Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/83

 PRINCE HENRY THE NAVIGATOR 43 But the most illustrious of them was her fifth child, born on Ash Wednesday, March 4, 1394, and imper- ishably known in history as Prince Henry the Navi- gator. On coming of age in 1415 he won his spurs at the Portuguese siege of Ceuta, the Mussulman strong- hold of northwestern Africa just within the Straits of Gibraltar. His splendid gallantry at the gate, where he stemmed, for a time alone, the rush of the Moors, and his calm intrepidity as a leader, gained the plaudits of Christendom. His biographer states that the Pope, the Emperor of Germany, and the Kings of Castile and of England each invited the young hero to take com- mand of armies. The capture of Ceuta and its political consequences awakened a different ambition in Prince Henry's breast. Its conquest had converted a chief emporium of the Moors into a bulwark of Christendom against them. But Ceuta drew the sources of its wealth its gold- dust, ivory, and tropical products from the interior and the coast districts of west Africa. How to reach these provinces of Nigritia by sea and thus cut off the wealth of Morocco at its source, became the day- dream of the young prince. His zeal for the aggran- dizement of Portugal was combined with a passion for maritime exploration and an ardour to extend the do- minions of the Cross. The first question which he set before him was whether the northwestern coast of Africa should belong to Mohammed or to Christ. Por- tuguese chroniclers date his exploring expeditions as far back as his eighteenth year, 1412. But from a Bull