A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xviii Part 17

In the year 1335, Pegoletti, an Italian, wrote a system of commercial geography; in this, the route taken by the merchants who brought produce and manufactures from China to Azof is particularly described. "In the first place," he says, "from Azof to Astracan it is twenty-five days journey with waggons drawn by oxen; but with waggons by horses, only ten or twelve. From Astracan to Sara, by the river, one day; from Sara to Saracanco, on the north-east coast of the Caspian Sea, eight days by water; thence to Lake Aral, twenty days' journey with camels. At Organci on this lake there was much traffic. To Oltrarra on the Sihon, thirty-five or forty days, also with camels; to Almaley with a.s.ses, thirty-five days; to Camexu, seventy days with a.s.ses; to a river, supposed to be the Hoangho, in China, fifty days with horses; from this river the traveller may go to Ca.s.sai, to dispose of his loading of silver there, and from this place he travels through the whole of Cathay with the Chinese money he receives for his silver; to Gambelecco, Cambalu, or Pekin, the capital of Cathay, is thirty days' journey." So that the whole time occupied about 300 days. Each merchant generally carried with him silver and goods to the value of 25,000 gold ducats; the expence of the whole journey was from 300 to 350 ducats.

The other travellers of the fourteenth century, from whom we derive any information respecting Eastern geography and commerce, are Haitho, Oderic, and Sir John Mandeville; they add little, however, to the full and accurate details of Marco Polo, on which we can depend.

Haitho's work, comprehends the geography of the princ.i.p.al states of Asia; his information was derived from Mogul writings, the relation of Haitho I.

king of Armenia, who had been at the head quarters of Mangu Khan, and from his own personal knowledge.

Oderic is the first missionary upon record in India; the date of his journey is 1334; among much that is marvellous, his relations contain some extraordinary truths. He went, in company with other monks, as far as China. There is little new or valuable till he reaches the coast of Malabar: of the pepper trade on this coast he gives a clear and rational account. He next describes Sumatra and the adjacent islands, and mentions the sago tree. Respecting China, he informs us, among other things which are fabulous, that persons of high rank keep their nails extremely long, and that the feet of the women are very small. He expresses great surprise and admiration at the wealth of the cities through which he pa.s.sed on his return from Zartan to Pekin. Tartary and Thibet were visited by him, after leaving China; he mentions the high price of the rhubarb of the former country and the Dalai Lama of Thibet. In his voyages in India he sailed on board a vessel which carried 700 people,--a confirmation, as Dr. Vincent observes, of the account we have from the time of Agatharcides down to the sixteenth century,--which sailed from Guzerat and traversed the Indian Ocean.

Sir John Mandeville, an Englishman, in order to gratify his desire of seeing distant and foreign countries, served as a volunteer under the Sultan of Egypt and the Grand Khan of Cathai. He travelled through Turkey, Armenia, Egypt, Africa, Syria, Arabia, Persia, Chaldea, Ethiopia, Tartary, India, and China. There is, however, little information in his travels on our present subject. He represents the Venetians as not only trading regularly to Ormus, but sometimes even penetrating as for as Cambalu.

Famagusta, in Cyprus, according to him, was one of the most commercial places in the world, the resort of merchants of all nations, Christians and Mahomedans.

Some curious and interesting particulars on the subject of Oriental commerce are scattered in the travels of Clavigo, who formed part of an emba.s.sy sent by Henry III. of Castile to Tamerlane, in 1403. Clavigo returned to Spain in 1406. He pa.s.sed through Constantinople, which he represents as not one-third inhabited, up the Black Sea to Trebizond. Hence he traversed Armenia, the north of Persia, and Khorasan. Tauris, according to him, enjoyed a lucrative commerce: in its warehouses were an abundance of pearls, silk, cotton goods, and perfumed oils. Sultania also was a great mart for Indian commodities. Every year, between June and August, caravans arrived at this place. Cotton goods of all colours, and cotton yarn were brought from Khorasan; pearls and precious stones from Ormus; but the princ.i.p.al lading of the caravans consisted of spices of various kinds: at Sultania these were always found in great abundance, and of the best quality. From Tauris to Samarcand there were regular stations, at which horses were always ready to convey the orders of the khan or travellers. We are indebted to Clavigo for the first information of this new route of the commerce between India and Europe, by Sultania: it is supposed to have been adopted on the destruction of Bagdat by the Moguls; but we learn from other travellers that, towards the end of the fifteenth century, Sultania was remarkable for nothing besides the minarets of a mosque, which were made of metal, and displayed great taste and delicacy of workmanship.

