The Story of Mankind [85]
the Canary Islands--re-discovered
the island of Madeira which a century before had been visited
by a Genoese ship, carefully charted the Azores which had
been vaguely known to both the Portuguese and the Spaniards,
and caught a glimpse of the mouth of the Senegal River on
the west coast of Africa, which they supposed to be the western
mouth of the Nile. At last, by the middle of the Fifteenth
Century, they saw Cape Verde, or the Green Cape, and the
Cape Verde Islands, which lie almost halfway between the
coast of Africa and Brazil.
But Henry did not restrict himself in his investigations to
the waters of the Ocean. He was Grand Master of the Order
of Christ. This was a Portuguese continuation of the crusading
order of the Templars which had been abolished by
Pope Clement V in the year 1312 at the request of King
Philip the Fair of France, who had improved the occasion by
burning his own Templars at the stake and stealing all their
possessions. Prince Henry used the revenues of the domains
of his religious order to equip several expeditions which explored
the hinterland of the Sahara and of the coast of Guinea.
But he was still very much a son of the Middle Ages and
spent a great deal of time and wasted a lot of money upon a
search for the mysterious ``Presser John,'' the mythical Christian
Priest who was said to be the Emperor of a vast empire
``situated somewhere in the east.'' The story of this strange
potentate had first been told in Europe in the middle of the
twelfth century. For three hundred years people had tried
to find ``Presser John'' and his descendants Henry took part
in the search. Thirty years after his death, the riddle was
solved.
In the year 1486 Bartholomew Diaz, trying to find the land
of Prester John by sea, had reached the southernmost point
of Africa. At first he called it the Storm Cape, on account of
the strong winds which had prevented him from continuing his
voyage toward the east, but the Lisbon pilots who understood
the importance of this discovery in their quest for the India
water route, changed the name into that of the Cape of Good
Hope.
One year later, Pedro de Covilham, provided with letters
of credit on the house of Medici, started upon a similar mission
by land. He crossed the Mediterranean and after leaving
Egypt, he travelled southward. He reached Aden, and from
there, travelling through the waters of the Persian Gulf which
few white men had seen since the days of Alexander the Great,
eighteen centuries before, he visited Goa and Calicut on the
coast of India where he got a great deal of news about the
island of the Moon (Madagascar) which was supposed to lie
halfway between Africa and India. Then he returned, paid
a secret visit to Mecca and to Medina, crossed the Red Sea
once more and in the year 1490 he discovered the realm of
Prester John, who was no one less than the Black Negus (or
King) of Abyssinia, whose ancestors had adopted Christianity
in the fourth century, seven hundred years before the Christian
missionaries had found their way to Scandinavia.
These many voyages had convinced the Portuguese geographers
and cartographers that while the voyage to the Indies
by an eastern sea-route was possible, it was by no means easy.
Then there arose a great debate. Some people wanted to continue
the explorations east of the Cape of Good Hope. Others
said, ``No, we must sail west across the Atlantic and then we
shall reach Cathay.''
Let us state right here that most intelligent people of that
day were firmly convinced that the earth was not as flat as a
pancake but was round. The Ptolemean system of the universe,
invented and duly described by Claudius Ptolemy, the great
Egyptian geographer, who had lived in the second century of
our era, which had served the simple needs of the men of the
Middle Ages, had long been discarded by the scientists of the
Renaissance.
the island of Madeira which a century before had been visited
by a Genoese ship, carefully charted the Azores which had
been vaguely known to both the Portuguese and the Spaniards,
and caught a glimpse of the mouth of the Senegal River on
the west coast of Africa, which they supposed to be the western
mouth of the Nile. At last, by the middle of the Fifteenth
Century, they saw Cape Verde, or the Green Cape, and the
Cape Verde Islands, which lie almost halfway between the
coast of Africa and Brazil.
But Henry did not restrict himself in his investigations to
the waters of the Ocean. He was Grand Master of the Order
of Christ. This was a Portuguese continuation of the crusading
order of the Templars which had been abolished by
Pope Clement V in the year 1312 at the request of King
Philip the Fair of France, who had improved the occasion by
burning his own Templars at the stake and stealing all their
possessions. Prince Henry used the revenues of the domains
of his religious order to equip several expeditions which explored
the hinterland of the Sahara and of the coast of Guinea.
But he was still very much a son of the Middle Ages and
spent a great deal of time and wasted a lot of money upon a
search for the mysterious ``Presser John,'' the mythical Christian
Priest who was said to be the Emperor of a vast empire
``situated somewhere in the east.'' The story of this strange
potentate had first been told in Europe in the middle of the
twelfth century. For three hundred years people had tried
to find ``Presser John'' and his descendants Henry took part
in the search. Thirty years after his death, the riddle was
solved.
In the year 1486 Bartholomew Diaz, trying to find the land
of Prester John by sea, had reached the southernmost point
of Africa. At first he called it the Storm Cape, on account of
the strong winds which had prevented him from continuing his
voyage toward the east, but the Lisbon pilots who understood
the importance of this discovery in their quest for the India
water route, changed the name into that of the Cape of Good
Hope.
One year later, Pedro de Covilham, provided with letters
of credit on the house of Medici, started upon a similar mission
by land. He crossed the Mediterranean and after leaving
Egypt, he travelled southward. He reached Aden, and from
there, travelling through the waters of the Persian Gulf which
few white men had seen since the days of Alexander the Great,
eighteen centuries before, he visited Goa and Calicut on the
coast of India where he got a great deal of news about the
island of the Moon (Madagascar) which was supposed to lie
halfway between Africa and India. Then he returned, paid
a secret visit to Mecca and to Medina, crossed the Red Sea
once more and in the year 1490 he discovered the realm of
Prester John, who was no one less than the Black Negus (or
King) of Abyssinia, whose ancestors had adopted Christianity
in the fourth century, seven hundred years before the Christian
missionaries had found their way to Scandinavia.
These many voyages had convinced the Portuguese geographers
and cartographers that while the voyage to the Indies
by an eastern sea-route was possible, it was by no means easy.
Then there arose a great debate. Some people wanted to continue
the explorations east of the Cape of Good Hope. Others
said, ``No, we must sail west across the Atlantic and then we
shall reach Cathay.''
Let us state right here that most intelligent people of that
day were firmly convinced that the earth was not as flat as a
pancake but was round. The Ptolemean system of the universe,
invented and duly described by Claudius Ptolemy, the great
Egyptian geographer, who had lived in the second century of
our era, which had served the simple needs of the men of the
Middle Ages, had long been discarded by the scientists of the
Renaissance.