In All Ages Of The World,
Ignorant And Indolent Men Have Represented New And Unusual Enterprises In
Scientific Pursuits As Rash Or Improper Deviations From The Established
Experience And Vaunted Wisdom Of Antiquity; And Those Who Promoted Them
Have Been Held Out As Dangerous, Or Even Impious Innovators.
It so fared
with Don Henry, who far outstripped the science, or ignorance rather, of
his day.
At home, the discontented spirits, ignorant of his enlarged
views, perhaps envious of the reputation his very limited discoveries
had already attained, represented that the tempestuous seas, strong
currents, and whirlpools, which they fancied must prevail on the other
side of Cape Bajadore, would necessarily destroy every vessel which
should attempt to penetrate beyond that absolute limit of human
navigation; they alleged that all the country to the south of that cape
was utterly unfit for the habitation of mankind, sterile, burnt up, and
destitute of soil and water, like the sandy deserts of Lybia; and they
pretended to object on principles of patriotism, that the natives of
Portugal were improvidently wasted on idle discoveries, which, if at all
advisable, would have been undertaken by their former, wise sovereigns;
who, contented with the known world, did not, vainly seek for conquests
in the torrid zone, which was altogether unfit for the habitation of
mankind. They insinuated, that the expences which had been lavished upon
those fruitless and dangerous maritime expeditions, might lave been much
more profitably employed for the improvement of some of the more barren
parts of Portugal.
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