Discoverers and Explorers | Page 9

ventured as far as the equator had turned back
in fear of steaming whirlpools and of fiery belts of heat.
In 1486, six years before Columbus discovered America, the King of
Portugal sent Bartholomew Diaz, a bold and daring navigator, to find
the end of the African coast.
Bartholomew Diaz sailed through the fiery zone without meeting any
of the dreadful misfortunes which the sailors so feared. When he had
sailed beyond the tropic of Capricorn, a severe storm arose. The wind
blew his three vessels directly south for thirteen days, during which
time he lost sight of land. When the sun shone again, Diaz headed his
vessels eastward, but as no land appeared, he again changed the
direction, this time heading them toward the north. After sailing
northward a short time, land was reached about two hundred miles east
of the Cape of Good Hope.
Diaz now pushed on four hundred miles farther along the coast of
Africa, and saw the wide expanse of the Indian Ocean before him. Here
the sailors refused to go any farther, and Diaz, although he wanted very
much to go ahead and try to reach India, was obliged to return.
On the way home, the vessels passed close to the cape which projects
from the south coast of Africa, and Diaz named it Stormy Cape, in
memory of the frightful storm which hid it from view on the way down.

When they reached Lisbon, however, King John said that it should be
called the Cape of Good Hope, because they now had hope that the
southern route to India was found.
Diaz won much praise for his bravery and patience in making this
voyage. He had proved that the stories about the fiery zone were false,
and that the African coast had an end.
[Illustration: Spanish and Portuguese Vessels.]
It remained, however, for Vasco da Gama, then a young man of about
twenty years of age, to prove that India could be reached in this way.
In 1497 Da Gama sailed from Lisbon to the Cape of Good Hope,
doubled the cape, and proceeded across the Indian Ocean to Hindustan.
He returned to Lisbon in 1499, his ships loaded with the rich products
of the East, including cloves, spices, pepper, ginger, and nutmeg. He
also brought with him rich robes of silk and satin, costly gems, and
many articles made of carved ivory, or of gold and of silver.
The King of Portugal was greatly pleased with what Da Gama had
accomplished, and his successful voyage was the wonder of the day.
[Illustration: Costume of Explorers.]
The same year that Da Gama returned from India by a route around the
south end of Africa, with his ships loaded with rich produce, Sebastian
Cabot returned from a fruitless voyage to the strange, barren coast of
North America.
It was no wonder that the voyages of Columbus and the Cabots were
thought unsuccessful as compared with the voyage Da Gama had just
finished.
No one then dreamed of a New World; all were searching for the
Orient--for golden Cathay.

JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT'S VOYAGES.
John Cabot was a Venetian merchant, and a bold seafaring man. For
purposes of trade he had taken up his home in Bristol, England. Bristol
at that time was the most important seaport of England, and carried on
a large fishing trade with Iceland.
[Illustration: Sebastian Cabot.]
When the news of the voyage of Columbus reached Bristol, Cabot
begged the English king, Henry VII., to let him go and see if he could
find a shorter route to the Indies. The king gave his consent, and told
Cabot to take possession of any land he might discover for England.
Cabot fitted out his vessel and, taking his son Sebastian and a crew of
eighteen men with him, set sail in 1497. He headed his ship westward,
hoping to reach the Spice Islands and that part of Asia which was so
rich in gold, and which Columbus had failed to find. At last, one sunny
morning in June, land was sighted in the distance.
This land, which was probably a part of Nova Scotia, proved to be a
lonely shore with dense forests. Cabot called it "Land First Seen." It
was entirely deserted, not a human being nor a hut of any kind being in
sight.
Here Cabot and his son Sebastian and some of his crew went ashore,
and were the first white men, excepting the Norsemen, to step upon the
mainland of America. Up to this time, Columbus had discovered only
islands of the West Indies. A year later than this he discovered the
continent of South America. Cabot and his companions erected a large
cross on the shore, and planted two flagpoles in the ground, from which
they unfurled the English