30 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
and who had made a long stay in Africa. It was upon 
him that John II. cast his eye, and Alonzo de Paiva was 
given him as a colleague. They left Lisbon in the 
month of May, 1487, furnished with detailed instruc¬ 
tions, and with a chart drawn according to Bishop 
Calsadilla’s map of the World, by the help of which the 
tour of Africa might be made. 
The two travellers reached Alexandria and Cairo, 
where they were much gratified at meeting with some 
Moorish traders from Fez and Tlemcen, who conducted 
them to Tor—the ancient Ezioimeber—at the foot of 
O 
Sinai, where they were able to procure some valuable 
information upon the trade of Calicut. Covilham re¬ 
solved to take advantage of this fortunate circumstance 
to visit a country which, for more than a century, had 
been regarded by Portugal with covetous longing, while 
Pai'va set out to penetrate into those regions then so 
vaguely designated as Ethiopia, in quest of the famous 
Prester John, who, according to old travellers, reigned 
over a marvellously rich and fertile country in Africa. 
Pai'va doubtless perished in his adventurous enterprise, 
beino; never ao-ain heard of. 
As for Covilham, he travelled to Aden, whence he 
embarked for the Malabar coast. He visited in succes¬ 
sion Cananore, Calicut, and Goa, and collected accurate 
information upon the commerce and productions of the 
countries bordering on the Indian Ocean, without 
arousing the fears of the Hindoos, who could not suspect 
that the kind and friendly welcome they accorded to 
the traveller would bring about in the future the en¬ 
thralment and ruin of their country. Covilham, not 
considering that he had yet done enough for his country, 
quitted India, and went to the eastern coast of Africa, 
where he visited Mozambique, Sofala—long famous for 
its gold-mines, of which the reputation, by means of the 
Arabs, had even reached Europe—and Zeila, the Avalites 
portus of the ancients, and the principal town of the 
Adel coast, upon the Gulf of Oman, at the entrance of 
the Arabian Sea. After a somewhat long stay in that 
country, he returned by Aden, then the principal en- 
