130 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



suggested in his mind a plan for maritime discovery, which 

 afterwards became his favorite and almost exclusive pursuit. 

 He sent a vessel upon the first voyage of exploration under- 

 taken by any nation in modern times. The commander was 

 instructed to follow the western coast of Africa, and, if possible, 

 to pass the cape called by the Portuguese Cape Non, Nun, or 

 Noun. This had hitherto been considered the utmost southern 

 limit of navigation by the Europeans, and had obtained its 

 name from the negative term in the Portuguese language — im- 

 plying that there was nothing beyond. A current proverb 

 expressed the idea thus : 



Whoe'er would pass the Cape of Non 

 Shall turn again, or else begone. 



The fate of this vessel has not been reccrded ; but Don Henry 

 Continued for many years to send other vessels upon the same 

 errand. Several of them proceeded one hundred and eighty 

 miles beyond Cape Non, to another and more formidable pro- 

 montory, to which they gave the name of Bojador — from bo jar , 

 to double — on account of the circuit which must be made to get 



CAPE BOJADOR. 



around it, as it stretches more than one hundred miles into the 

 ocean. The tides and shoals here formed a current twenty miles 

 wide ; and the spectacle of this swollen and beating surge, which 

 precluded all possibility of creeping along close to the coast, 



