Christopher Columbus | Page 7

stood for wealth of all kinds. No one knew
precisely where "the Indies" lay; no one knew about the Indian Ocean
or the shape of Southern Africa; "the Indies" was simply an indefinite
term for the rich and mysterious regions from which the caravans came.
The old maps of the fifteenth century show three different countries of
this name--Far India, beyond the Ganges River; Middle India, between
the Ganges and the Indus; and Lesser India, including both sides of the
Red Sea. On the African side of the Red Sea was located the legendary
kingdom of a great monarch known as Prester John. Prester is a
shortening of Presbyter, for this John was a Christian priest as well as a
king. Ever since the twelfth century there had been stories circulated
through Europe about the enormously wealthy monarch who ruled over
a vast number of Christians "in the Indies." At first Prester John's
domain was supposed to be in Asia; later the legends shifted it over to
Africa, Abyssinia probably; and it was with this division of "India" that
the Portuguese Prince Henry hoped to establish a trade; not, at first, by
rounding Africa and sailing up its east coast to Abyssinia, but by
merely cruising down the coast of Western Africa till Abyssinia's
Atlantic shores were reached; for so vague was the geography of that
far-away day that Abyssinia was supposed to stretch from Ethiopia to
the Atlantic. "If," reasoned Prince Henry, "my sailors can feel their way
down Africa till they come to Prester John's territory, not only could
our nation secure the rich trade which now goes to the Moors, but we
could form a treaty with the African Christians and ask them to come to
Europe and help us should the Moors ever again advance against us."
This plan was approved by Pope Nicholas V., who sanctioned Prince
Henry's enterprise in the hope of "bringing the people of India, who are
reputed to honor Christ, to the aid of European Christians against
Saracens and other enemies." This projected exploration of the African
coast by "Henry the Navigator" was the whole foundation for the
mistaken statements that Christopher Columbus was trying to find "a
sea route to India." Prince Henry was trying to find a sea route to an

African India which he supposed lay about where Guinea lies; and as
for Christopher, he never undertook to find either this African India,
nor the true Asiatic India; he only promised the Spanish sovereigns that
he would find "lands in the west."
Having straightened out the long-lived confusion about "the short route
to India," let us see how Prince Henry went to work. Northern or
Mediterranean Africa was well known to Europe, but not the Atlantic
coast. There was an ancient belief that ships could not enter tropic seas
because the intensely hot sun drew up all the water and left only the
slimy ooze of the bottom of the ocean. Cape Nun, of Morocco, was the
most southerly point of Africa yet reached; and about it there was a
discouraging saying,
"Who pass Cape Nun Must turn again or else be gone."
Prince Henry, who was called the "Protector of Studies in Portugal,"
did not believe that rhyme, and determined to show how foolish and
untrue it was. His first step was to establish an observatory and a school
for navigation at Cape St. Vincent, the most westerly point of Europe
and the most southwesterly point of Portugal. To this observatory the
prince invited the most learned astronomers, geographers, and
instrument-makers then living, that they might all work together with
him; and from the little fishing village of Sagres, close to his great
observatory, he sent out sailors who, according to an old writer, "were
well taught in all rules which sailors ought to know, and provided with
the best instruments for navigation."
These expeditions began fifty years before Columbus came to Lisbon.
Most of them sailed south; out there had always been legends of lands
in the west, so westward some of them sailed and found the Azores and
the Madeira Islands. These last had been known to English navigators
more than a century before, but as England sent no people to occupy
and claim them, Portugal took possession of them.
How the ownership of all newly-found portions of the globe came to be
determined is worth looking into. Ever since the time of the Crusades it
was recognized as right that any European Christian ruler might seize

the land and property of any Asiatic infidel. If two or three Christian
rulers united to seize Mohammedan territory and were victorious, the
Pope was to decide which one should own it. But the Crusades were
unsuccessful, and so the question of ownership of land outside of
Europe never came