Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/186

 HISTORY OF INDIA.

[Book T.

A.I). ltii:i

Diaz duublo^ tlio Cape of Good Hope.

1)6 accurately ascertained, but lie knew it to he southerly. After tossing about for thirteen days, arul suffering much by a sudden transition of the tJ^niperature from hot to cold, he attemjjted, when tiie st^jnn abated, to regain the land by steering eastward. He readied it; but, to his gi-eat a.stonlshment, discovered that the land which, when he quitted it, lay on his left hand, nearly due noith and south, was now stretching east and west, and trending north-east. The cause was too apparent to leave any room for doubt. He had been carried round the southern extremity of Africa, and was now on its south-eastern coast. He was most anxious to prosecute this auspicious commencement, but his crews refused to follow him, and he was obliged to turn his face homewards. He was so far rewarded, for a few days brought him in sight of the magnificent pro- montory in which Africa terminates. The weather he had met with. and.

Arrival of Columbus in the Tagus.

Cape of Good Hope. — From an old print.

perhaps, also a painful remembrance of the conduct of his crews in forcing him to return, determined him to give it the name of Caho de Todos los Tormentos, or Cape of Storms, but the king, on his return, thinking this name ominous, chose one much more appropriate, and, in allusion to the great promise which the doubling of the promontory held out, called it Cabo de Buena Esperanza, or Cape of Good Hope.

It is singular that, though John survived this cUscovery nine years, he made no attempt to follow it up. One cause of the indifference thus manifested may liave been the mortification which he felt at the still more brilliant success which Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain had achieved by the emplojTnent of Christopher Columbus. This renowned navigator, returning from liis discovery of a New World, arrived in the Tagus in 1493. Before applying to Spain, he had offered his services to Poiiugal, and been refu.sed. "iMiat would John not now have given to be able to recall that refusal? It was too late ; but he had counsellors base enough to suggest that the remedy was stiU in his own hands. He had only to assassinate Coliunbus, and take po.ssession of his papers; his