Tamerlane lived in excessive magnificence and luxury at Samarcand; hither he had brought all his captives, who were expert in any kind of manufacture, especially in the silks of Damascus, and the sword cutlery of Turkey. To this city the Russians and Tartars brought leather, hides, furs, and cloth: silk goods, musk, pearls, precious stones, and rhubarb, were brought from China, or Cathay. Six months were occupied in bringing merchandize from Cambalu, the capital of Cathai, to Samarcand; two of these were spent in the deserts. Samarcand had also a trade with India, from which were received mace and other fine spices. Clavigo remarks, that such spices were never brought to Alexandria.

Schildeberger, a native of Munich, was taken prisoner by the Turks in 1394: he afterwards accompanied Tamerlane in his campaigns till the year 1406.

During this period, and his subsequent connexion with other Tartar chiefs, he visited various parts of central Asia. But as he had not an opportunity of writing down at the time what he saw and learnt, his narrative is neither full, nor altogether to be depended upon for its accuracy. He was, besides, illiterate, And therefore it is often extremely difficult to ascertain, from his orthography, what places he actually means to name or describe. With all these drawbacks and imperfections, however, there are a few points on which he gives credible and curious information. He particularizes the silk of Strana, and of Schirevan; and adds, that from the last the raw silk is sent to Damascus, and there manufactured into the stuffs or damasks, for which it was already so celebrated. Fine silk was produced at Bursa, and exported to Venice and Lucca, for the manufacture of velvet. It ought to be mentioned, that he takes no notice of Saray and Astrakan, the latter of which was taken and destroyed by Tamerlane, in 1395. The wild a.s.ses in the mountainous deserts, and the dogs which were harnessed to sledges, are particularly mentioned by this traveller.

The interior parts of the north of Asia were visited, in 1420, by the amba.s.sadors of the Emperor Tamerlane's son; and their journey is described in the Book of the Wonders of the World, written by the Persian historian, Emir Khond, from which it was translated into Dutch by Witsen, in his Norden Oste Tartarye. Their route was through Samarcand to Cathay. On entering this country, we are informed of a circ.u.mstance strikingly characteristic of Chinese policy and suspicion. Cathayan secretaries took down, in writing, the names of the amba.s.sadors, and the number of their suite. This was repeated at another place, the amba.s.sadors being earnestly requested to state the exact number of their servants; and the merchants, who were with him, having been put down by him under the description of servants, were, on that account, obliged to perform the particular duties under which they were described. Among the presents made by the emperor to the amba.s.sadors, tin is mentioned. Paper-money seems, at this period, to have given place to silver, which, however, from several circ.u.mstances mentioned, must have been very scarce.

From the travels of Josaphat Barbaro, an amba.s.sador from Venice, first to Tana (Azof), and then to Persia, some information may be drawn respecting the commerce of these parts of Asia, about the middle of the fifteenth century. He particularly describes the Wolga as being navigable to within three days' journey of Moscow, the inhabitants of which sail down it every year to Astrakan for salt. Astrakan was formerly a place of consequence and trade, but had been laid waste by Tamerlane. Russia is a fertile country, but extremely cold. Oxen and other beasts are carried to market in the winter, slaughtered, with their entrails taken out, and frozen so hard, that it is impossible to cut them up: they are very numerous and cheap. The only fruits are apples, nuts, and walnuts. Bossa, a kind of beer, is made in Russia. This liquor is still drank in Russia: it is made from millet, and is very inebriating. The drunkenness of the Russians is expressly and pointedly dwelt upon. Barbaro adds, that the grand duke, in order to check this vice, ordered that no more beer should be brewed, nor mead made, nor hops used. The Russians formerly paid tribute to Tartary; but they had lately conquered a country called Casan; to the left of the Wolga, in its descent. In this country a considerable trade is carried on, especially in furs, which are sent by way of Moscow to Poland, Prussia, and Flanders. The furs, however, are not the produce of Kasan, but of countries to the north-east, at a great distance.

