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. This cape, which stretches boldly out into the ocean, from
which circumstance it derives its name[1], filled the Portuguese mariners
with terror and amazement; owing to the shoals by which it is environed
for the space of six leagues, being perpetually beaten by a lofty and
tremendous surge, which precluded them, from all possibility of
proceeding beyond it in their ordinary manner of creeping along the coast;
and they dared not to stretch out into the open sea in quest of smoother
water, lest, losing sight of land altogether, they might wander in the
trackless ocean, and be unable to find their way home. It is not
impossible that they might contemplate the imaginary terrors of the
torrid zone, as handed down from some of the ancients, with all its
burning soil and scorching vapours; and they might consider the
difficulties of Cape Bojador as a providential bar or omen, to warn and
oppose them against proceeding to their inevitable destruction. They
accordingly measured back their wary steps along the African coast, and
returned to Portugal, where they gave an account of their proceedings to
Don Henry, in which, of course, the dangers of the newly discovered cape
would not be diminished in their narrative[2].
Returning from Ceuta, where his presence was no longer necessary, and
where he had matured his judgment by intercourse with, various learned
men whom his bounty had attracted into Africa, and having enlarged his
views by the perusal of every work which tended to illustrate the
discoveries which he projected, Don Henry fixed his residence at the
romantic town of Sagres, in the neighbourhood of Cape St Vincent, where
he devoted his leisure to the study of mathematics, astronomy,
cosmography, and the theory of navigation, and even established a school
or academy for instructing his countrymen in these sciences, the parents
of commerce, and the sure foundations of national prosperity. To assist
him in the prosecution of these his favourite studies, he invited, from
Majorca, a person named Diego, or James, who was singularly skilful in
the management of the instruments then employed for making astronomical
observations at sea, and in the construction of nautical charts. Some
traces of nautical discoveries along the western coast of Africa still
remained in ancient authors; particularly of the reported voyages of
Menelaus, Hanno, Eudoxus, and others. From an attentive consideration of
these, Don Henry and his scientific coadjutor were encouraged to hope for
the accomplishment of important discoveries in that direction; and they
were certainly incited in these views by the rooted enmity which had so
long rankled among the Christian inhabitants of Spain and Portugal
against the Moors, who had formerly expelled their ancestors from the
greatest part of the peninsula, and with whom they had waged an incessant
war of several centuries in recovering the country from their grasp.
SECTION II.
_Discovery of the Madeira Islands._
After some time usefully employed in acquiring and diffusing a competent
knowledge of cosmopographical, nautical, and astronomical science, Don
Henry resolved to devote a considerable portion of the revenue which he
enjoyed as Grand Master of the Order of Christ, in continuing and
extending those projects of nautical discovery which had long occupied
his attention.
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