fear that the opinion of those who thought the regions of the torrid zone to be uninhabitable might finally prove true: but when they reached the fertile countries near the Senegal, and found the country grow more populous as they proceeded further south, their confidence revived, and they felt assured that nature placed no such insuperable barriers to their progress.

Don Henry, seeing that his labours now began to turn to some account, listened to the proposals of some inhabitants of Lagos, who, actuated by views of interest, equipped in 1444 six caravels, with which they sailed towards the coast of Guinea. Want of provisions compelled them to return before they had fulfilled their intentions; but they brought back a considerable number of negroes whom they had captured during the voyage. The rumour of these discoveries, and of the great profit resulting from them, drew into Portugal a multitude of strangers, particularly Italians, who were then reckoned among the most skilful and experienced seamen. The prince received favorably all who were recommended to him by their superior knowledge of astronomy and navigation, and gladly availed himself of their talents and acquirements. In 1444 he sent Vicente de Lagos and Aloisio de Cada Mosto, the latter a Venetian gentleman, to examine the African seas. After visiting the Canary and Madeira islands, these navigators directed their course to Cape Blanco and the Gambia, where they found Antonio di Nola, a Genoese, examining that coast by the orders of the prince. They then joined company and returned home. Cada Mosto made a second voyage in 1446, and afterwards published an account of his voyages, which was read with great interest, and procured him deservedly a very high reputation.

He makes us acquainted with the great success which attended at the outset the colonies of Madeira and the Canary islands. The soil yielded seventy for one; and the vineyards and sugarplantations of Madeira had already become in the highest degree productive. Orchil for dyeing, and fine goat-skins were exported from Canary. The native Canarians were surprisingly agile, being accustomed to traverse the cliffs of their rugged mountains. They could skip from rock to rock like goats, and sometimes took leaps of surprising extent and danger. They threw stones with great strength and wonderful exactness, so as to hit whatever they aimed at with almost perfect certainty, and nearly with the force of a musket ball. The Canaries were tolerably populous previous to the arrival of the Portuguese; the Guanches or native inhabitants of the Great Canary being estimated at nine, and those of Teneriffe at fifteen thousand.

Respecting the Moors who inhabit the deserts opposite the island of Arguin, Cada Mosto relates that they frequent the country of the negroes, and also visit that side of Barbary which

is next the Mediterranean. On these expeditions they travel in numerous caravans, with great trains of camels, carrying silver, brass, and other articles, to Timbuctoo and the country of the negroes, whence they bring back gold and melhegatte or cardamum seeds. The Arabs of the coast had also many Barbary horses, which they brought to the country of the negroes, and bartered with the great men for slaves; receiving from ten to eighteen men for each horse, according to their qualities. Some of these slaves were sold in Tunis and other places on the coast of Barbary; and the rest were brought to Arguin, and disposed of to the licensed Portuguese traders, who purchased between seven and eight hundred every year, and sent them for sale into Portugal. Before the establishment of this trade at Arguin, the Portuguese used to send every year four or more caravels to the bay of Arguin, the crews of which, landing well armed in the night, used to surprise the fishing villages and carry off the inhabitants into slavery. They even penetrated sometimes a considerable way into the interior, and carried off the Arabs of both sexes, whom they sold as slaves in Portugal.

The wandering Arabs to the north of the Senegal are called, by Cada Mosto, Azanhaji, or wanderers of the desert. They had a singular custom of folding a handkerchief round their heads in such a manner that a part of it concealed the nose and mouth; for they deemed it improper to let their mouths be seen, except when eating. The Tuaricks, who inhabit the oases of the Great Desert, have the same custom, wrapping up their faces in such a manner as to conceal every feature but the eyes. Many of the Azanhaji informed our Venetian traveller, that when they first saw ships under sail, they took them for large birds with white wings that had come from foreign countries; but when the sails were furled, they conjectured, from their great length, and from their swimming on the water, that they must be great fishes. Others again believed that they were spirits that wandered about by night, because they were seen at anchor in the evening at one place, and would be seen next morning a hundred miles off, either proceeding along the coast towards the south, or putting back according to the wind, or other circumstances. They could not conceive how any thing human could travel more in one night than they themselves were able to perform in three days; by which consideration they were confirmed in the belief that the ships were spirits.

Cada Mosto was informed that there was a place called Tegazza, about six days' journey from Hoden, where large quantities of salt were dug up every year and carried on camels to Timbuctoo, and thence to the empire of Melli belonging to the negroes. On arriving there the merchants disposed of their

salt in the course of eight days, and then returned with their gold. He was assured, that in the countries under the equator certain seasons of the year were so excessively hot, that the blood of the inhabitants would putrefy if it were not for the salt, and they would all die. From Melli the salt was carried on men's heads to the border of a certain water,-whether sea, lake, or river, Cada Mosto was unable to ascertain. When arrived at the water-side, the proprietors of the salt placed their shares in heaps in a row at small distances, setting each a particular mark on his own heap; and this being done, the whole company retired half a day's journey from the place. Then the other negroes, who were the purchasers of the salt, and who seemed to be the inhabitants of certain islands, but who would not on any account allow themselves to be seen or spoken to, came in boats to the place where the heaps of salt were placed; and, after laying a sum of gold on each heap as its price, retired in their turn. When they were gone, the owners of the salt came back; and if the quantity on the heaps was satisfactory to them, they took it away and left the salt; if not, they left both and withdrew again. "In this manner," says Cada Mosto, "they carry on their traffic, without seeing or speaking to each other; and this custom is very ancient among them, as has been affirmed to me for truth by several merchants of the desert, both Moors and Azanhaji, and other creditable persons."

