fouth with fo much eafe and accuracy, it became no longer neceffary to depend merely on the light of the ftars and the obfervation of the fea coaft. They gradually abandoned their ancient timid and lingering courfe along the fhore, ventured boldly into the ocean, and relying on this new guide, could fteer in the darkest night, and under the moft cloudy sky, with a fecurity and precifion hitherto unknown. The compafs may be faid to have opened to man the dominion of the fea, and to have put him in full poffeffion of the earth, by enabling him to vifit every part of it. Flavio Gioia, a citizen of Amalfi a town of confiderable trade in the kingdom of Naples, was the author of this great difcovery, about the year one thousand three hundred and two. It hath been often the fate of thofe illuftrious benefactors of mankind,who have enriched fcience and improved the arts by their inventions, to derive more reputation than benefit from the happy efforts of their genius. But the lot of Gioia has been ftill more cruel; through the inattention or ignorance of contemporary hiftorians, he has been defrauded even of the fame to which he had such a juft title. We receive from them no information with refpect to his profeffion, his character, the precife time when he made this important difcovery, or the accidents and inquiries which led to it. The knowledge of this event, though productive of greater effects than any recorded in the annals of the

human race, is tranfmitted to us without any of thofe circumftances, which can gratify the curiofity that it naturally awakens r). But though the ufe of the compafs might enable the Italians to perform the fhort voyages to which they were accustomed, with greater security and expedition, its influence was not fo fudden or extenfive, as immediately to render navigation adventurous, and to excite a fpirit of discovery. Many caufes combined in preventing this beneficial invention from producing its full effect instantaneously. Men relinquifh ancient habits flowly, and with reluctance. They are averfe to new experiments, and venture upon them with timidity. The commercial jealousy of the Italians, it is probable, laboured to conceal the happy discovery of their countryman from other nations, The art of steering by the compafs, with fuch fkill and accuracy as to infpire a full confidence in its direction, was acquired gradually. Sailors, unaccustomed to qnit fight of land, durft not launch out at once and commit themselves to unknown feas. Accordingly, near half a century elapfed,from the time of Gioia's discovery, before navigators ventured into any feas which they had not been accustomed to frequent.

Some appearance a bolder fpirit in navigation.

The first appearance of a bolder spirit may be dated from the voyages of the Spaniards to

r) Collinas & Trombellus de Acns nautica Inventore. In, ftit, Acad, Bonon, tom, ii, part. iii. p. 372.

the Canary or Fortunate Iflands. By what accident they were led to the discovery of thofe fmall ifles, which lie near five hundred miles from the Spanish coaft, and above a hundred and fifty miles from the coaft of Africa, contemporary writers have not explained. But about the middle of the fourteenth century, the people of all the different kingdoms into which Spain was then divided, were accustomed to make piratical excurfions thither, in order to plunder the inhabitants, or to carry them off as flaves. Clement VI. in virtue of the right claimed by the holy fee to difpofe of all countries poffeffed by infidels, erected thofe ifles into a kingdom, in the year one thousand three hundred and forty-four, and conferred it on Lewis de la Cerda, defcended from the royal family of Caftile. But that unfortunate prince, destitute of power to affert his nominal title, having never vifited the Canaries, John de Bethencourt, a Norman baron, obtained a grant of them from Henry III, of Caftile s). Bethencourt, with the valour and good fortune which distinguished the adventurers of his country, attempted and effected the conqueft, and the poffeffion of the Canaries remained for fome time in his family, as a fief held of the crown of Caftile. Previous to this expedition of Bethencourt, his country

s) Viera y Clavijo Notic. de la Hiftor, de Canaria- I. 268, &c. Glas Hift. c. I.

men fettled in Normandy are faid to have vifited the coaft of Africa, and to have proceeded far to the fouth of the Canary iflands. (1365) But their voyages thither feem not to have been undertaken in confequence of any public or regular plan for extending navigation and attempting new difcoveries. They were either excurfions fuggefted by that roving piratical fpirit, which defcended to the Normans from their ancestors, or the commercial enterprises of private merchants, which attracted fo little notice, that hardly any memorial of them is to be found in contemporary authors. In a general furvey of the progrefs of difcovery, it is fufficient to have mentioned this event; and leaving it among thofe of dubious exiftence, or of fmall importance, we may conclude, that though much additional information concerning the remote regions of the Eaft had been received by travellers who visited them by land, navigation, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, had not advanced beyond the ftate to which it had attained before the downfal of the Roman empire.

Firft regular plan of difcovery formed by the Portuguese.

At length the period arrived, when Providence decreed that men were to pass the limits within which they had been fo long confined, and open to themselves a more ample field wherein to display their talents, their enterprise, and courage. The firft confiderable efforts towards

this were not made by any of the more powerful ftates of Europe, or by those who had applied to navigation with the greatest affiduity and fuccefs. The glory of leading the way in this new career was referved for Portugal, one of the fmalleft and most inconfiderable of the European kingdoms. As the attempts of the Portuguese to acquire the knowledge of thofe parts of the globe with which mankind were then unacquainted, not only improved and extended the art of navigation, but roufed fuch a fpirit of curiofity and enterprise, as led to the discovery of the New World, of which I propofe to write the hiftory, it is neceffary to take a view of the rife, the progrefs, and fuccefs of their various naval operations. It was in this fchool that the difcoverer of America was trained; and unless we trace the fteeps by which his inftructors and guides advanced, it will be impoffible to comprehend the circumftances which fuggefted the idea, or facilitated the execution of his great | defign.

Circumftances which led to this.

Various circumftances prompted the Portuguefe to exert their activity in this new diretion, and enabled them to accomplifa undertakings apparently fuperior to the natural force of their monarchy. The kings of Portugal, having driven the Moors out of their dominions, had acquired power, as well as glory, by the