Portuguese
nation, in its age of energetic heroism, to discover a maritime passage
to that long famed commercial region, some general knowledge of which had
been preserved ever since the days of the Persian, Macedonian, and Roman
empires. Of all the great events which have occurred in the modern ages,
previous to our own times, the voyages and discoveries which were made by
the Europeans, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of the Christian
era, are justly entitled to preference, whether we appreciate the vast
improvements which they made in navigation, and, consequently, in
commerce,--the astonishing abundance of wealth which they brought into
Europe,--the surprising feats of bravery which were performed in their
various expeditions and conquests,--the extensive, populous, and valuable
territories which were subdued or colonized,--or the extended knowledge,
which was suddenly acquired of the greater part of the earth, till then
either altogether unknown, or very partially and erroneously described.
By these discoveries, we allude to those of the southern and western
hemispheres, a new heaven and a new earth were opened up to the
astonishment of mankind, who may be said to have been then furnished with
wings to fly from one end of the earth to the other, so as to bring the
most distant, and hitherto utterly unknown nations, acquainted with each
other. In the ordinary course of human affairs, it has been observed that
similar events frequently occur; but the transactions of these times
which we now propose to narrate, were as singular in their kind as they
were great, surprising, and unexpected; neither can any such ever happen
again, unless Providence were to create new and accessible worlds for
discovery and conquest, or to replunge the whole of mankind for a long
period into the grossest ignorance.

The merit and glory of these wonderful achievements are unquestionably
due to the Portuguese nation, and the first and principal share to the
sublime genius of their illustrious prince, the infant DON HENRY, _Duke
of Viseo and Grand Master of the order of Christ_, whose enlarged mind
first planned the fitting out of maritime expeditions for discovery, and
by the imitation of whose example all subsequent discoveries have been
accomplished. Every thing of the kind before his time was isolated or
accidental, and every subsequent attempt has been pursued on scientific
or known principles, which he invented and established