1.

ficial invention from producing its full effect BOOK inftantaneously. Men relinquifh ancient habits flowly, and with reluctance. They are averse to new experiments, and venture upon them with timidity. The commercial jealousy of the Italians, it is probable, laboured to conceal the happy discovery of their countryman from other nations. The art of fteering by the compafs with fuch skill and accuracy as to inspire a full confidence in its direction, was acquired gradually. Sailors, unaccustomed to quit fight of land, durft not launch out at once and commit themselves to unknown feas. Accordingly, near half a century elapsed from the time of Gioia's discovery, before navigators ventured into any feas which they had not been accustomed to frequent.

THE first appearance of a bolder fpirit may be dated from the voyages of the Spaniards to the Canary or Fortunate Iflands. By what accident

they were led to the difcovery of thofe fmall ifles, which lie near five hundred miles from the Spanish coaft, and above a hundred and fifty miles from the coaft of Africa, contemporary writers have not explained. But, about the middle of the fourteenth century, the people of all the different kingdoms into which Spain was then divided, were accustomed to make pira

Some ap

pearance of

a bolder

fpirit in navigation.

I.

BOOK tical excurfions thither, in order to plunder the inhabitants, or to carry them off as flaves. Clement VI. in virtue of the right claimed by the holy fee, to difpofe of all countries poffeffed by infidels, erected those ifles into a kingdom, in the year one thousand three hundred and forty-four, and conferred it on Lewis de la Cerda, defcended from the royal family of Caftile. But that unfortunate prince, deftitute of power to affert his nominal title, having never visited the Canaries, John de Bethencourt, a Norman baron, obtained a grant of them from Henry III. of Caftiles. Bethencourt, with the valour and good fortune which distinguished the adventurers of his country, attempted and effected the conqueft, and the poffeffion of the Canaries remained for fome time in his family, as a fief held of the crown of Caftile. Previous to this expedition of Bethencourt, his countrymen fettled in Normandy are faid to have vifited the coast of Africa, and to have proceeded far to the fouth of the Canary islands. But their voyages thither feem not to have been undertaken in confequence of any public or regular plan for extending navigation and attempting new difcoveries. They were either excurfions fuggefted by that roving piratical fpirit, which defcended to the Normans from their ancestors, or the commercial enter.

1365.

• Viera y Clavijo Notic. de la Hiftor. de Canaria, I. 268, &c. Glas Hift. c. 1.

prises

I.

prifes of private merchants, which attracted fo BOOK little notice, that hardly any memorial of them is to be found in contemporary authors. In a general furvey of the progrefs of difcovery, it is fufficient to have mentioned this event; and leaving it among thofe of dubious existence, or of fmall importance, we may conclude, that though much additional information concerning the remote regions of the Eaft had been received by travellers who vifited them by land, navigation, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, had not advanced beyond the ftate to which it had attained before the downfal of the Roman empire.

1

First regu

lar plan of difcovery,

AT length the period arrived, when Providence decreed that men were to pass the limits. within which they had been fo long confined, and open to themselves a more ample field wherein to difplay their talents, their enterprise, and courage. The firft confiderable efforts towards this were not made by any of the more powerful ftates of Europe, or by those who had applied to navigation with the greatest affiduity and fuccefs. The glory of leading the way in this new career was referved for Portugal, one of the fmalleft formed by and least powerful of the European kingdoms. guefe. As the attempts of the Portuguese to acquire the knowledge of those parts of the globe with which

E 4

the Portu

BOOK which mankind were then unacquainted, not

I.

Circum

ftances

to this.

only improved and extended the art of naviga tion, but roused fuch a fpirit of curiofity and enterprise, as led to the difcovery of the New World, of which I propose to write the history, it is neceffary to take a full view of the rife, the progrefs, and fuccefs of their various naval ope, rations- It was in this fchool that the discoverer of America was trained; and unlefs we trace the steps by which his inftructors and guides advanced, it will be impoffible to comprehend the circumftances which fuggefted the idea, or facilitated the execution of his great defign.

VARIOUS circumftances prompted the Portuwhich led guefe to exert their activity in this new direc tion, and enabled them to accomplish undertakings apparently fuperior to the natural force of their monarchy. The kings of Portugal, having driven the Moors out of their dominions, had acquired power, as well as glory, by the fuccefs of their arms against the infidels. By their victories over them, they had extended the royal authority beyond the narrow limits within which it was originally circumfcribed in Portugal, as well as in other feudal kingdoms. They had the command of the na tional force, could rouse it to act with united vigour, and, after the expulfion of the Moors,

could

4

1

petual hoftilities carried on for feveral centuries against the Mahometans, the martial and adven turous fpirit which diftinguifhed all the European nations during the middle ages, was im proved and heightened among the Portuguese, A fierce civil war towards the clofe of the four. teenth century, occafioned by a difputed fucceffion, augmented the military ardour of the nation, and formed or called forth men of fuch active and daring genius, as are fit for bold undertakings. The fituation of the kingdom, bounded on every fide by the dominions of a more powerful neighbour, did not afford free fcope to the activity of the Portuguese by land, as the strength of their monarchy was no match for that of Caftile. But Portugal was a maritime state, in which there were many commodious harbours; the people had begun to make fome progress in the knowledge and practice of navigation; and the fea was open to them, prefenting the only field of enterprife in which they could diftinguish themselves.

I.

tempt.

SUCH was the state of Portugal, and fuch the First atdifpofition of the people, when John I. furnamed the Bastard, obtained fecure poffeffion of the crown by the peace concluded with Caftile, in

the