Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/27

 The king likewise commanded slaves to be bought who knew all the languages which might be fallen in with, and all the supplies which seemed to be requisite were provided in great abundance and in double quantities."

Such was the equipment of De Gama's ships for this perilous and unknown voyage; and, though a man of indefatigable energy, he had to accomplish a task of an extraordinary character; no less than the discovery of a land of which nothing was known, but the vague idea that it lay beyond distant seas "where there would not be navigation by latitude nor charts, only the needle to know the points of the compass, and the sounding plummets for running down the coast."

On the Sunday fixed for the purpose of offering prayers before the departure of this memorable expedition, the king, with his nobles and most of the leading families of Lisbon, assembled in that beautiful cathedral which still adorns the northern bank of the Tagus, to hear mass from the Bishop Calçadilha, who with deep solemnity offered up prayers, beseeching God "that the voyage might be for His holy service, for the exaltation of His holy faith, and the good and honour of the kingdom of Portugal." At the conclusion of mass, the king stood before the curtain where Vasco de Gama and his brother Paulo de Gama placed themselves, with the captains of the expeditions, on their knees, and devoutly prayed that they might have strength of mind and body to carry out the wishes of the king, to increase the power and greatness of his dominion,