CHAPTER IV.

THE SEARCH FOR THE INDIES.

_EASTWARD OR PORTUGUESE ROUTE._

Question as to whether Asia could be reached by sailing around Africa 295

Views of Eratosthenes 296

Opposing theory of Ptolemy 297

Story of the Phoenician voyage in the time of Necho 298-300

Voyage of Hanno 300, 301

Voyages of Sataspes and Eudoxus 302

Wild exaggerations 303

Views of Pomponius Mela 304, 305

Ancient theory of the five zones 306, 307

The Inhabited World, or Oecumene, and the Antipodes 308

Curious notions about Taprobane (Ceylon) 309

Question as to the possibility of crossing the torrid zone 309

Notions about sailing "up and down hill" 310, 311

Superstitious fancies 311, 312

Clumsiness of ships in the fifteenth century 312

Dangers from famine and scurvy 313

The mariner's compass; an interesting letter from Brunetto Latini to Guido Cavalcanti 313-315

Calculating latitudes and longitudes 315

Prince Henry the Navigator 316-326

His idea of an ocean route to the Indies, and what it might bring 318

The Sacred Promontory 319

The Madeira and Canary islands 320-322

Gil Eannes passes Cape Bojador 323

Beginning of the modern slave-trade, 1442 323

Papal grant of heathen countries to the Portuguese crown 324, 325

Advance to Sierra Leone 326

Advance to the Hottentot coast 326, 327

Note upon the extent of European acquaintance with savagery and the lower forms of barbarism previous to the fifteenth century 327-329

Effect of the Portuguese discoveries upon the theories of Ptolemy and Mela 329, 330

News of Prester John; Covilham's journey 331

Bartholomew Dias passes the Cape of Good Hope and enters the Indian ocean 332

Some effects of this discovery 333

Bartholomew Columbus took part in it 333

Connection between these voyages and the work of Christopher Columbus 334