Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/602

 Indeed, such commerce as they advocated was essentially practical, and adventurers who proposed novel channels of trade were considered visionaries. It is, however, to an enlightened Portuguese prince that the civilized world is indebted for first setting in motion those expeditions of discovery, which, throughout the greater portion of the fifteenth century, and especially towards its close, afforded so much delight and astonishment to the nations of Europe.

Soon after the conquest of Ceuta by Dom John I., king of Portugal, his fifth son Prince Henry, who had been appointed governor of the conquered Moorish province, directed his attention to an exploration of the western coast of Africa. Imbued with a spirit for maritime discovery, this intelligent and accomplished prince was incessant in his efforts to increase the geographical knowledge of the time. From his boyhood he had made mathematics and navigation a continual study. To facilitate his long-meditated voyages of discovery he had fixed his abode in the kingdom of Algarve on the most elevated point of Cape St. Vincent, a spot he considered more favourable than any other on the coast of Spain for his astronomical observations, and where he founded the town of Sagres. The first expedition undertaken in 1417 with two very indifferent vessels proved unsuccessful, having only proceeded five degrees south from its point of departure, the currents at the mouth of the Mediterranean being alleged as unsurmount-*