ation of
the African coast continued long after his death. In 1471 Fernando
de Poo discovered the island which now bears his name, while in
the same year Pedro d'Escobar crossed the equator. Wherever the
Portuguese investigators landed they left marks of their presence,
at first by erecting crosses, then by carving on trees Prince Henry's
motto, "Talent de bien faire," and finally they adopted the method
of erecting stone pillars, surmounted by a cross, and inscribed
with the king's arms and name. These pillars were called _padraos_.
In 1484, Diego Cam, a knight of the king's household, set up one
of these pillars at the mouth of a large river, which he therefore
called the Rio do Padrao; it was called by the natives the Zaire, and
is now known as the River Congo. Diego Cam was, on this expedition,
accompanied by Martin Behaim of Nuernberg, whose globe is celebrated
in geographical history as the last record of the older views (p.
115).

Meanwhile, from one of the envoys of the native kings who visited
the Portuguese Court, information was received that far to the east
of the countries hitherto discovered there was a great Christian
king. This brought to mind the mediaeval tradition of Prester John,
and accordingly the Portuguese determined to make a double attempt,
both by sea and by land, to reach this monarch. By sea the king
sent two vessels under the command of Bartholomew Diaz, while by
land he despatched, in the following year, two men acquainted with
Arabic, Pedro di Covilham and Affonso de Payba. Covilham reached
Aden, and there took ship for Calicut, being the first Portuguese
to sail the Indian Ocean. He then returned to Sofala, and obtained
news of the Island of the Moon, now known as Madagascar. With this
information he returned to Cairo, where he found ambassadors from
Joao, two Jews, Abraham of Beja and Joseph of Lamejo. These he
sent back with the information that ships that sailed down the
coast of Guinea would surely reach the end of Africa, and when
they arrived in the Eastern Ocean they should ask for Sofala and
the Island of the Moon. Meanwhile Covilham returned to the Red
Sea, and made his way into Abyssinia, where he married and settled
down, transmitting from time to time information to Portugal which
gave Europeans their first notions of Abyssinia.

The voyage by land in search of Prester John had thus been completely
successful, while, at the same time, information had been obtained
giving