6 Gardiner G. Hubbard — Discoverers of America. 



was king, and with him the reign of the Tudors and the pros- 

 perity of England commenced. 



In Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella Avere preparing for that Avar 

 Avith the Moors Avhich resulted in their expulsion from the Sjian- 

 ish dominion. 



In eastern Europe, the Turks had a short time before captured 

 Constantinople and destroyed nearly all the commerce of Venice 

 and Florence, and AA^ere noAA^ raising an army to ravage Austria 

 and Hungary. 



In Portugal, Prince Henry the Navigator Avas making those 

 vo5^ages to the coast of Africa for discover}^ and trade Avhich made 

 Portugal for one hundred and fifty years the greatest maritime na- 

 tion of the Avorld. Each year these expeditions sailed further and 

 further soutliAvard, passing the Gold coast, the equator, the river 

 Congo. They sailed out into the ocean and rediscovered the 

 Azores, Madeira and the Canary islands, formerly knoAvn to the 

 Phenicians. In 1442 their ships brought home African negroes 

 to be sold as slaves in Lisbon, the beginning of the African slave 

 trade. In 1486 Diaz rounded the southern extremity of Africa 

 and called it the Stormy cape, though Prince Henry named it 

 the cape of Good Hope. Greater discoveries Avere made during 

 the lives of men contemporary Avith Columbus than in all times 

 preAious or subsequent. 



Columbus is for us the princi])al figure in this ncAV Avorld. He 

 Avas born in Italy about 1446, though we know with certainty 

 neither the place nor time of his birth and but little of his early 

 life. He folloAved the sea for many years, sailing to Africa, Eng- 

 land, and probably Iceland. About the year 1470 he is found in 

 Portugal, Avhere some say he Avas shipAvrecked on the coast while 

 on a piratical voyage. Here he married a Portuguese lad}^, Avhose 

 father had been governor of one of the islands off the coast of 

 Africa ; and there he resided for several years, making maps and 

 pursuing those studies Avhich fitted him for his great vo3'-age of 

 discovery. He knew that the spices from the islands of the 

 Indian ocean, the silks, diamonds and pearls of India, av ere car- 

 ried by the Arabs through the Red sea or up the Euphrates in 

 boats and thence by caravans to the Mediterranean and Black 

 seas, Avhere tliey Avere exchanged Avith the merchants of Venice 

 and Genoa for the goods of Europe. 



He Avas convinced by the study of Marco Polo not only of the 

 wealth of Cipango and Cathay and of the great trade betAveen the 



