Well known, however, as this great thoroughfare is at the present time, there was only a conjecture that it might exist in those early days; for the ships of the Europeans had only proceeded a very short distance down the African coast, to a certain cape called Cape Non, and nobody knew at all what was beyond this boundary.

The other route by which it was thought that a passage to India by sea might possibly be found will be mentioned further on.

PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL.

Among the personages who took the greatest interest in the voyages of exploration and discovery made in those days was Prince Henry, the fourth son of John I., King of Portugal. By reference to the chart at the commencement of the next chapter it will be seen that Cape St. Vincent is the southwestern extremity of Portugal. It is a lofty promontory overlooking the sea. Near it is the small seaport of Sagres. Prince Henry made some voyages to Africa in connection with his father's expeditions to that country, and he became so much interested in navigation and in the sea that he left the court at Lisbon and took up his residence near the port of Sagres, on the high land, whence he could look off at all times over the

ocean which he so much loved, and where, too, in the little port below he could fit out his ships and plan and arrange his nautical enterprises. In the end he devoted his life to organizing and sending forth expeditions of discovery. Most of these expeditions were sent down the coast of Africa with a view of reaching the southernmost extremity of the continent, and there finding an open way through the sea to India.

The mariner's compass was not yet known, and so the ships, in making these voyages, were compelled to keep near the shore, and to advance in a very slow and cautious manner. Sometimes, however, the winds and the waves helped them to a sudden and rapid stride in their progress of discovery, though perhaps much against their will. The very first ship, for instance, that Prince Henry sent out, was driven off from the coast by a squall, and after scudding over the waves for three or four hundred miles the mariners came in sight of an island, where they obtained refuge from the gale. They named the island Porto Santo, and then returned home to report what they had discovered.

A colony was sent out to take possession of this island, and while they were making their settlement they saw far to the southward of them a small spot in the horizon. It was the summit of

another island. They sailed to it and found the island of Madeira, which was a very much greater prize than the one which they had first discovered.

These successes, when they were reported to Prince Henry, encouraged him very much, and in fact awakened a great enthusiasm throughout the whole of western Europe. Nothing was talked of or thought of but voyages for exploring unknown seas. Adventurous nobles and grandees began to form schemes for becoming governors of islands which they were to discover. Merchants formed companies, and sea captains studied maps and charts, and advanced innumerable theories and conjectures in respect to the conformation of the land and sea, and the direction in which new territories might be expected to be found.

DISCOVERY OF THE PASSAGE ROUND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

This state of things continued for a long period, during which every successive voyage was extended further and further south, and yet so slow was the progress made that it was more than fifty years before the Portuguese navigators reached the Cape of Good Hope. As they went on making voyage after voyage, each one extending a little further to the southward than the preceding, they were con

tinually more and more surprised at the immense extent of the continent whose shores they were exploring. The line of coast seemed to stretch on interminably before them. Each new cape which they reached they hoped would be the last; but as soon as they had doubled it, and opened the view beyond, they always saw another bringing its dim outline into view, in the haze of the distant horizon, to mock and disappoint them.

At length, when a voyager came in sight of the real termination of the land, he found a lofty promontory, around which the winds and storms were raging with such violence that he did not dare to proceed. So he named the point the Cape of Storms, and returned. The king, however, to whom he reported the result of his voyage--for this was after Prince Henry's day-said that he believed, or at least hoped, that this promontory was the last. So he named it the Cape of Good Hope, and as the hopes which it thus awakened proved afterward to be well founded, the cape has retained the name which was thus given to it to the present day.

IDEAS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

Christopher Columbus was one of the navigators who was attracted to the western part of Europe

by the interest which was everywhere felt in the Portuguese expeditions. He was born in Genoa. Indeed, all the best sailors in those days came from the great Italian sea-ports. Columbus was a thoughtful, serious-minded man, of very calm and quiet demeanor, but endued with a spirit of indomitable energy and perseverance. He made various voyages in the early part of his life, of the particulars of which not much is known. But wherever he went his mind was intent upon obtaining information in every possible way in respect to the form of the earth, to the question whether there might be other lands in existence yet unknown, and if so, in what direction they were to be sought, and also more especially in respect to the possibility of finding a way to India by steering due west from Europe, and so entirely circumnavigating the globe.

Columbus had arrived at middle age before he began seriously to think of making voyages of discovery; and while he was at Lisbon, making endeavors to awaken an interest in the subject there, he formed the acquaintance of a young lady, whom he first saw at a convent chapel where he was accustomed to attend divine service. He was soon afterward married to this lady. Her name was Philippa Palestrello. Her father had been a dis