Barbaro is very minute and circ.u.mstantial in his description of the manners, dress, food, &c. of the Georgians. He visited the princ.i.p.al towns of Persia. Schiraz contained 200,000 inhabitants. Yezd was distinguished and enriched by its silk manufactures.

CHAPTER V.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY AND COMMERCE, FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH TO THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

The improvement of mankind in knowledge and civilization evidently depends on the union of three circ.u.mstances,--enlarged and increased desires, obstacles in the way of obtaining the objects of these desires, and practicable means of overcoming or removing these obstacles. The history of mankind in all ages and countries justifies and ill.u.s.trates the truth of this remark; for though it is, especially in the early periods of it, very imperfect and obscure, and even in the later periods almost entirely confined to war and politics, still there are in it sufficient traces of the operation of all those three causes towards their improvement in knowledge and civilization.

That they operated in extending the progress of discovery and commerce is evident. We have already remarked that from the earliest periods, the commodities of the east attracted the desires of the western nations: the Arabians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans of the ancient world; the Italian and Hanseatic states of the middle ages, all endeavoured to enrich themselves by trading in commodities so eagerly and universally desired. As industry and skill increased, and as the means as well as the desire of purchase and enjoyment spread, by the rise of a middle cla.s.s in Europe, the demand for these commodities extended. The productions and manufactures of the north, as well as of the south of Europe, having been increased and improved, enabled the inhabitants of these countries to partic.i.p.ate in those articles from India, which, among the ancients, had been confined exclusively to the rich and powerful.

On the other hand, even at the very time that this enlarged demand for Indian commodities was taking place in Europe, and was accompanied by enlarged means as well as extended skill and expedience in discovery and commerce,--at this very time obstacles arose which threatened the almost entire exclusion of Europeans from the luxuries of Asia. It may well be doubted, whether, if the enemies of the Christian faith had not gained entire possession of all the routes to India, and moreover, if these routes had been rendered more easy of access and pa.s.sage, they could have long supplied the increased demands of improving Europe. But that Europe should, on the one hand, improve and feel enlarged desires as well as means of purchasing the luxuries of the east, while on the other hand, the practicability of acquiring these luxuries should diminish, formed a coincidence of circ.u.mstances, which was sure to produce important results.

As access to India by land, or even by the Arabian Gulf by sea, was rendered extremely difficult and hazardous by the enmity of the Mahometans, or productive of little commercial benefit by their exactions, the attention and hopes of European navigators were directed to a pa.s.sage to India along the western coast of Africa. As, however, the length and difficulties of such a voyage were extremely formidable, it would probably have been either not attempted at all, or have required much longer time to accomplish than it actually did, if, in addition and aid of increased desires and an enlarged commercial spirit, the means of navigating distant, extensive, and unknown seas, had not likewise been, about this period, greatly improved.

We allude, princ.i.p.ally, to the discovery of the mariners' compa.s.s. The first clear notice of it appears in a Provencal poet of the end of the twelfth century. In the thirteenth century it was used by the Norwegians in their voyages to and from Iceland, who made it the device of an order of knighthood of the highest rank; and from a pa.s.sage in Barber's Bruce, it must have been known in Scotland, if not used there in 1375, the period when he wrote. It is said to have been used in the Mediterranean voyages at the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century.

