 the eighteenth century." {Examen Critique, t. i., p. 231, 333-348.) 

 The Cape of Good Hope is set down as Capo di Diab on the map of 

 Fra Mauro, compiled between the years 1457 and 1459. Consult the 

 learned treatise of Cardinal Zurla, entitled II Mappamundo di Fra 

 Mauro Camaldolese. 1806, 54. 



