50 PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES. 



mounting and alighting from these animals at full gallop. 

 After being instructed in the Christian religion, he was 

 baptized, and did homage to the king and to the Pope for 

 the crown which was to be placed on his head ; for which 

 purpose a powerful armament, under the command of Pero 

 Vaz d'Acunha, was sent out with him to the banks of the 

 Senegal. 



The conclusion of this adventure was extremely tragical. 

 A quarrel having arisen between Bemoy and the com- 

 mander, the latter stabbed the prmce on board of his vessel. 

 Whether this violent deed was prompted by the heat of 

 passion, or by well-grounded suspicions of Bemoy's fidelity, 

 was never fully hivestigated ; but the king learned the 

 event with deep regret, and even, in consequence, gave up 

 his design of building a fort on the Senegal. He made, 

 however, no pause in his indefatigable efforts to trace the 

 abode of Prester John. Ambassadors were sent into the 

 interior, and, according to De Barros, even as far as Tim- 

 buctoo. All endeavours were vain as to the primary object ; 

 but the Portuguese thereby gained a more complete know- 

 ledge of this part of Interior Africa than was afterward 

 attained in Europe till a very recent period. Most of this 

 intelligence, however, has either perished, or still remains 

 locked up in the archives of the Lusitanian monarchy. 



The Portuguese continued to prosecute African disco- 

 very, till, in 1471, they reached the Gold Coast, when, 

 dazzled l)y the importance and splendour of the commodity, 

 the commerce of which gave name to that region, they 

 built Elmina (the mine), making it the capital of their pos- 

 sessions in this continent. Pushing onward to Benin, they 

 received a curious account of an embassy said to be sent, 

 at the accession of every new monarch, to the court of a 

 sovereign called Ogane, resident seven or eight hundred 

 miles in the interior. WTicn the ambassadors were intro- 

 duced, a silk curtain shrouded the monarch from their view, 

 till the moment of their departure, when the royal foot was 

 graciously put forth from under the veil, and " reverence 

 done to it as to a holy thing." This statement greatly 

 excited the curiosity of the Portuguese, to whom this mys- 

 terious monarch appeared, more likely than any they had 

 yet heard of, to be Prester John. Who this Ogane really 

 was has been a subject of much doubtful discussion. 



