certain hopes of the voyage by sea. This had, in its way,
been almost as successful, for Diaz had rounded the cape now known
as the Cape of Good Hope, but to which he proposed giving the title
of Cabo Tormentoso, or "Stormy Cape." King Joao, however, recognising
that Diaz's voyage had put the seal upon the expectations with
which Prince Henry had, seventy years before, started his series
of explorations, gave it the more auspicious name by which it is
now known.

For some reason which has not been adequately explained, no further
attempt was made for nearly ten years to carry out the final
consummation of Prince Henry's plan by sending out another expedition.
In the meantime, as we shall see, Columbus had left Portugal, after
a mean attempt had been made by the king to carry out his novel
plan of reaching India without his aid; and, as a just result,
the discovery of a western voyage to the Indies (as it was then
thought) had been successfully accomplished by Columbus, in the
service of the Catholic monarchs of Spain, in 1492. This would
naturally give pause to any attempt at reaching India by the more
cumbersome route of coasting along Africa, which had turned out
to be a longer process than Prince Henry had thought. Three years
after Columbus's discovery King Joao died, and his son and successor
Emmanuel did not take up the traditional Portuguese method of reaching
India till the third year of his reign.

By this time it had become clear, from Columbus's second voyage,
that there were more difficulties in the way of reaching the Indies
by his method than had been thought; and the year after his return
from his second voyage in 1496, King Emmanuel determined on once
more taking up the older method. He commissioned Vasco da Gama,
a gentleman of his court, to attempt the eastward route to India
with three vessels, carrying in all about sixty men. Already by this
time Columbus's bold venture into the unknown seas had encouraged
similar boldness in others, and instead of coasting down the whole
extent of the western coast of Africa, Da Gama steered direct for
Cape Verde Islands, and thence out into the ocean, till he reached
the Bay of St. Helena, a little to the north of the Cape of Good
Hope.

For a time he was baffled in his attempt to round the Cape by the
strong south-easterly winds, which blow there continually during
the summer season; but at last he commenced coasting along the
eastern shores of Africa, and at