owever, a few unadventurous souls who will still persist in their
doubts as to the probability of the incident. For the especial benefit
of such I will relate the true story of a boat adventure, which in every
way is a thousand times more strange and incredible than any of the
wildest inventions of the wildest romance.

The voyage of Vasco di Gama around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian
Ocean, was the beginning of a complete revolution in the trade of Europe
and the East. This trade, which, following the expensive route of Egypt
and the Red Sea, had been for a long time in the hands of the Venetians
and Genoese, suddenly turned itself into the new and cheap channel
opened by the enterprise of the Portuguese. The merchants of Genoa and
Venice found themselves unexpectedly cut off from their accustomed
sources of wealth, while a tide of affluence rolled into the mouth of
the Tagus, and Lisbon became the commercial mart of the world.

The success of the Portuguese gave a new impulse to the spirit of
enterprise which had already been excited among the maritime nations of
Europe by the discoveries of Columbus, and efforts to divert a portion
of the golden current soon began to be made. The Spaniards, debarred
from following the direct route of the Portuguese, by their own
exclusive pretensions in the west, and the consequent decision of the
Pope, granting to them the sole right of exploration beyond a certain
line of longitude to the west, and confining the Portuguese to the east,
had, under the guidance of the adventurous Magellan, found a westerly
route to the Indies. The English were busy with several schemes for a
short cut to the north-west. The Dutch were beginning to give signs of a
determination, despite the Pope's decision, to follow the route by the
Cape of Good Hope. As may be imagined, these movements aroused the
jealousy of the court and merchants of Lisbon. They trembled lest their
commercial monopoly should be encroached upon, and every care was taken
to keep the rest of Europe in ignorance of the details of the trade, and
of the discoveries and conquests of their agents in the East.

Of course nothing could be more injurious to a Portuguese of the time
than to be suspected of a design to aid with advice or information the
schemes of foreign rivals. Unluckily for James Botello such a suspicion
lighted upon him. It was rumored that he was disposed to sell his
services to the French. He was known to be a g