With respect to the nations of the east, it is doubted whether they derived their knowledge of it from the Europeans, or the Europeans from them. When we reflect on the long and perilous voyages of the Arabians, early in the Christian era, we might be led to think that they could not be performed without the a.s.sistance of the compa.s.s; but no mention of it, or allusion to it, occurs in the account of any of their voyages; and we are expressly informed by Nicolo di Conti, who sailed on board a native vessel in the Indian seas, about the year 1420, that the Arabians had no compa.s.s, but sailed by the stars of the southern pole; and that they knew how to measure their elevation, as well as to keep their reckoning, by day and night, with their distance from place to place. With respect to the Chinese, the point in dispute is not so easily determined: it is generally imagined, that they derived their knowledge of the compa.s.s from Europeans: but Lord Macartney, certainly a competent judge, has a.s.signed his reasons for believing that the Chinese compa.s.s is original, and not borrowed, in a dissertation annexed to Dr. Vincent's Periplus of the Erythrean Sea. At what period it was first known among them, cannot be ascertained; they pretend that it was known before the age of Confucius. That it was not brought from China to Europe by Marco Polo, as some writers a.s.sert, is evident from the circ.u.mstance that this traveller never mentions or alludes to it. The first scientific account of the properties of the magnet, as applicable to the mariner's compa.s.s, appears in a letter written by Peter Adsiger, in the year 1269. This letter is preserved among the ma.n.u.scripts of the university of Leyden; extracts from it are given by Cavallo, in the second edition of his Treatise on Magnetism. From these extracts it is evident that he was acquainted with the attraction, repulsion, and polarity of the magnet, the art of communicating those properties to iron, the variation of the magnetic needle; and there are even some indications that he was acquainted with the construction of the azimuth compa.s.s.

Next in importance and utility to the mariners' compa.s.s, in preparing the way for the great discoveries by which the fifteenth century is distinguished, maps and charts may be placed. For though, in general, they were constructed on very imperfect and erroneous notions of the form of the world, and the relative size and situation of different countries, yet occasionally there appeared maps which corrected some long established error, or supplied some new information; and even the errors of the maps, in some cases, not improbably held out inducements or hopes, which would not otherwise have been entertained and realized, as we have already remarked, after D'Anville, that the greatest of Ptolemy's errors proved eventually the efficient cause which led to the greatest discovery of the moderns.

Malte Brun divides the maps of the middle ages into two cla.s.ses: those in which the notions of Ptolemy and other ancient geographers are implicitly copied, and those in which new countries are inserted, which had been either discovered, or were supposed to exist.

In most of the maps of the first description, Europe, Asia, and Africa are laid down as forming one immense island, and Africa is not carried so far as the equator. One of the most celebrated of these maps was drawn up by Marin Sanuto, and inserted in his memorial presented to the pope and the princ.i.p.al sovereigns of Europe, for the purpose of persuading and shewing them, that if they would oblige their merchants to trade only through the dominions of the Caliphs of Bagdat, they would be better supplied and at a cheaper rate, and would have no longer to fear the Soldans of Egypt. This memorial with its maps was inserted in the Gesta Dei per Francos, as we are a.s.sured by the editor, from one of the original copies presented by Sanuto to some one of the princes. Hence, as Dr. Vincent remarks, it probably contains the oldest map of the world at this day extant, except the Peutingerian tables. Sanuto, as we have already noticed, in giving an abstract of the commercial information contained in his memorial, lived in 1324.

In the monastery of St. Michael di Murano, there is a planisphere, said to be drawn up in 1459, by Fra Mauro, which contains a report of a ship from India having pa.s.sed the extreme point south, 2000 miles towards the west and southwest in 1420.

Ramusio describes a map, supposed to be this, which he states to have been drawn up for the elucidation of Marco Polo's travels.

On this map, so far as it relates to the circ.u.mnavigation of Africa, Dr.

