THE PORTUGUESE IN THE INDIAN" OCEAN. 463 



enlarged his bounds ! He who as a child had still known the 

 earth with her old and narrow confines might, before his 

 hair grew white, have seen the Atlantic assume a definite form ; 

 Africa project like an enorihous peninsula into the boundless 

 world of waters, and one single ocean bathe all the coasts from 

 Canton to the West Indies. 



Yet a few years and the Pacific opens its gates, and all the 

 discoveries of Columbus and Vasco seem small when compared 

 with the vast regions which Magellan reveals to man. 



