poner en tanto peligro y dano la gente portoguesa, donde muchos
morian, enviandolos en demanda de tierras que nunca los reyes
de Espana pasados se atrevieron a emprender, donde habia de
hacer muchas viudas y huerfanos con esta su porfia. Tomaban por
argumento, que Dios no habia criado aquellas tierras sino para
bestias, pues en tan poco tiempo en aquella isla tantos conejos
habia multiplicado, que no dejaban cosa que para sustentacion
de los hombres fuese menester." Las Casas, _Hist. de las
Indias_, tom. i. p. 180. See also Azurara, _Chronica do
descobrimento e conquista de Guine_, cap. lxxxiii.]

[Illustration: Portuguese voyages on the coast of Africa.]

[Sidenote: Beginning of the modern slave-trade, 1442.]

[Sidenote: Papal grant of heathen countries to the Portuguese crown.]

[Sidenote: Advance to Sierra Leone.]

This achievement of Gil Eannes (_anglice_, plain Giles Jones) marks an
era. It was the beginning of great things. When we think of the
hesitation with which this step was taken, and the vociferous applause
that greeted the successful captain, it is strange to reflect that babes
were already born in 1435 who were to live to hear of the prodigious
voyages of Columbus and Gama, Vespucius and Magellan. After seven years
a further step was taken in advance; in 1442 Antonio Goncalves brought
gold and negro slaves from the Rio d' Ouro, or Rio del Oro, four hundred
miles beyond Cape Bojador. Of this beginning of the modern slave-trade I
shall treat in a future chapter.[386] Let it suffice here to observe
that Prince Henry did not discourage but sanctioned it. The first aspect
which this baleful traffic assumed in his mind was that of a means for
converting the heathen, by bringing black men and women to Portugal to
be taught the true faith and the ways of civilized people, that they
might in due season be sent back to their native land to instruct their
heathen brethren. The kings of Portugal should have a Christian empire
in Africa, and in course of time the good work might be extended to the
Indies. Accordingly a special message was sent to Pope Eugenius IV.,
informing him of the discovery of the country of these barbarous people
beyond the limits of the Mussulman world, and asking for a grant in
perpetuity to Portugal of all heathen lands that might be discovered in
further voyages beyond Cape Bojador, even so far as t