bear in Portugal the roses of Santa Maria. The prince rejoiced to fee them and gave thanks to God, "as if they had been the fruit and fign of "the promised land; and befought our lady, "whose name the plants bore, that she would

guide and set forth the doings in this discovery "to the praise and glory of God, and to the "increase of his facred faith."*

The pious wifh expreffed above is the first of the kind that we have occafion to notice in this hiftorical account; but fimilar wishes seem to have been predominant in the minds of the greatest discoverers and promoters of discovery in those times. I believe this defire of theirs to have been thoroughly genuine and deep-feated; and, in fact, that the discoveries would not have been made at that period but for the impulse given to them by the most pious minds longing to promote, by all means in their power, the spread of what to them was the only true and faving faith. We shall find much to blame in the conduct of the first discoverers in Africa and America, but we must do them the justice to acknowledge that the love of gold was not by any means the only motive which urged them, or which could have urged them,

* Barros, dec. 1, lib. 1, cap 4. Azurara, cap. 9.

to fuch endeavours as theirs. We fhould more readily admit the above conclufion, if we kept in our minds the views then universally entertained of the merits and efficacy of mere formal communion with the church, and the fatal confequences of not being within that communion. A man fo enlightened as Las Casas scorns paffages brought against him in argument from the works of heathen writers, men who are now living in hell, as he fays and Columbus, in giving an account of his third voyage to the Catholic sovereigns, fays, that in temporal matters he has only a "blanca" for the offertory, and that in fpiritual matters he is so apart from the holy facraments of the holy church, that if he were to die where he is, his foul would be forgotten (que fe olvidará defta anima fi fe aparta acá del cuerpo). "Weep for me," he says, " ye that are charitable, true, or juft."

And doubtlefs in the minds of the common people, the advantage of this communion with the church stood at the higheft. This will go a long way to explain the wonderful inconfiftency, as it feems to us, of the most cruel men appealing to their good works as promoters of the faith. And the maintenance of fuch church principles will

1441.

altogether account for the ftrange oversights which pure and high minds have made in the means of carrying out those principles, fascinated as they were by the brilliancy and magnitude of the main object they had in view.

The old world has now got a glimpse beyond Cape Bojador. The fearful "outstretcher" has no longer much interest for us, is a thing that is overcome and which is to descend from an impoffibility to a land-mark, from whence, by degrees, we shall almost filently steal down the coaft, counting our miles by thousands, until Vafco de Gama boldly takes us round to India.

After the paffing of Cape Bojador there was a lull in Portuguese Discovery: the period from 1434 to 1441 being spent in enterprizes of no great distinctness or moment. Indeed, during the latter part of this period, the Prince was fully occupied with the affairs of Portugal. In 1437 he made the unfortunate expedition to Tangier, in which his brother Ferdinand was taken prisoner and ended his days in flavery to the Moor. And in 1438, king Duarte dying, the troubles of the regency occupied Prince Henry's attention. In 1441, however, there was a voyage which led to very important confequences. In that year Anto

voy

nio Gonçalvez, mafter of the robes to Prince
Henry, was fent out with a veffel to load it with
skins of "fea wolves," a number of them having
been seen, during a former voyage, in the mouth
of a river about fifty-four leagues beyond Cape
Bojador. Gonçalvez resolved to signalize his
age by a feat that should gratify his master more
than the capture of fea-wolves; and he accord-
ingly planned and executed successfully an expe-
dition for capturing fome Azeneghi Moors, in
order, as he told his companions, to take home
"fome of the language of that country." Nuño
Triftam, another of Prince Henry's captains, after-
wards falling in with Gonçalvez, a further capture
of Moors was made, and Gonçalvez returned to
Portugal with his spoil.

from the

In this fame year, Prince Henry applied to Pope Martin the Fifth, praying that his Holiness would grant to the Portuguese crown all that it Grant should conquer, from Cape Bojador to the Indies, Pope. together with plenary indulgence for those who should die in the attempt. The pope granted this. "And now," fays a Portuguese historian, "with this apoftolic grace, with the breath of

royal favour, and already with the applause of "the people," (no common talk now about white men turning into black, or lands intended by

1441.

"the prince

Providence only for wild beafts,) "pursued his purpose with more courage and "with greater outlay."

In 1442, the Moors whom Antonio Gonçalvez had taken the previous year, promise to give black flaves in ransom for themselves if he will take them back to their own country; and the prince, approving of this, orders Gonçalvez to fet fail immediately," infifting as the foundation of the "matter, that if Gonçalvez fhould not be able to "obtain fo many negroes (as had been mentioned) "in exchange for the three Moors, yet that he "should take them; for whatever number he "should get, he would gain fouls, because they

(the negroes) might be converted to the faith, "which could not be managed with the Moors."t Here again we see the religious motives predominating and, indeed, we may note the fame motive in numerous paffages in which this Prince's conduct comes before us.

Gonçalvez obtains ten black flaves, fome gold duft, a target of buffalo hide, and some oftriches'

*Faria y Soufa, tom. 1, part 1, cap. 1.

+ Ordenou o Infante de o defpachar logo em hum navio, fazendo fundamento, que quando Antão Gonçalves não pudeffe haver tantos negros a troco deftes tres Mouros, já de quantos quer que foffem ganhava almas, porque fe converteriam á Fé, o que elle não podia acabar com os Mouros. Barros. dec. 1, lib. 1, cap. 7.