Landing in Table Bay, Diaz planted the banner of St. Philip, under the shadow of Table Mountain,⑤ where a large and flourishing city has since sprung up. In order that future explorers might not be deterred by the name of Cape of Storms, which Diaz had conferred on the promontory, King Emanuel⑥ changed it to Cape of Good Hope.
The circumnavigation of the continent and the direct voyage to India were not accomplished till ten years later. Vas"co de Ga"ma, sailing from Lisbon with six ships on 8th July 1497, on the 20th May of the following year arrived at Cal"icut⑦ on the coast of Malabar".
The problem of a new route to the East⑧ was now solved,and the Portuguese for a time entered on a brilliant career of conquest and commercial prosperity. In the short space of fifteen years they established their authority in India over the whole coast from Ormuz⑨ to Ceylon, from Cape Comorin to the Moluccas, and the entire commerce of the East was almost exclusively in their hands.
The foreign empire of Portugal was brilliant but brief. A single century saw its rise, culmination, and decline. Internal factions and revolts; the want of discipline; neglect of defences; a shameful system of rapine, by which individuals were enriched at the expense of the state; pride, selfishness, and avarice, were among the chief causes of its decay.
- J. H. FYFE
NOTES
① Cape Nun, on the west coast of Morocco, about six hundred miles from Gibraltar.
② The Moors, inhabitants of Maurita"nia (now the Barbary States) in the north of Africa. They were a branch of the Arabs or Moham"medans. They are also called Sar"acens; that is, Eastern people. The Moors conquered Spain in the eighth century; and a fresh inroad took place in the eleventh century, when the Moorish kingdom of Grana"da was founded. Bloody wars between the Moors and the Christians raged during the fourteenth and fifteenthcenturies. Granada was taken by Ferdinand in 1492, and the Moorish power in Spain was completely overthrown.
③ The mariner"s compass.-Its invention is ascribed to the Venetian navigator MarcoPolo, in A. D. 1260; but the needle was floated on straws in water till 1302, when Flavio Gioja of Naples first suspended it freely on a fixed point.
④ Prester John, that is, John the Priest, an imaginary Christian sovereign, supposed in theMiddle Ages to rule in some distant Eastern country.
⑤ Table Mountain.-So called from its flat summit. It is situated on the peninsula between Table Bay and False Bay, and is 3000 feet high. The mass of white cloud which often covers it in summer is called the Table-cloth . The view represents Cape Town, a city of over 200, 000 inhabitants.
⑥ King Eman"uel of Portugal, surnamed the Fortunate, reigned from 1495 till 1521.
⑦ Calicut, whence calico takes its name, a town on the south-west coast of Hindustan", 250 miles from Cape Comorin".
⑧ A new route to the East.-The Cape route has now been superseded by the opening of the Suez Canal.
⑨ Ormuz, the strait joining the Gulfs of Persia and Oman".
QUESTIONS
What was the extent of the Map of the World, until the end of the fifteenth century? How far south were the Atlantic shores of Africa known? What country first explored the greater part of the African coast ? Why was it natural for Portugal to turn its attention to the Atlantic? Who had familiarized the Portuguese with the luxuries of the East? What invention gave a great impulse to navigation?Who enthusiastically promoted the exploration of Africa? How much of the coast had been discovered when he died? Who was the first to double the Cape of Good Hope? When? What was its former name? Who discovered the passage to India round the Cape? When ? How long did the foreign empire of Portugal last ? What led to its fall ?
