16 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
strument of their own downfall; by enabling 
them thereby, to discover the Cape of Good 
Hope, and with it, the East Indian passage. 
Yet such was the unforeseen result. 
In the early part of the fifteenth century, 
John L, King of Portugal, effected some yery 
important conquests oyer the Moors, on the 
North of Africa; and, with the assistance of 
some English merchants, he took the City of 
Ceuta, in Barbary. While here, in company 
with his father, it is said that Prince Henry* 
received some important information respecting 
the coast of Guinea, which induced him to turn 
all his energies to the circumnavigation of 
Africa. In effecting this, he had in view the 
opening of a maritime route to the rich nations 
of the East; and so putting an end to the 
monopoly of their wealth, which hitherto had 
belonged to the republic of Yenice and Genoa ; 
and which had succeeded, in a short time, to 
raise these from comparative insignificance, to 
extraordinary opulence, and haughty arrogance. 
At this period, the most Southerly point of 
Africa known was Cape Nun, in about 27° 
North latitude. The promontory had received 
this appellation from the supposition that it 
* He was son of John the first of Portugal, surnamed the Avenger, 
and his mother was Phillippa of Lancaster, sister of Henry IV of 
England. 
