Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/94

 64 THE QUEST FOE INDIA BY SEA " the Portuguese mariners of that time were not accus- tomed thus to venture on the open sea, all their nautical knowledge being limited to coasting in sight of land." Prince Henry's instruments were a primitive astrolabe with a quadrant hung vertically from a ring held in the hand, and worked by the help of an alidade, " or ruled index having two holes pierced in its extremities through which the ray passed. " Charts of any exact sort were almost confined to the Mediterranean: beyond Cape Non the conjectural outlines of the Christian mappe- monde failed to yield practical guidance. If, in order to appreciate the position which India has held in the national life of Portugal, we must bear in mind the slow labour of the discovery, it is not less need- ful to understand the motives which sustained Prince Henry in his life's task. His chronicler, Azurara, explains that, apart from mere exploration, the prince greatly desired to abase the Moors, to establish trade with the west African coast, and to plant the Catholic faith among the heathen peoples there lying in a state of perdition. Grand Master of the Order of Christ, Prince Henry represented the Church Militant in Por- tugal as his order represented the crusading spirit of the Knights Templars to whose position and property in Portugal it had succeeded in the fourteenth century. THE ASTROLABE OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE.