I.

it had been lately introduced. These throve fo BOOK profperously in this new country, that the benefit of cultivating them was immediately perceived, and the fugar and wine of Madeira quickly became articles of fome confequence in the commerce of Portugal *.

Саре Воја

As foon as the advantages derived from this first settlement to the weft of the European continent began to be felt, the fpirit of discovery appeared less chimerical, and became more adventurous. By their voyages to Madeira, the Portuguese were gradually accustomed to a bolder navigation, and instead of creeping fervilely along the coaft, ventured into the open fea. In confequence of taking this courfe, Gili- Double anez, who commanded one of Prince Henry's dor. fhips, doubled Cape Bojador, the boundary of the Portuguese navigation upwards of twenty years, and which had hitherto been deemed unpaffable. This fuccefsful voyage, which the ignorance of the age placed on a level with the most famous exploits recorded in history, opened a new sphere to navigation, as it discovered the vast continent of Africa, still washed by the Atlantic ocean, and ftretching towards the south. Part of this was foon explored; the Portuguese

Lud. Guicciardini Defcritt. de Paefi Baffi, p. 180, 181. advanced

VOL. I.

F

1433.

200K advanced within the tropics, and in the fpace of

Advance

-- a few years they difcovered the river Senegal, and all the coaft extending from Cape Blanco to Cape de Verd.

hin the

ts.

Alonifhed

a what they of covered

there.

HITHERTO the Portuguese had been guided in their difcoveries, or encouraged to attempt them, by the light and information which they received from the works of the ancient mathematicians and geographers. But, when they began to enter the torrid zone, the notion which prevailed among the ancients, that the heat, which reigned perpetually there, was fo exceffive as to render it uninhabitable, deterred them, for fome time, from proceeding. Their own obfervations, when they firft ventured into this unknown and formidable region, tended to confirm the opinion of antiquity concerning the violent operation of the direct rays of the fun. As far as the river Senegal, the Portuguese had found the coaft of Africa inhabited by people nearly refembling the Moors of Barbary. When they advanced to the fouth of that river, the human form feemed to put on a new appearance. They beheld men with fkins black as ebony, with fhort curled hair, flat noses, thick lips, and all the peculiar features which are now known to diftinguifh the race of negroes. This furprising alteration they naturally attributed to

the

I.

the influence of heat, and if they should advance BOOK ncarer to the line, they began to dread that its effects would be still more violent. Thofe dangers' were exaggerated, and many other objections against attempting farther difcoveries were propofed by fome of the grandees, who, from ignorance, from envy, or from that cold timid prudence which rejects whatever has the air of novelty or enterprife, had hitherto condemned. all Prince Henry's fchemes. They reprefented, that it was altogether chimerical to expect any advantage from countries fituated in that region which the wisdom and experience of antiquity had pronounced to be unfit for the habitation of men; that their forefathers, fatisfied with cultivating the territory which Providence had allotted them, did not waste the ftrength of the kingdom by fruitless projects, in queft of new settle ments; that Portugal was already exhausted by the expence of attempts to difcover lands which either did not exift, or which nature deftined to remain unknown; and was drained of men, who might have been employed in undertakings attended with more certain fuccefs, and productive of greater benefit. But neither their appeal to the authority of the ancients, nor their reafonings concerning the interests of Portugal, made any impreffion upon the determined philofophic mind of Prince Henry. The difcoveries which

he

BOOK he had already made convinced him that the 1. ancients had little more than a conjectural

1438.

Papal grant to P› tugal of what

fhould dif

cover.

knowledge of the torrid zone. He was no lefs fatisfied that the political arguments of his opponents, with respect to the interest of Portugal, were malevolent and ill-founded. In thofe fentiments he was ftrenuoufly fupported by his brother Pedro, who governed the kingdom as guardian of their nephew Alphonfo V. who had fucceeded to the throne during his minority; and inftead of flackening his efforts, Henry continued to purfue his discoveries with fresh ardour.

BUT, in order to filence all the murmurs of oppofition, he endeavoured to obtain the fanction countries it of the highest authority in favour of his operations. With this view he applied to the Pope, and reprefented, in pompous terms, the pious and unwearied zeal with which he had exerted himself during twenty years, in difcovering unknown countries, the wretched inhabitants of which were utter ftrangers to true religion, wandering in heathen darkness, or led aftray by the delufions of Mahomet. He befought the holy father, to whom, as the vicar of Christ, all the kingdoms of the earth were fubject, to confer on the crown of Portugal a right to all the countries poffeffed by Infidels, which should be discovered

by

by the industry of its subjects, and subdued by the force of its arms. He intreated him to enjoin all Chriftian powers, under the highest penalties, not to moleft Portugal while engaged in this laudable enterprife, and to prohibit them from fettling in any of the countries which the Portuguese should discover. He promised that, in all their expeditions, it fhould be the chief object of his countrymen to spread the knowledge of the Christian religion, to establish the authority of the holy fee, and to increase the flock of the univerfal paftor. As it was by improving with dexterity every favourable conjuncture for acquiring new powers, that the court of Rome had gradually extended its ufurpations, Eugene IV. the Pontiff to whom this application was made, eagerly feized the opportunity which now prefented itself. He inftantly perceived, that by complying with Prince Henry's request, he might exercise a prerogative no lefs flattering in its own nature, than likely to prove beneficial in its confequences. A bull was accordingly iffued, in which, after applauding in the strongest terms the past efforts of the Portuguese, and exhorting them to proceed in that laudable career on which they had entered, he granted them an exclusive right to all the countries which they should difcover, from Cape Non to the continent of India.

BOOK
I.