The Life of Columbus | Page 8

that in that day was considered equal to a labour of Hercules. Gil
Eannes returned to a grateful and most delighted master. He informed
the prince that he had landed, and that the soil appeared to him
unworked and fruitful; and, like a prudent man, he could not only tell
of foreign plants, but had brought some of them home with him in a
barrel of the new-found earth, plants much like those which bear, in
Portugal, the roses of Santa Maria. The prince rejoiced to see them, and
gave thanks to God, "as if they had been the fruit and sign of the
promised land; and besought our Lady, whose name the plants bore,
that she would guide and set forth the doings in this discovery to the
praise and glory of God, and to the increase of His holy faith."

ANTONIO GONCALVEZ AND HIS CAPTURE OF MOORS
The old world had now obtained a glimpse beyond Cape Bojador. The
fearful "outstretcher" had no longer much interest for them, being a
thing that was overcome, and which was to descend from an
impossibility to a landmark, from which, by degrees, they would
almost silently steal down the coast, counting their miles by thousands,
until Vasco de Gama should boldly carry them round to India. But now
came stormy times for the Portuguese kingdom, and the troubles of the
regency occupied the prince's attention to the exclusion of
cosmography.
In 1441, however, there was a voyage which led to very important
consequences. In that year Antonio Goncalvez, master of the robes to
Prince Henry, was sent out with a vessel to load it with skins of
"sea-wolves," a number of them having been seen, during a former
voyage, at the mouth of a river about a hundred and fifty miles beyond
Cape Bojador. Goncalvez resolved to signalize his voyage by a feat that
should gratify his master more than the capture of sea-wolves; and he
accordingly planned and executed successfully an expedition for
seizing some Azeneghi Moors, in order, as he told his companions, to
take home "some of the language of that country." Tristam, another of
Prince Henry's captains, afterwards falling in with Goncalvez, a further
capture of Moors was made, and Goncalvez returned to Portugal with
the spoil. This voyage seems to have prompted the application which
Prince Henry made, in the same year, to Pope Martin the Fifth, praying
that his holiness would grant to the Portuguese crown all that should be
conquered, from Cape Bojador to the Indies, together with plenary
indulgence for those who should die while engaged in such conquests.
The pope granted these requests; though afterwards, as we shall see, the
Spanish discoveries of Columbus and his successors rendered it
necessary that the terms of the grant should be modified. "And now,"
says a Portuguese historian, "with this apostolic grace, with the breath
of royal favour, and already with the applause of the people, the prince
pursued his purpose with more courage, and with greater outlay."
COMMENCEMENT OF THE SLAVE TRADE.

One proof of this popular approval was furnished by the formation of a
company at Lagos, in 1444, who received permission from the prince
to undertake discovery along the coast of Africa, paying him a certain
portion of any gains which they might make. Whether the company
was expressly founded for slave traffic may be doubtful; but it is
certain that this branch of their business was soon found to be the most
lucrative one, and that from this time Europe may be said to have made
a distinct beginning in the slave trade, henceforth to spread on all sides,
like the waves on troubled water, and not, like them, to become fainter
and fainter as the circles widen. For slavery was now assuming an
entirely new phase. Hitherto, the slave had been merely the captive in
war, "the fruit of the spear," as he has figuratively been called, who
lived in the house of his conquer, and laboured at his lands. Now,
however, the slave was no longer an accident of war. He had become
the object of war. He was no longer a mere accidental subject of barter.
He was to be sought for, to be hunted out, to be produced; and this
change accordingly gave rise to a new branch of commerce.
Some time before 1454 a Portuguese factory was established at one of
the Arguim islands, and this factory soon systematized the slave-trade.
Thither came all kinds of merchandize from Portugal, and gold and
slaves were taken back in return; the number of the latter sent home
annually, at the time of Ca da Mosto's visit in 1454, being between
seven and eight hundred.
The narrative of the Portuguese voyages along the African coast is, for
the most part, rather