GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 



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of Good Hope, so as to extend their commercial, military, and naval power to 

 Asia as well as to Africa. Diego d'A/ambuza created in 1481 the first 

 European establishment in Guinea, which had been explored twenty years 

 beforehand by his compatriot Cintra ; and Joan Cano discovered Congo 

 in 1484. But the boldest mariners, notwithstanding their possession of the 

 compass, which had been discovered in the twelfth century, would not 



Fig. 205. Discovery of San Domingo (Insula Hyspana) by Christopher Columbus. After a Sketch 

 which ia attributed to him, and in which he is himself made to appear. Fao-simile of a Wood 

 Engraving of the "Epistola Christoferi Colom," undated Edition (1492 P), in quarto. In 

 the Milan Library. 



venture across the Atlantic, which was believed to be boundless and full of 

 perils. The pilots, however, discussed amongst each other whether or not a 

 vessel, by steering continually westward, would reach the most easterly 

 islands of the Indian Ocean. This was the idea formed by the Genoese pilot, 



p P 



