Of Portugal, married Philippa, the eldest daughter of John of
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, son to Edward III.
Of England, by whom he had
several sons, of whom Don Henry was the _fifth_. After serving with great
bravery under his father at the capture of Ceuta, he was raised to the
dukedom of Viseo, and was sent back with a large reinforcement to
preserve the conquest to which his courage had largely contributed.
During his continuance in command at Ceuta, he acquired much information,
by occasional converse with some Moors, relative to the seas and coasts
of Western Africa, which raised and encouraged the project of maritime
discoveries; and these became afterwards the favourite and almost
exclusive pursuit of his active and enlarged mind. From the Moors he
obtained intelligence respecting the Nomadic tribes who border upon and
pervade the great desert, and of the nations of the Jaloofs, whose
territories are conterminous with the desert on the north, and Guinea to
the south. By one ingenious author[2], he has been supposed instigated to
his first attempts at maritime discovery, by the desire of finding a way
by sea to those countries from whence the Moors brought ivory and gold
dust across the desert. It unfortunately happens that we have no record
of the particular voyages themselves, and are therefore reduced to the
necessity of giving the relation of this great discovery historically
from the best remaining sources of information. The writings of Cada
Morto, which will be found in the sequel, form a pleasing exception to
this desideratum in the history and progress of early navigation and
discovery.
[1] Astley. I. 9. Clarke, I. 140. Purchas, I. 6. Harris, I. 662.
[2] Wealth of Nations, II. 347.
SECTION I.
_Commencement of Portuguese Discoveries, from Cape Non to Cape Bojador_
Three years before the reduction of Ceuta, the Duke of Visco had sent a
vessel in 1412 to explore the western coast of Africa, being the first
voyage of discovery undertaken by the Portuguese, or by any other nation
in modern times. The commander was instructed to endeavour to follow the
western coast of Africa, to the southward of Cape Chaunar, called by the
Portuguese mariners Cape Nao, Non, or Nam, which, extending itself from
the foot of Mount Atlas, had hitherto been the _non plus ultra_ or
impassable limit of European navigation, and had accordingly received its
ordinary name from a negative term in the Portuguese language, as
implying that there was no navigation beyond; and respecting which a
proverbial saying was then current, of the following import:
Whoe'er would pass the Cape of Non
Shall turn again; or else be gone.
The success of this earliest voyage, fitted out for the purpose of
discovery, is not recorded; but Don Henry continued to send some vessels
every year to the same coast, with the same instructions of endeavouring
to explore the coast beyond Cape Non. Not daring to trust themselves
beyond sight of land, the mariners crept timorously along the coast, and
at length reached Cape Bojador, only sixty leagues, or 180 miles beyond
Cape Non.
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