the ship's longitude, that is, her distance east or west of the meridian that passes through Greenwich. That meridian is an imaginary line drawn round the world longitudinally, and passing through the north and south poles, as the equator is a line passing round it latitudinally. Thus, then, a ship's latitude and longitude having been ascertained, and a line being drawn through the first, parallel to the equator, and through the second, parallel to the first meridian, the point where these two lines intersect is the exact position of the ship upon the sea. CHAPTER IX. EARLY PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES. As we have seen in foregoing chapters the size and form of ships had gradually been much improved. The compass and other scientific appliances had been discovered, cannon also, and gunpowder, had been invented, and seamen had become more courageous and venturesome. Still, however, men continued to "hug the land,” and dreaded to face the unknown dangers of the open sea. But at last the Portuguese nation began that career of maritime enterprise which won for it the admiration of the world. EARLY PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES. About the beginning of the fourteenth century (1330), the Canary Islands, lying on the west coast of Africa, were re-discovered by the accident of a French ship being blown off the coast in a storm, and finding shelter amongst them. This group had been known to the ancients under the name of the Fortunate Islands, but had been forgotten for more than a thousand years. During the course of the century the Spaniards plucked up courage to make discoveries and settlements upon them, although by so doing they were compelled to undergo that much dreaded ordeal, sailing out of sight of their fondly "hugged" land! In the beginning of the next century arose a prince, Don Henry, son of John I. of Portugal, whose anxiety to promote discovery, and to find a passage by sea round the coast of Africa to India, induced him to send out many expeditions, all of which accomplished something, and many of which added very extensively to the geographical knowledge of the world at that time. Navigators sent out by him from time to time discovered the Madeira Islands; sailed along the western coast of Africa a considerable distance; ascertained the presence of gold dust among the savages on the gulf of Guinea; discovered the Azores, besides numerous other islands and lands; crossed the equator, and approached to within about eighteen hundred miles of the southmost cape of Africa. The discovery of gold dust stirred up the energies of the Portuguese in a remarkable degree, and induced them cheerfully to undertake ventures which without that inducement they would probably never have undertaken at all. Moreover, they had now learned to quail less at the idea of losing sight of land, and towards the end of the fifteenth century (1486), Bartholomew Diaz, an officer of the household of John II., achieved the grand object which had long been ardently desired by the Portuguese, he doubled the great southern Cape of Africa, which King John named the "Cape of Good Hope," although Diaz had named it the "Cape of Tempests." The circumstance is thus alluded to by a poet of that period,― "At Lisboa's court they told their dread escape, But a man of greater renown than Bartholomew Diaz was now about to step upon the stage, and outshine all previous actors in the scene. He was a Genoese by birth, and his name was, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. "The world is flat," said philosophers even in the days of Columbus. But centuries before bold-thinkers had asserted that it was round, and in all ages there were some who held that, so called, absurd doctrine. Among these "absurd thinkers," was Christopher Columbus; and one of the expressions of contempt used against him by the wise men of Portugal, to whom he long and fruitlessly appealed for assistance to carry out his daring schemes, was this,-"he is a foreigner who asserts that the world is round like an orange, and that there are places where people walk on their heads!" Aye, he did assert that the world was round like an orange, and of his revilers he might have said that as far as wisdom went it mattered little whether they walked upon their heads or on their feet. Columbus was born in Genoa in the year 1435. He, with his brother Bartholomew, followed his father's trade, that of a wool-comber, till he was ten years of age, when he was sent to the University of Pavia; but he soon returned to wool-combing, at which he continued till he was fourteen. Then he took to the sea. In course of time he made a voyage of discovery to Iceland; afterwards joined the Genoese fleet under command of his great-uncle, and became a naval warrior, fighting the Venetians and Neapolitans, and chasing the pirates of the Mediterranean for about sixteen years, when he was wrecked on the coast of Portugal. In Lisbon his brother Bartholomew had settled and become a drawer of plans and charts. Columbus joined him, and married an Italian lady. He was in the prime of life at this time; an enthusiastic and a religious man. The idea that he should be the means of diffusing the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, seems to have fired his soul with an unquenchable flame. And truly had it not been unquenchable the long, long years of disappointment he experienced would have effectually extinguished it. He brooded over the idea, and sought to carry it out for years. At the age of forty he proposed to the senate of Genoa to sail through the Pillars of Hercules, proceed straight west till he reached the East Indies, and circumnavigate the globe! The globe! "there is no globe," doubtless thought the Genoese, so they declined his offer, on the plea of poverty. But Columbus was not to be put down. He made a similar offer to King John II. of Portugal, who with his councillors treated the proposal as absurd, and also declined it. Again he tried the Government of Genoa, and was a second time refused. Nothing daunted, he carried his proposal to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. The former threw cold water on him; the latter, to her honour be it recorded, received, encouraged, and finally, having sold part of her jewels for the purpose, equipped him for his longdesired and long-procrastinated voyage across the unknown seas. But many years had been wasted in these fruitless appeals to governments, and Columbus had reached the age of fifty-five before his first voyage of discovery began. And now the hopes of this great man were about to be realized. On the 30th of April 1492 he received letterspatent from the joint sovereigns of Spain, granting him the following privileges and titles, in the event of his accomplishing the object of his voyage,— "He should receive the title of Grand Admiral of the Ocean." |