466 THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 



the known earth were extended as far as the islands of the same 

 name and the Azores, those advanced sentinels in the bosom of 

 the Atlantic. It may easily be imagined how much these suc- 

 cesses contributed to encourage the universal ardour for dis- 

 covery. Adventurers from all countries hastened to Portugal, 

 hoping to gratify their ambition or avarice under the auspices of 

 a prince who had already achieved so much; and even many 

 Venetians and Genoese, who were at that time superior to all 

 other nations in naval science, reckoned it as an honour to serve 

 under a flag which might justly be considered as the high school 

 of the seaman. Thus before Prince Henry closed his eyes (1463) 

 the aim of his glorious life had been attained ; for, though he 

 did not live to see his countrymen penetrate into the Indian 

 Ocean, yet he witnessed the mighty impulse which in a short 

 time was to lead to that important result. 



In the year 1471 the line was crossed for the first time, and 

 the Portuguese thus detected the error of the ancients, who 

 believed that the intolerable heat of a vertical sun rendered the 

 equatorial regions uninhabitable by man. 



Under John the Second a mighty fleet discovered the 

 kingdoms of Benin and Congo (1484), followed the coast above 

 1500 miles beyond the equator, and revealed to Europe the 

 constellations of another hemisphere. 



The farther their ships penetrated to the south, the higher 

 rose the flood tide of their hopes. As the African continent 

 appeared sensibly to contract itself, and to bend towards the 

 East as they proceeded, they no longer doubted that the way to 

 the Indian Ocean would now soon be found, and give them the 

 exclusive possession of a trade which had enriched Venice, and 

 made that city the envy of the world. The ancient long- 

 forgotten tale of the Phoenician circumnavigation of Africa now 

 found belief, and Bartholomew Diaz sailed from Lisbon for the 

 purpose of solving the important problem. The storms of an 

 unknown ocean, the famine caused by the loss of his store-ship, 

 and the frequent mutinies of a dispirited crew, could not stop 

 the progress of this intrepid mariner, who, boldly advancing in 

 the face of a thousand difficulties, at length discovered the high 

 promontory which forms the southern extremity of Africa. 

 But, as his weather-beaten ships were no longer able to con- 



