THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



by land. But soon afterward, thanks to the introduc- 

 tion of the compass, — which instrument Marco Polo 

 has sometimes been mistakenly accredited with bring- 

 ing from the East, — the adventurers began to cast 

 longing eyes out toward the western horizons. Among 

 the first conspicuous and inspiriting results were the 

 discoveries of the groups of islands known as the Cape 

 Verdes and the Azores. The Canary Islands were vis- 

 ited by Spaniards even earlier, and became the subject 

 of controversy with the other chief maritime nation 

 of the period, the Portuguese. 



When the controversy was adjusted the Spaniards 

 were left in possession of the Canaries, but the Por- 

 tuguese were given by treaty the exclusive right to 

 explore the coast of Africa. Following up sundry tenta- 

 tive efforts, the daring Portuguese navigator, Bartholo- 

 meo Dias, in the year 1487, passed to the southern- 

 most extremity of Africa, which he christened the Cape 

 of Good Hope. At last, then, it had been shown that 

 Africa did not offer an interminable barrier to the pas- 

 sage to the fabled land of treasures in the East. Be- 

 fore anyone had ventured to follow out the clues which 

 the discovery of the Cape had presented, however, 

 Columbus had seemingly solved the problem in an- 

 other way by sailing out boldly into the West and sup- 

 posedly coming to the East Indies in 1492. 



The western route was barred to the Portuguese but 

 the eastern one remained open to them, and before the 

 close of the century Vasco da Gama had set out on the 

 voyage that ultimately led him to India by way of 

 the Cape (1497-1 500 a.d.). Twenty years later another 



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