Vincent has given a dissertation, having procured a _fac-simile_ copy from Venice, which is deposited in the British Museum; the substance of this dissertation we shall here compress. He divides his dissertation into three parts. First, whether this was the map noticed by Ramusio, and by him supposed to be drawn up to elucidate the travels of Marco Polo. On this point he concludes that it was the map referred to by Ramusio, but that his information respecting it is not correct. The second point to be determined is, whether the map procured from Venice was really executed by Mauro, and whether it existed previous to the Portuguese discoveries on the west coast of Africa. Manro lived in the reign of Alphonso the Fifth, that is between 1438 and 1480; the whole of this map, therefore, is prior to Diaz and Gama, two celebrated Portuguese navigators. Consequently, if it can be proved that the map obtained by Dr. Vincent is genuine, it must have existed previous to the Portuguese discoveries. The proof of the genuineness of the map is derived from the date on the planisphere, 1459; the internal evidence on the work itself; and the fact that Alphonso, or Prince Henry of Portugal, who died in 1463, received a copy of this map from Venice, and deposited it in the monastery of Alcobaca, where it is still kept. The sum paid for this copy, and the account of expenditure, are detailed in a MS.

account in the monastery of St. Michael.

The third, and by far the most important part of Dr. Vincent's dissertation, examines what the map contains respecting the termination cf Africa to the south. On the first inspection of the map it is evident, that the author has not implicitly followed Ptolemy, as he professes to do. The centre of the habitable world is fixed at Bagdat. Asia and Europe he defines rationally, and Africa so far as regards its Mediterranean coast.

He a.s.signs two sources to the Nile, both in Abyssinia. On the east coast of Africa, he carries an arm of the sea between an island which he represents as of immense size, and the continent, obliquely as far nearly as the lat.i.tude and longitude of the Cape of Good Hope. This island he calls Diab, and the termination on the south, which he makes the extreme point of Africa, Cape Diab.

The great object of Mauro, in drawing up this map, was to encourage the Portuguese in the prosecution of their voyages to the south of Africa. This is known to be the fact from other sources, and the construction of the map, as well as some of the notices and remarks, which are inserted in its margin, form additional evidence that this was the case. Two pa.s.sages, as Dr. Vincent observes, will set this in the clearest light. The first is inserted at Cape Diab; "here," says the author, about the year 1420, "an Indian vessel, on her pa.s.sage across the Indian ocean was caught by a storm, and carried 2000 miles beyond this Cape to the west and south-west; she was seventy days in returning to the Cape." This the author regards as a full proof that Africa was circ.u.mnavigable on the south.

In the second pa.s.sage, inserted on the margin, after observing that the Portuguese had been round the continent of Africa, more than 2000 miles to the south-west beyond the Straits of Gibraltar; that they found the navigation easy and safe, and had made charts of their discoveries; he adds, that he had talked with a person worthy of credit, who a.s.sured him he had been carried by bad weather, in an Indian ship, out of the Indian Ocean, for forty days, beyond Cape Sofala and the Green Islands, towards the west and south-west, and that in the opinion of the astronomer on board, (such as all Indian ships carry,) they had been hurried away 2000 miles. He concludes by expressing his firm belief that the sea surrounding the southern and south-eastern part of the world is navigable; and that the Indian Sea is ocean, and not a lake. We may observe, by the bye, that in another pa.s.sage inserted in the margin, he expressly declares that the Indian ships had no compa.s.s, but were directed by an astronomer on board, who was continually making his observations.

It is evident that the two accounts are at variance, as the first a.s.serts that the pa.s.sage was round Cape Diab, at the termination of Africa, and the second that it was round Cape Sofala, fifteen degrees to the north of the extremity of this quarter of the world: but without attempting to reconcile this contradiction, it is abundantly evident that Mauro, by noticing the Portuguese navigators, as having reached 2000 miles to the south of Gibraltar, and adding that 2000 miles more of the coast of Africa had been explored by an Indian ship, meant to encourage the further enterprises of the Portuguese, by the natural inference that a very small s.p.a.ce of unsailed sea must lie between the two lines, which were the limits of the navigation of the Portuguese and Indian vessel. The unexplored s.p.a.ce was indeed much greater than Mauro estimated and represented it in his map to be; but, as Dr. Vincent remarks, his error in this respect manifestly contributed to the prosecution of the Portuguese designs, as the error of the ancient geographers, in approximating China to Europe, produced the discovery of America by Columbus.

