John, the first king of Portugal, and Philippina, fifter of Henry the fourth of England. Don Henry having attended his father to the conqueft of Ceuta, obtained by converfation with the inhabitants of the continent, fome accounts of the interior kingdoms and fouthern coaft of Africa; which, though rude and indistinct, were fufficient to raise his curiofity, and convince him, that there were countries yet unknown and worthy of discovery.

He therefore equipped fome fmall veffels, and commanded that they fhould pafs as far as they could along that coaft of Africa which looked upon the great Atlantic ocean, the immenfity of which ftruck the grofs and unfkilful navigators of these times with terror and amazement. He was not able to communicate his own ardour to his feamen, who proceeded very flowly in the new attempt; each was afraid to venture much farther than he that went before him, and ten years were spent before they had advanced beyond cape Bajador, fo called from its progreffion into the ocean, and the circuit by which it must be doubled. The oppofition of this promontory to the courfe of the fea, produced a violent current and high waves, into which they durft not venture, and which they had not yet knowledge enough to avoid by ftanding off from the land into the open fea.

The prince was defirous to know fomething of the countries that lay beyond this formidable cape, and fent two commanders, named John Gonzales Zarco, and Triftan Vaz, in 1418, to pafs beyond Bajador, and furvey the coaft behind it. They were caught by a tempeft, which drove them out

into the unknown ocean, where they expected to perish by the violence of the wind, or perhaps to wander for ever in the boundless deep. At laft, in the midst of their defpair, they found a small island, where they sheltered themselves, and which the sense of their deliverance difpofed them to call Puerto Santo, or the Holy Haven.

When they returned with an account of this new ifland, Henry performed a publick act of thanksgiving, and fent them again with feeds and cattle; and we are told by the Spanish hiftorian, that they fet two rabbits on fhore, which increased fo much in a few years, that they drove away the inhabitants, by deftroying their corn and plants, and were fuffered to enjoy the island without oppofition.

In the second or third voyage to Puerto Santo (for authors do not agree which), a third captain called Perello, was joined to the two former. As they looked round the island upon the ocean, they faw at a diftance fomething which they took for a cloud, till they perceived that it did not change its place. They di rected their course towards it, and, in 1419, difcovered another ifland covered with trees, which they therefore called Madera, or the Isle of Wood.

Madera was given to Vaz or Zarco, who fet fire to the woods, which are reported by Souza to have burnt for seven years together, and to have been wafted, till want of wood was the greatest inconve niency of the place. But green wood is not very apt to burn, and the heavy rains which fall in these countries must surely have extinguished the conflagration, were it ever so violent.

There was yet little progrefs made upon the fouthern coaft, and Henry's project was treated as chimerical by many of his countrymen. At laft Gilianes, in 1433, paffed the dreadful cape, to which he gave the name of Bajador, and came back to the wonder of the nation.

In two voyages more, made in the two following years, they pafled forty-two leagues farther, and in the latter, two men with horfes being fet on fhore, wandered over the country, and found nineteen men, whom, according to the favage manners of that age, they attacked; the natives having javelins, wounded one of the Portuguese, and received fome wounds from them. At the mouth of a river they found fea-wolves in great numbers, and brought home many of their fkins, which were much ef tecmed.

Antonio Gonzales, who had been one of the affoci-. ates of Gilianes, was fent again, in 1440, to bring back. a cargo of the fkins of fea-wolves. He was followed in another fhip by Nunno Triftam. They were now of ftrength fufficient to venture upon violence, they therefore landed, and without either right or provocation, made all whom they feized their prifoners, and brought them to Portugal, with great commendations both from the prince and the nation.

Henry now began to pleafe himfelf with the fuccefs of his projects, and as one of his purpofes was the converfion of infidels, he thought it neceffary to impart his undertaking to the pope, and to obtain: the fanction of ecclefiaftical authority. To this end Fernando Lopez d'Azevedo was dispatched to Rome,

who

who related to the pope and cardinals the great defigns of Henry, and magnified his zeal for the propagation of religion. The pope was pleased with the narrative, and by a formal bull, conferred upon the crown of Portugal all the countries which fhould be difcovered as far as India, together with India itself, and granted several privileges and indulgencies to the churches which Henry had built in his new regions, and to the men engaged in the navigation for difcovery. By this bull all other princes were forbidden to encroach upon the conquefts of the Portuguese, on pain of the cenfures incurred by the crime of ufurpation.

The approbation of the pope, the fight of men whofe manners and appearance were fo different from thofe of Europeans, and the hope of gain from golden regions, which has been always the great incentive to hazard and difcovery, now began to operate with full force. The defire of riches and of dominion, which is yet more pleafing to the fancy, filled the courts of the Portuguese prince with innumerable adventurers from very diftant parts of Europe. Some wanted to be employed in the fearch after new countries, and fome to be fettled in thofe which had been already found.

Communities now began to be animated by the fpirit of enterprife, and many affociations were formed for the equipment of fhips, and the acquifi. tion of the riches of diftant regions, which perhaps were always fuppofed to be more wealthy, as more remote. These undertakers agreed to pay the prince a fifth part of the profit, fometimes a greater

fhare, and fent out the armament at their own expenfe.

The city of Lagos was the first that carried on this defign by contribution. The inhabitants fitted out fix veffels, under the command of Lucarot, one of the prince's houfhold, and foon after fourteen more were furnished for the fame purpose, under the fame commander; to thofe were added many belonging to private men, fo that in a short time twenty-fix ships put to fea in queft of whatever fortune fhould prefent.

The hips of Lagos were foon feparated by foul weather, and the reft, taking each its own course, stopped at different parts of the African coaft, from Cape Blanco to Cape Verd. Some of them, in 1444, anchored at Gomera, one of the Canaries, where they were kindly treated by the inhabitants, who took them into their fervice againft the people of the isle of Palma, with whom they were at war; but the Portuguese at their return to Gomera, not being made fo rich as they expected, fell upon their friends, in contempt of all the laws of hofpitality and ftipulations of alliance, and, making several of them prisoners and flaves, fet fail for Lisbon.

The Canaries are fupposed to have been known, however imperfectly, to the ancients; but in the confufion of the fubfequent ages they were loft and forgotten, till about the year 1340, the Biscayners found Lucarot, and invading it (for to find a new country and invade it has always been the fame), brought away feventy captives, and fome commodities of the place. Louis de la Cerda, count of

Clermont,