No More Learning

The Hanse Towns had received charters of liberty, and had united
together for the protection of their trade against the pirates of the
Baltic. The Lombards had opened a lucrative traffic with the ports of
Egypt, from whence they imported into Europe the riches of India; and
Bruges, the mart between them and the Hanse Towns, was, in consequence,
surrounded with the best agriculture of these ages,[43] a certain proof
of the dependence of agriculture upon the extent of commerce. The Hanse
Towns were liable, however, to be buried in the victories of a tyrant,
and the trade with Egypt was exceedingly insecure and precarious. Europe
was still enveloped in the dark mists of ignorance; commerce still
crept, in an infant state, along the coasts, nor were the ships adapted
for long voyages. A successful tyrant might have overwhelmed the system
of commerce entirely, for it stood on a much narrower basis than in the
days of Phoenician and Greek colonization. A broader and more permanent
foundation of commerce than the world had yet seen was wanting to bless
mankind, and Henry, Duke of Viseo, was born to give it.

In order to promote his designs, Prince Henry was appointed
Commander-in-chief of the Portuguese forces in Africa. He had already,
in 1412, three years before the reduction of Ceuta,[44] sent a ship to
make discoveries on the Barbary coast. Cape Nam[45] (as its name
implies) was then the _ne plus ultra_ of European navigation; the ship
sent by Henry, however, passed it sixty leagues, and reached Cape
Bojador. About a league and a half from Cape St. Vincent (supposed to be
the Promontorium Sacrum of the Romans), Prince Henry built his town of
Sagrez, the best planned and fortified town in Portugal. Here, where the
view of the ocean inspired his hopes, he erected his arsenals, and built
and harboured his ships. And here, leaving the temporary bustle and
cares of the State to his father and brothers, he retired like a
philosopher from the world in order to promote its happiness. Having
received all the information he could obtain in Africa, he continued
unwearied in his mathematical and geographical studies; the art of
ship-building received amazing improvement under his direction, and the
correctness of his ideas of the structure of the globe is now confirmed.
He it was who first suggested the use of the mariner's compass, and of
longitude and latitude in navigation, and demonstrated how these might
be ascertained by astronomical observations.
Naval adventurers were now
invited from all parts to the town of Sagrez, and in 1418 Juan Gonsalez
Zarco and Tristran Vaz set sail on an expedition of discovery, the
circumstances of which give us a striking picture of the state of
navigation ere it was remodelled by the genius of Henry.

Cape Bojador, so named from its extent,[46] runs about forty leagues to
the westward, and for about six leagues off land there is a most violent
current, which, dashing upon the shallows, makes a tempestuous sea. This
was deemed impassable, for it had not occurred to any one that by
standing out to sea the current might be avoided. To pass this
formidable Cape was the commission of Zarco and Vaz, who were also
ordered to survey the African coast, which, according to the information
given to Henry by the Moors, extended to the Equator. Zarco and Vaz,
however, lost their course in a storm, and were driven to a small
island, which, in the joy of their deliverance, they named Puerto Santo,
or the Holy Haven. Nor was Prince Henry less joyful of their discovery
than they had been of their escape: sufficient proof of the miserable
state of navigation in those days; for this island is only a few days'
voyage from Sagrez.

The discoverers of Puerto Santo, accompanied by Bartholomew Perestrello,
were, with three ships, sent out on farther trial. Perestrello, having
sown some seeds and left some cattle at Puerto Santo, returned to
Portugal. [47] Zarco and Vaz directing their course southward, in 1419,
perceived something like a cloud on the water, and sailing towards it,
discovered an island covered with woods, which from this circumstance
they named Madeira. [48] And this rich and beautiful island was the first
reward of the enterprises of Prince Henry.

Nature calls upon Portugal to be a maritime power, and her naval
superiority over the Moors, was, in the time of Henry, the surest
defence of her existence as a kingdom. Yet, though all his labours
tended to establish that naval superiority on the surest basis, though
even the religion of the age added its authority to the clearest
political principles in favour of Henry, yet were his enterprises and
his expected discoveries derided with all the insolence of ignorance,
and the bitterness of popular clamour. Barren deserts like Lybia, it was
said, were all that could be found, and a thousand disadvantages, drawn
from these data, were foreseen and foretold. The great mind and better
knowledge of Henry, however, were not thus to be shaken. Twelve years
had elapsed since the discovery of Madeira in unsuccessful endeavours to
carry navigation farther. At length, one of his captains, named
Galianez, in 1434 passed the Cape of Bojador, till then invincible; an
action, says Faria, not inferior to the labours of Hercules.