The Renaissance. 83 



time before, supposed to have been written by Prester John himself, 

 Prester being only another name for Presbyter, of which the following- 

 extract, tho' a diversion from the subject, is useful as showing how far 

 mediaeval imagination could go : — " Our land is the home of elephants, 

 " dromedaries, camels, crocodiles, wild asses, white and red lions, white 

 " bears, white merles, crickets, griffins, tigers, hyaenas, wild horses, wild 

 " oxen and wild men, one-eyed, with eyes before and behind, centaurs, 

 " fauns, satyrs, pygmies, forty-ell-high giants, cyclopses and similar 

 women." The whole district apparently teemed with the miracles of 

 nature, for it continues : — " In our territory is a certain waterless sea of 

 " tumbling billows of sand never at rest. None has crossed this sea ; it 

 " lacks water altogether, yet fish are cast up upon the beach of various 

 " kinds, very tasty and quite unique." Among the unexpected inhabi- 

 tants of the country, one finds Salamanders, Amazons, Gog and Magog, 

 to say nothing of the ten tribes of Israel. Incidentally Prester John 

 enumerates the members of his suite, which is very distinguished : — 

 " Seven kings wait upon us monthly in turn, with 62 dukes, 256 counts 

 " and marquises and 12 archbishops sit at table on our right, and 20 

 " bishops on our left, besides the patriarch of St. Thomas, the Sarmatian 

 " Protopope and the Archpope of Susa." As the supposed writer was a 

 Christian priest, it would be more charitable to his reputation to assume 

 that Prester John was not its author. 



It has rightly been said that the capture of Constantinople by the 

 Turks was one of the most momentous events in the world's history. 

 New routes must be found, or the Indo-European trade would be for 

 ever ruined. There were two alternatives : to sail down the west coast of 

 Africa to its southernmost point, if there were one, then east across the 

 Indian Ocean to the coasts of Asia, and secondly to sail due west from 

 the Mediterranean and trust to luck until the east was found again. 



Portuguesa sailors had been exploring the west coast of Africa and 

 had actually rounded the Cape, which they called the Cape of Torment, 

 and reached the Great Fish River, but the most important voyage was 

 made by Vasco da Gama who got to Durban, and christened his anchorage 

 Port Natal, because he arrived there on Christmas Day, and on May 20th, 

 he arrived at Calicut in India, about 10 months after leaving Lisbon. 

 Further developments were then made by Almeida and Albuquerque, and 

 to shew how all this was regarded as so many souls added to the Chris- 

 tian faith, elaborate celebrations took plice in Rome, where valuable 

 spoils from the East were displayed, includihg an elephant of huge size, 

 which did obeisance three times on its knees before Leo X, after which the 

 Holy Father addressed it in a congratulatory oration of unimpeachable 

 Latin. 



This discovery meant a new sea-borne trado for Portugal, and 

 abolished the endless series of trading stations and the disadvantages of 

 combined sea and overland routes. Some twenty ships sailed annually, 

 and the profit on the money spent on ships and voyages has been calcu- 

 lated at nearly 4,000 per cent. Another result was that trade acquisition 