We have dwelt thus long on the map of Mauro, as being by far the most important of the maps of the second description, or those in which were inserted real or supposed discoveries. The rest of this description require little notice.

A map of the date of 1346, in Castilian, represents Cape Bojada in Africa as known, and having been doubled at that period. A ma.n.u.script, preserved at Genoa, mentions that a ship had sailed from Majorca to a river called Vedamel, or Rui Jaura (probably Rio-do-Ouro,) but her fate was not known.

The Genoese historians relate that two of their countrymen in 1291, attempted to reach India by the west; the fate of this enterprize is also unknown. The Canary Islands, the first discovery of which is supposed to have taken place before the Christian era, and which were never afterwards completely lost sight of, being described by the Arabian geographers, appear in a Castilian map of 1346. Teneriffe is called in this map Inferno, in conformity with the popular notion of the ancients, that these islands were the seat of the blessed. In a map of 1384, there is an island called Isola-di-legname, or the Isle of Wood, which, from this appellation, and its situation, is supposed by some geographers to be the island of Madeira.

It would seem that some notions respecting the Azores were obscurely entertained towards the end of the fourteenth century, as islands nearly in their position are laid down in the maps of 1380.

In the library of St. Marc, at Venice, there is a map drawn by Bianco, in 1436. In it the ancient world is represented as forming one great continent, divided into two unequal parts by the Mediterranean, and by the Indian Ocean, which is carried from east to west, and comprises a great number of islands. Africa stretches from west to east parallel to Europe and Asia, but it terminates to the north of the equator. The peninsula of India and the Gulf of Bengal scarcely appear. The eastern part of Asia consists of two great peninsulas, divided by an immense gulf. Then appear Cathai, Samarcand, and some other places, the names of which are unintelligible. All the kingdoms of Europe are laid down except Poland and Hungary. To the west of the Canaries, a large tract of country is laid down under the appellation of Ant.i.tia; some geographers have maintained that by this America was indicated, but there does not appear any ground for this belief.

Having offered these preliminary and preparatory observations, we shall now proceed to the discoveries of the Portuguese. From the slight sketch which has already been given of the progress of geography and commerce, between the time of Ptolemy and the fifteenth century, it appears that the Portuguese had distinguished themselves less, perhaps, than any other European nation, in these pursuits; but, long before the beginning of the fifteenth century, circ.u.mstances had occurred, connected with their history, which were preparing the way for their maritime enterprizes. So early as the year 1250, the Portuguese had succeeded in driving the Moors out of their country; and, in order to prevent them from again disturbing them, they in their turn invaded Fez and Morocco, and having conquered Ceuta in 1415, fortified it, and several harbours near it, on the sh.o.r.es of the Atlantic. So zealous were the Portuguese in their enterprizes against the Moors, that the ladies of Lisbon partook in the general enthusiasm, and refused to bestow their hand on any man who had not signalized his courage on the coast of Africa, The spirit of the nation was largely partic.i.p.ated by Prince Henry, the fifth son of John I., king of Portugal, who took up his residence near Cape St. Vincent, in the year 1406. The sole pa.s.sion and object of his mind was to further the advancement of his country in navigation and discovery: his regard for religion led him to endeavour to destroy or diminish the power of the Mahometans; and his patriotism to acquire for Portugal that Indian commerce, which had enriched the maritime states of Italy. He sought every means and opportunity by which he could increase or render more accurate his information respecting the western coast, and the interior of Africa: and it is probable that the relations of certain Jews and Arabs, respecting the gold mines of Guinea, weighed strongly with him in the enterprizes which he planned, encouraged, and accomplished.

It is not true, however, that he was the inventor of the astrolobe and the compa.s.s, or the first that put these instruments into the hands of navigators, though he undoubtedly was an excellent mathematician, and procured the best charts and instruments of the age: the use and application of these, he taught in the best manner to those he selected to command his ships.

With respect to the compa.s.s, we have already stated all that is certainly known respecting its earliest application to the purposes of navigation.

