e the accession of Henry Tudor, or to Spain before the
conquest of Granada. And to these advantages the fates added another,
and greater. For at an opportune moment it was given to Portugal to
possess one of those great souls, of lofty purpose and enduring
resolution, whose fortune it is to gather the scattered energies of
many men and with patient wisdom direct them to the attainment of noble
ends. To Prince Henry the Navigator, who raised the endeavors of the
nation to the level of an epic achievement, it is chiefly due that
Portugal became, in exploration and discovery, the foremost country of
the age.

In origin, the Portuguese search for India was but the sequel to the
century-old conflict with the Moslem, a more subtly conceived crusade.
Losing their hold on the Spanish Peninsula, the Moors were still
intrenched in Africa; and in 1415 a Portuguese fleet, crossing to the
northern point opposite Gibraltar, took and plundered the fortress and
city of Ceuta. It was on this occasion, and subsequently in 1418, that
Prince Henry gained from Moorish prisoners reliable information of the
rich caravan trade from the Senegal and Gambia Rivers, and from the Gold
and Ivory Coasts on the Gulf of Guinea, to Timbuctoo, and across the
desert to Ceuta and Tunis: information which strengthened, if it did not
inspire, the guiding motive of his life. For enriching Portugal and
undermining the Moorish power in Africa, how much more effective than
the plunder of Ceuta would be the conquest of the Guinea Coast! Once
round the shoulder of Africa and the thing was done! And who could say
what lay beyond the Gulf of Guinea? Prester John, perhaps, or the
shining treasures of India.

And so, returning from Africa in 1418, the Prince retired to the famous
Sacred Promontory in the Province of Algarve, where he gave the best
energies of forty years to the task of African exploration. Backed by
the resources of the state, commanding the best scientific knowledge of
the day, patiently enduring "what every barking tongue could allege
against a Service so unservicable and needlesse," he sent out year after
year the most skillful and daring sailors of Italy and Portugal, and
inspired them anew, as often as they returned baffled and discouraged,
with his own perennial enthusiasm. Between 1435 and 1460, famous
captains in his service--Gil Eannes, Denis Diaz, the Venetian
Cadamosto--made those crucial voyages round the Point of Bojador, past
the deser