274 National Geographic Magazine. 



dispelled the terror inspired by the unknown ocean, and ended in 

 1522 with Elcano's arrival at Sanlucar after circumnavigating the 

 globe. 



In all this activity very little occurs by chance. The pro- 

 gressive series of geographic discoveries, due to persistent pre- 

 meditation and not to accident, was inaugurated at Sagres by 

 the Infante D. Enrique and his illustrious pilot Jaime de Mal- 

 lorca. 



Well might Pedro Nunes exclaim that from that time forth 

 until the form and size of the terraqueous globe were thoroughly 

 known, the most to be obtained would not be firmly established, 

 " unless our mariners sailed away better instructed and provided 

 with better instruments and rules of Astronomy and Geography 

 than the things with which cosmographers supplied them." 



The culmination in the progress of that beautiful history falls 

 on the 12th of October, 1492, when Columbus was the first Euro- 

 pean to set foot upon the intertropical shores of the New World. 

 But this act, considered apart from its intrinsic value, as purely 

 the individual inspiration of a mariner and the generous enthu- 

 siasm of a patron Queen, derives a higher value when regarded 

 as part of a summation of efforts, a grand development of an 

 idea, a purpose to explore and know the whole globe, to spread 

 the name and the law of Christ together with the civilization of 

 Europe, and to reap a harvest of gold, spices, and all the riches 

 of which costly samples and exaggerated reports were furnished 

 by the trafiic of the Venetians, Genoese and Catalonians, who in 

 turn got them from Mussulmans. 



Doubtless the moving cause, whose gorgeous banner so many 

 men of our peninsula followed, was clothed in great sentiments, 

 good or bad ; their hearts were filled with religious fervor, thirst 

 for glory, ambition. Christian love, cupidity, curiosity, and vio- 

 lent dissatisfaction (even during the Renaissance), to seek and 

 undergo real adventures that should surpass the vain, fruitless, 

 and fanciful adventures of chivalry ; and to make voyages and 

 conquests eclipsing those of the Greeks and Romans, many of 

 which, recorded in classic histories and fables, were now dis- 

 interred by the learned. 



What must be described is the complete picture in all its 

 sumptuousness so that its magnificent meaning may stand out 

 distinctly, without which the conviction would be lacking that the 

 studies, voyages, and happy audacity of Bartolome Diaz, Gama, 