The sea astrolobe, which is an instrument for taking the alt.i.tude of the sun, stars, &c., is described by Chaucer, in 1391, in a treatise on it, addressed to his little son, Louis; and Purchas informs us, that it was formerly applied only to astronomical purposes, but was accommodated to the use of seamen by Martin Behaim, at the command of John II., king of Portugal, about the year 1487.

About the year 1418, when Prince Henry first began his plan of discovery, Cape Nun, in lat.i.tude 28 40', was the limit of European knowledge on the coast of Africa. With this part of the coast, the Portuguese had become acquainted in consequence of their wars with the Moors of Barbary. In 1418, two of Henry's commanders reached Cape Boyada in lat.i.tute 26 30'; but the Cape was not actually doubled till 1434. The Canary islands were visited during the same voyage that the Cape was discovered: Madeira was likewise visited or discovered; it was first called St. Laurence, after the saint of the day on which it was seen, and afterwards Madeira, on account of its woods. In 1420, the Portuguese set fire to these woods, and afterwards planted the sugar cane, which they brought from Sicily, and the vines which they brought from Cyprus. Saw mills were likewise erected on it.

About the year 1432, Gonzalos was sent with two small vessels to the coast of Africa on new discoveries. In 1434, Cape Boyada was doubled: in 1442, the Portuguese had advanced as far as Rio-do-Ouro, under the tropic of Cancer. On the return of the ships from this voyage, the inhabitants of Lisbon first saw, with astonishment, negroes of a jet black complexion, and woolly hair, quite different from the slaves which had been hitherto brought from Africa; for, before this time, they had seized, and sold as slaves, the tawny Moors, which they met with on the coast of Africa. In the year 1442, however, some of these had been redeemed by their friends, in exchange for negroes and gold dust. This last article stimulated the avarice of the Portuguese to greater exertions, than Prince Henry had been able to excite, and an African company was immediately formed to obtain it, slaves, &c.; but their commerce was exclusively confined to the coast of Africa, to the south of Sierra Leone. Dr. Vincent justly remarks, that Henry had stood alone for almost forty years, and had he fallen before these few ounces of gold reached his country, the spirit of discovery might have perished with him, and his designs might have been condemned as the dreams of a visionary. The importation of this gold, and the establishment of the African company in Portugal, to continue the remark of the same author, is the primary date, to which we may refer that turn for adventure which sprung up in Europe, which pervaded all the ardent spirits in every country for the two succeeding centuries, and which never ceased till it had united the four quarters of the globe in commercial intercourse.

In 1445, the Portuguese reached Senegal, where they first saw Pagan negroes: in 1448 and 1449, their discoveries extended to Cape Verd. The islands of that name were discovered in 1456. The exact extent of their discoveries from this time till 1463, when Prince Henry died, is not certainly known. According to some, Cape Verd, or Rio Grande, was the limit; according to others, one navigator reached as far as the coast of Guinea, and Cape Mesanado: some extend the limit even as far south as the equator. a.s.suming, however, Rio Grande as the limit of the discoveries made in Prince Henry's time, Rio Grande is in lat.i.tude 11 north, and the straits of Gibraltar in lat.i.tude 36 north; the Portuguese had therefore advanced 25 degrees to the south; that is 1500 geographical, or 1750 British miles, which, with the circuit of the coast, may be estimated at 2000 miles.

For nearly 20 years after the death of Prince Henry, little progress was made by the Portuguese in advancing to the south. At the time of the death of Alonzo, in 1481, they had pa.s.sed the equator, and reached Cape St.

Catherine; in lat.i.tude S. 2 30'. The island of St. Thomas under the line, which was discovered in 1471, was immediately planted with sugar cane; and a fort, which was built the same year on the gold coast, enabled them to extend their knowledge of this part of Africa to a little distance inland.

