454 THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY 



CHAP. XXIV. 



Prince Henry of Portugal.— Discovery of Porto Santo and Madeira. — Doubling of 

 Cape Bojador. — Discovery of the Cape Verde Islands. — Bartholomew Diaz. — 

 Vasco de Gama. — Columbus. — His Predecessors. — Discovery of Greenland by 

 Giinnbjorn. — Bjorne Herjulfson. — Leif. — John Vaz Cortereal. — John and 

 Sebastian Cabot. — Retrospective View of the Beginnings of English Navigation. 

 — Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci. — Vincent Yanez Pinson. — Cortez.— Verazzani. 

 — Cartier. — The Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. 



The reigning idea of a century finds always one or more eminent 

 spirits, in whom and through whose agency the desires and 

 hopes of thousands ripen into deeds, and are changed from 

 dreams into realities. One of these rare and highly gifted men 

 was Prince Henry of . Portugal, a son of King John I., who 

 made it the chief aim of his life to extend the boundaries of 

 maritime discovery, and devoted with glowing ardour all the 

 powers of his energetic mind, and all the influence of rank and 

 riches to the attainment of this noble object. From the castle 

 of Sagres near Cape St. Vincent, where, far from the court, he 

 had fixed his residence in order to be less disturbed in his 

 favourite studies, his eye glanced over the Atlantic, which 

 constantly reminded him of the unknown lands which held out 

 such brilliant prospects to the navigator who should venture to 

 steer southwards along the African coast. The experienced 

 seamen and learned geographers that surrounded him con- 

 firmed him in his hopes, and encouraged him to attempt the 

 realisation of his generous ideas. 



Fortunately all outward circumstances combined to favour 

 l-he prince's projects. At that time Portugal was not plunged, 

 as at present, in a state of slothful lethargy, but full of the bold 

 and enterprising spirit which the expulsion of the Moors and 

 long intestine wars had called to life. The geographical posi- 

 tion of the country, bounded Qn every side by the dominions of 

 a mightier neighbour, forbade all extension by land, and pointed 

 lo the ocean as the only field in which a comparatively small 