On approaching the Senegal, our voyager was astonished to find how abrupt a change appeared in the face of nature on passing from one side of that river to the other; "for on the south side of the river," he observes, "the inhabitants are all exceedingly black, tall, robust, and well-proportioned; and the country is all clothed in fine verdure and full of fruit-trees; whereas on the north side of the river the men are tawny, meagre, and of small stature, and the country is all dry and barren. This river," he adds, " is, in the opinion of the learned, a branch of the Gihon, which flows from the Terrestrial Paradise, and was named the Niger by the ancients, and which, running through the whole of Ethiopia, divides into many branches as it approaches the ocean in the West. The Nile, which is another branch of the Gihon, flows into the Mediterranean." This belief, that the chief rivers of Africa and Asia flowed from common sources in some distant Æthiopian land, seems to have suffered little change from the days of Lucan and Virgil to those of Cada Mosto.

About eighty miles beyond the Senegal our voyager arrived at the territory of a chief called Budomel, who appears to have been well known to the Portuguese as a great purchaser of European commodities. He received Cada Mosto with civility and attention; and the Venetian lived for four weeks on the

hospitality of the negroes. The table of Budomel, according to the custom of the country, was supplied by his wives, each of whom sent him a certain number of dishes every day. He and his nobles ate on the ground without any regularity or social forms. Cada Mosto once ventured to declare to him, in the presence of all his doctors, that the religion of Mahomet was false, and the Romish the only true faith: at this the Arabs were exceedingly enraged; but king Budomel only laughed, and observed, "that the religion of the Christians was unquestionably good, as none but God could have gifted them with so much riches and understanding;" but yet he added, with some show of reason, "that inasmuch as God is just, and the Christians possess all the good things of this life, the negroes have a better chance of inheriting the heavenly paradise." The women of this country appeared to the Venetian extremely pleasant and merry, especially the young ones: they delighted in singing and dancing by moonlight. Quitting the country of king Budomel, Cada Mosto doubled Cape Verd, and sailed to the south along the coast. "The land," he says, "is here all low, and full of fine large trees, which are continually green, as the new leaves are grown before the old ones fall off, and they never wither like the trees in Europe; they grow also so near the shore, that they seem to drink, as it were, the water of the sea. The coast is most beautiful, insomuch that I never saw any thing comparable to it, though I have sailed much in the Levant and in the western parts of Europe. It is well watered every where by small rivers, which are useless for trade, however, as they do not admit vessels of any size. The narrative of Cada Mosto is in itself extremely entertaining; and it also shows the complete success that attended the exertions of the Portuguese prince, who lived to receive from his own servants an accurate account of the negro countries, and to see a considerable trade and flourishing colonies, the worthy progeny of his enlightened

labours.

In the year 1449 king Alphonso granted a license to his uncle Don Henry to colonize the Azores, which had been discovered by the Flemings and the Portuguese some years before. The settlements made on the Cape Verd, the Madeira, and Canary islands, formed so many schools of seamen, and afforded numerous incidental opportunities for the promotion of maritime discoveries. Every year new expeditions were fitted out, and the limit of navigation to the south was uniformly though but slowly receding. Don Henry had resided for many years at Sagres on Cape St. Vincent, where the Atlantic, spread before his eyes, continually called up to his contemplation his favourite schemes of geographical discovery. In this favourite retreat he expired in 1463, in the sixty-seventh year of his age;

and the activity of maritime enterprise was in consequence suspended for some years.

During a long period of fifty-two years this patriotic prince devoted almost his whole attention, and the ample revenues which he enjoyed as duke of Viseo and grand master of the military order of Christ, to his favourite scheme of extending the maritime knowledge of his country and promoting the discovery of the coasts of Africa. No very brilliant success, indeed, at any time rewarded his perseverance or the courage of his servants; but he laid an indestructible foundation of useful knowledge, too solid to give way to the ignorant prejudices of the age; and he united so many plans of immediate utility with his great project of discovery, as prevented the latter from ever falling into oblivion. The labours of his life had succeeded only in discovering about fifteen hundred miles of coast, for none of his servants had reached before his death within six or eight degrees of the equator; but the numerous successive efforts made under his commands, prove his solid conviction of the possibility of extending the limits of navigation towards the south, and his unwearied perseverance in combating the obstacles that prevented the completion of his schemes.

CHAP. X.

THE PASSAGE BY THE CAPE DISCOVERED.

The Portuguese erect a Fort on the Gold Coast.-Their Interview with the native Prince.-The Pope's Grant.-Voyage of Diego Cam.-Visits Congo. -Brings home Natives.-King of Congo favours the Christian Faith.-The King of Benin desires Missionaries.-Prince Ogane.-Prester John in Africa. ---Origin of this Belief explained.-New Expeditions.-Bartholomew Diaz discovers the Cape of Good Hope.-Covilham and Payva despatched to India. -Covilham visits Sofala.-Ascertains the Practicability of the Passage.Detained in Abyssinia.-Vasco de Gama.-Arrival at Mozambique.-Quiloa. -Melinda.-Indian Pilot.-Reaches Calicut.-The Zamorin.-Arts of the Moors.-Danger of Gama.-Escapes.-Arrives at Lisbon.-His Reception.

AFTER the decease of Don Henry, the illustrious promoter of maritime discovery, the progress of the Portuguese along the coast of Africa received a considerable check, as the attention of Alphonso V. was wholly engrossed by his quarrels with the court of Castile. Ever since the year 1453 considerable importations of gold had been made to Portugal from the coast of Africa, but the efforts to extend discoveries further to the south appear to have been remitted about the same time. In 1469 a merchant named Fernando Gomez farmed the Guinea trade from king Alphonso for the yearly rent of five hundred ducats, and bound himself at the same time to extend the discovery of the