obly in his renewed efforts, in
spite of the timid ignorance of his unexperienced pilots and mariners.
But it is not easy to explain the continuance of that slow progress,
which was even retarded during the years which elapsed between the demise
of that prince of mariners in 1463, and that of Alphonso in 1481; when
the increased experience of the Portuguese, in their frequent voyages to
the new discovered Atlantic islands and African coast, ought to have
inspired them with fresh vigour and extended views of discovery and
commerce. The military character of Alphonso may, however, explain this
in a great degree, as all his energies were directed towards the
extension of dominion in the Moorish kingdom of Fez; and the business of
discovery was devolved as a burdensome and unprofitable task on the
farmers of the trade to the coast of Africa, which appears to have become
extensive and lucrative, after the discovery of Guinea and its islands,
and the establishment of the sugar colonies in these islands. We learn,
likewise, from the preceding voyage of the Portuguese pilot to the island
of St Thomas, that the mariners still confined themselves almost entirely
to creeping along the coast, from cape to cape, and from island to island,
not daring to trust themselves to the trackless ocean, under the now sure
guidance of the heavenly luminaries; but which they then did not
sufficiently understand, nor did they possess sufficient instruments for
directing their course in the ocean. It would appear that they had then
no other method of computing the longitude but by means of the log, or
dead reckoning, which is liable to perpetual uncertainty from currents
and lee-way, and which a storm, even of short continuance, must have
thrown into total confusion. Their instruments and methods for
determining even the latitudes, appear to have then been imperfect and
little understood. In the sequel of this deduction, we shall find the
first Portuguese squadron which sailed for India, conducted across the
Indian ocean by a Moorish pilot.

On the accession of John II. to the throne of Portugal in 1481, the
discoveries along the coast of Africa were resumed with a new spirit.
While infante or hereditary prince, his principal revenue was derived
from the profits of the Guinea trade, and of the importation of gold from
the haven of Mina; and among the first measures of his reign, he turned
his attention to the improvement and extension of that valua