. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 29 



incubus : that which promised healing became a poison inflaming 

 and agonizing wherever it touched. The continent was involved 

 in deeper darkness — a festering barbarism — which gave off to 

 the world a tribute that cursed the giver and the receiver. 



While the Crescent was resting with dazzling splendor over 

 Africa, Europe was in that profound apathy which attended the 

 " decline of the Roman empire, the irruption of the barbarous 

 nations, and the rude systems of feudal polity which were inau- 

 gurated. There was absolute indifference to all matters pertain- 

 ing to science, discovery and distant commerce." Even the 

 naval efforts of Venice and Genoa extended little farther than 

 Alexandria and the Black Sea. Satisfied by the wealth and 

 power to which they had been raised by this limited commerce, 

 these celebrated commonwealths made no attempt to open a more 

 extended path over the ocean. 



"About the end of the fifteenth century, the human mind 

 began to make a grand movement in every direction, especially 

 in religion, science, industry, and freedom. It eagerly sought 

 not only to break loose from that thraldom in which it had 

 been bound for so many ages, but to rival and even surpass all 

 that had been achieved during the most brilliant eras of an- 

 tiquity. These high aims wer peculiarly directed to the de- 

 partment of maritime discovery. The invention of the compass, 

 the skill of the Venetian and Genoese pilots, and the knowledge 

 transmitted from former times, inspired all classes with the 

 hope of being able to pass the ancient barriers and to throw light 

 upon regions hitherto unknown." Portugal, whose kings were 

 preeminent in intelligence and enterprise, was the first to obey 

 this new inspiration. Various circumstances conspired to fix 

 the eye of Portugal on the western border of Africa as the choice 

 field for research. The ancient expeditions had furnished very 

 limited and indefinite information of this coast, and even the 

 wonderful discoveries of Columbus in later years hardly excited 

 greater surprise and admiration than the voyages which so 

 rapidly scattered the mists which had hung through all the past 

 about the shores of Sahara, Senegambia, Guinea, and Lower 

 Guinea. 



In 1433 Gilianez passed the Cape Bojador, and Portuguese 

 navigators were not long in reaching the fertile regions watered 



