EXPEDITION OF THE PORTUGUESE, 
minant principle, which actuated the early navigators, 
tempts to penetrate beyond those latitudes, to which their commer 
cial enterprises had been hitherto confined. By the maritime skill 
of the Venetians, who were the sovereigns of the Mediterranean, the 
beautiful and splendid productions of India, natural and artificial, 
were brought from the shores of Egypt and the adjacent coasts, and 
found a ready, and highly lucrative market in the European states. 
It was in vain for the Portuguese, to attempt to compete with the 
Venetians, and therefore it was resolved to seek a new, and per¬ 
haps a less circuitous and hazardous route,by which an immediate 
communication might be obtained with India, and thereby become 
not only the rivals of the Venetians, but their participators in all 
the lucrative advantages of the Indian commerce. For this pur¬ 
pose, two ships were fitted out by the Portuguese, at the expence 
of private individuals; but the command was entrusted to men, 
fitted neither by nautical skill, nor mental energy for so important 
an enterprise, and who preferred their own immediate aggrand¬ 
izement, to the prosecution of the object in which they were 
engaged. The ships reached the Azores in safety, and the Sover¬ 
eignty of an Island, rich in all the productions of nature, appeared 
in the eyes of the commanders, to be a far more preferable siti 
tion than sailing in quest of an unknown country, which only 
isted perhaps, in the fertile brains of the projectors of the expedition, 
and thereby continually exposing themselves to all the perils, at¬ 
tendant on the navigation of an ocean, of the Geography of which 
they were utterly ignorant. The ships were dismantled, and the 
projectors of the expedition came to the conclusion, that the ves* 
sels had either foundered at sea, or that they had fallen into the 
power of some of those savage tribes, which were known to in¬ 
habit the western coasts of Africa,, 
This disastrous circumstance tended for a time, to diminish the 
ardour of the Portuguese, in the prosecution of their nautical 
enterprises, until a man of a commanding genius, on a sudden 
appeared amongst them, and who surmounting all the obstacles 
which jealousy, and private interests threw in his way, sailed in 
discovery of the route, by which the treasures of India were to 
flow to his native country. The success which attended Vasco 
