462 THE PROGRESS OP MARITIME DISCOVERT. 



■tigated the Bay of St. Lawrence, did not indeed widely extend 

 geographical knowledge, as these navigators, who had been sent 

 out by Francis I., did no more than examine more closely the 

 previous discoveries of Cabot and Cortereal ; their explorations 

 however had the result of giving France possession of Canada, 

 and of entitling her to a share in the fisheries of Newfoundland. 

 Thus within half a century after the ever memorable day when 

 Columbus first landed on Guanahani, we find almost the whole 

 •eastern coast of America rising into light from the deep dark- 

 ness of an unknown past. 



But while the western shores of the Atlantic were thus un- 

 rolling themselves before the wondering gaze of mankind, the 

 Indian Ocean was the scene of no less remarkable events ; for 

 in the same year (1498) that Columbus first visited the American 

 continent, Vasco de Grama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, which 

 thus fully justified its auspicious name, crossed the Eastern Ocean, 

 and on the 22nd of May landed at Calicut on the coast of Malabar, 

 ten months and two days after leaving the port of Lisbon. 



And now, as if by magic, the great revolution in commerce 

 took place which the Venetians long had feared and the Portu- 

 guese had no less anxiously hoped for ; for the latter lost no time 

 in reaping the golden fruits of the glorious discoveries of Gama 

 and his predecessors. In less than twenty years their flag waved 

 in all the harbours of the Indian Ocean, from the east coast of 

 Africa to Canton ; and over this whole immense expanse a row 

 of fortified stations secured to them the dominion of the seas. 

 Their settlements in Diu and Goa awed the whole coast of 

 Malabar, and cut off the intercourse of Egypt with India "by 

 way of the Eed Sea. They took possession of the small island 

 of Ormus, which commands the entrance of the Persian Gulf, 

 and rendered this important commercial highway likewise tribu- 

 tary to their power. In the centre of the East- Indian world 

 rose their chief emporium, Malacca, and even in distant China 

 Macao obeyed their laws. The discovery of the Molucca 

 Islands gave them the monopoly of the lucrative spice trade, 

 which was destined at a later period, and more permanently, to 

 enrich the thrifty Dutchman. 



What vast changes had taken place since Prince Henry's 

 first expeditions to the coast of Africa ! How had old Ocean 