Portugal now began to reap the fruits of her discoveries: bees' wax, ostrich feathers, negro slaves, and particularly gold, were imported, on all of which the profits were so great, that John II., who succeeded Alonzo, immediately on his accession, sent out 12 ships to Guinea; and in 1483, two other vessels were sent, which in the following year reached Congo, and penetrated to 22 south. The river Zaire in this part of Africa was discovered, and many of the inhabitants of the country through which it flows embarked voluntarily for Portugal. Benin was discovered about the same time; here they found a species of spice, which was imported in great quant.i.ties into Europe, and sold as pepper: it was, however, nothing else but grains of paradise. The inhabitants of Benin must have had considerable traffic far into the interior of Africa, for from them the Portuguese first received accounts of Abyssinia. By the discovery and conquest of Benin and Congo, the Portuguese traffic in slaves was much extended, but at the same time it took another character for a short time; for the love of gold being stronger than the hope of gain they might derive from the sale of negroes, (for which, indeed, till the discovery of the West Indies there was little demand,) the Portuguese used to exchange the natives they captured for gold with the Moors, till John II. put an end to this traffic, under the pretence that by means of it, the opportunity of converting the negroes was lost, as they were thus delivered into the hands of Infidels. About eighty years after Prince Henry began his discoveries, John I. sent out Diaz with three ships: this was in 1486, and in the following year Covilham was sent by the same monarch in search of India, by the route of Egypt and the Red Sea.

The king displayed great judgment in the selection of both these persons.

Diaz was of a family, several members of which had already signalized themselves by the discoveries on the coast of Africa. His mode of conducting the enterprize on which he was sent, proved at once his confidence in himself, his courage, and his skill; after reaching 24 south lat.i.tude, 120 leagues beyond any former navigator, he stood right out to sea, and never came within sight of the coast again, till he had reached 40 degrees to the eastward of the Cape, which, however, he was much too far out at sea to discover. He persevered in stretching still farther east, after he made land, till at length he reached the river Del Infante, six degrees to the eastward of the most southern point of Africa, and almost a degree beyond the Cape of Good Hope. He then resolved to return, for what reason is not known; and on his return, he saw the Cape of Good Hope, to which, on account of the storms he encountered on his pa.s.sage round it, he gave the appellation of Cabo Tormentoso. John II., however, augured so well from the doubling of the extremity of Africa having been accomplished, that he changed its name into that of the Cape of Good Hope.

As soon as John II. ascended the throne, he sent two friars and a layman to Jerusalem, with instructions to gain whatever information they could respecting India and Prester John from the pilgrims who resorted to that city, and, if necessary, to proceed further to the east. As, however, none of this party understood Arabic, they were of little use, and in fact did not go beyond Jerusalem. In 1487, the king sent Covilham and Paayva on the same mission: the former had served in Africa as a soldier, and was intimately acquainted with Arabic. In order to facilitate this enterprise, Covilham was entrusted with a map, drawn up by two Jews, which most probably was a copy of the map of Mauro, of which we have already spoken.

On this map, a pa.s.sage round the south of Africa was laid down as having been actually accomplished, and Covilham was directed to reach Abyssinia, if possible; and ascertain there or elsewhere, whether such a pa.s.sage did really exist. Covilham went from Naples to Alexandria, and thence to Cairo.

At this city he formed an acquaintance with some merchants of Fez and Barbary, and in their company went to Aden. Here he embarked and visited Goa, Calicut, and other commercial cities of India, where he saw pepper and ginger, and heard of cloves and cinnamon. From India he returned to the east coast of Africa, down which he went as low as Sofala, "the last residence of the Arabs, and the limit of their knowledge in that age, as it had been in the age of the Periplus." He visited the gold mines in the vicinity of this place: and here he also learnt all the Arabs knew respecting the southern part of Africa, viz. that the sea was navigable to the south-west (and this indeed their countrymen believed, when the author of the Periplus visited them); but they knew not where the sea terminated.

At Sofala also Covilham gained some information respecting the island of the Moon, or Madagascar. He returned to Cairo, by Zeila, Aden, and Tor. At Cairo, he sent an account of the intelligence to the king, and in the letter which contained it, he added, "that the ships which sailed down the coast of Guinea, might be sure of reaching the termination of the continent, by persisting in a course to the south, and that when they should arrive in the eastern ocean, their best direction must be to enquire for Sofala and the island of the Moon."