cular mark on his own heap; and this being done, the whole company retired half a day's journey from the place. Then the other negroes, who were the purchasers of the salt, and who seemed to be the inhabitants of certain islands, but who would not on any account allow themselves to be seen or spoken to, came in boats to the place where the heaps of salt were placed ; and, after laying a sum of gold on each heap as its price, retired in their turn. When they were gone, the owners of the salt came back; and if the quantity on the heaps was satisfactory to them, they took it away and left the salt; if not, they left both and withdrew again. “In this manner," says Cada Mosto, "they carry on their traffic, without seeing or speaking to each other; and this custom is very ancient among them, as has been affirmed to me for truth by several merchants of the desert, both Moors and Azanhaji, and other creditable persons." On approaching the Senegal, our voyager was astonished to find how abrupt a change appeared in the face of nature on passing from one side of that river to the other; "for on the south side of the river," he observes, “the inhabitants are all exceedingly black, tall, robust, and well-proportioned; and the country is all clothed in fine verdure and full of fruit-trees; whereas on the north side of the river the men are tawny, meagre, and of small stature, and the country is all dry and barren. This river," he adds, "is, in the opinion of the learned, a branch of the Gihon, which flows from the Terrestrial Paradise, and was named the Niger by the ancients, and which, running through the whole of Æthiopia, divides into many branches as it approaches the ocean in the West. The Nile, which is another branch of the Gihon, flows into the Mediterranean." This belief, that the chief rivers of Africa and Asia flowed from common sources in some distant Æthiopian land, seems to have suffered little change from the days of Lucan and Virgil to those of Cada Mosto. About eighty miles beyond the Senegal our voyager arrived at the territory of a chief called Budomel, who appears to have been well known to the Portuguese as a great purchaser of European commodities. He received Cada Mosto with civility and attention; and the Venetian lived for four weeks on the hospitality of the negroes. The table of Budomel, according to the custom of the country, was supplied by his wives, each of whom sent him a certain number of dishes every day. He and his nobles ate on the ground without any regularity or social forms. Cada Mosto once ventured to declare to him, in the presence of all his doctors, that the religion of Mahomet was false, and the Romish the only true faith at this the Arabs were exceedingly enraged; but king Budomel only laughed, and observed, "that the religion of the Christians was unquestionably good, as none but God could have gifted them with so much riches and understanding; but yet he added, with some show of reason, "that inasmuch as God is just, and the Christians possess all the good things of this life, the negroes have a better chance of inheriting the heavenly paradise." The women of this country appeared to the Venetian extremely pleasant and merry, especially the young ones: they delighted in singing and dancing by moonlight. Quitting the country of king Budomel, Cada Mosto doubled Cape Verd, and sailed to the south along the coast. "The land," he says, "is here all low, and full of fine large trees, which are continually green, as the new leaves are grown before the old ones fall off, and they never wither like the trees in Europe; they grow also so near the shore, that they seem to drink, as it were, the water of the sea. The coast is most beautiful, insomuch that I never saw any thing comparable to it, though I have sailed much in the Levant and in the western parts of Europe. It is well watered every where by small rivers, which are useless for trade, however, as they do not admit vessels of any size." The narrative of Cada Mosto is in itself extremely entertaining; and it also shows the complete success that attended the exertions of the Portuguese prince, who lived to re ceive from his own servants an accurate account of the negro countries, and to see a considerable trade and flourishing colonies, the worthy progeny of his enlightened labours. In the year 1449 king Alphonso granted a license to his uncle don Henry to colonise the Azores, which had been discovered by the Flemings and the Portuguese some years before. The settlements made on the Cape Verd, the Madeira, and Canary islands, formed so many schools of seamen, and afforded numerous incidental opportunities for the promotion of maritime discoveries. Every year new expeditions were fitted out, and the limit of navigation to the south was uniformly though but slowly receding. Don Henry had resided for many years at Sagres on Cape St. Vincent, where the Atlantic, spread before his eyes, continually called up to his contemplation his favourite schemes of geographical discovery. In this favourite retreat he expired in 1463, in the sixty-seventh year of his age; and the activity of maritime enterprise was in consequence suspended for some years. During a long period of fifty-two years this patriotic prince devoted almost his whole attention, and the ample revenues which he enjoyed as duke of Viseo and grand master of the military order of Christ, to his favourite scheme of extending the maritime knowledge of his country and promoting the discovery of the coasts of Africa. No very brilliant success, indeed, at any time rewarded his perseverance or the courage of his servants; but he laid an indestructible foundation of useful knowledge, too solid to give way to the ignorant prejudices of the age; and he united so many plans of immediate utility with his great project of discovery, as prevented the latter from ever falling into oblivion. The labours of his life had succeeded only in discovering about fifteen hundred miles of coast, for none of his servants had reached before his death within six or eight degrees of the equator; but the numerous successive efforts made under his commands, prove his solid conviction of the possibility of extending the limits of navigation towards the south, and his unwearied perseverance in combating the obstacles that prevented the completion of his schemes. CHAP. X. THE PASSAGE BY THE CAPE DISCOVERED. THE PORTUGUESE ERECT A FORT ON THE GOLD COAST. THEIR INTERVIEW WITH THE NATIVE PRINCE. -THE POPE'S GRANT. VOYAGE OF DIEGO CAM. VISITS CONGO. BRINGS HOME NATIVES. KING OF CONGO FAVOURS THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. -THE KING OF BENIN DESIRES MISSIONARIES. - PRINCE BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ DIS- OGANE. PRESTER JOHN IN AFRICA. ORIGIN OF THIS BELIEF AFTER the decease of don Henry, the illustrious promoter of maritime discovery, the progress of the Portuguese along the coast of Africa received a considerable check, as the attention of Alphonso V. was wholly engrossed by his quarrels with the court of Castile. Ever since the year 1453 considerable importations of gold had been made to Portugal from the coast of Africa, but the efforts to extend discoveries farther to the south appear to have been remitted about the same time. In 1469 a merchant named Fernando Gomez farmed the Guinea trade from king Alphonso for the yearly rent of five hundred ducats, and bound himself at the same time to extend the discovery of the coast five hundred leagues to the south during the period of his exclusive privilege. During this time were discovered the islands of Fernando Po, Prince's Isle, St. Thomas, and An nobon; the last being within a degree and a half of the equator. No detailed relations remain of the several voyages in which these discoveries were effected; but it appears that during the period which elapsed between the death of don Henry in 1463 and that of king Alphonso, which took place in 1481, the navigations of the Portuguese along the coast of Africa had made a great advancement; comprehending the whole coast of Guinea, with its gulfs named the Bights of Benin and Biafra, the adjacent islands, and the shore extending southwards to the northern frontier of the kingdom of Congo. On the accession of John II. to the throne of Portugal in 1481, the discoveries along the coast of Africa were resumed with fresh spirit. The revenues of John, while he was infante or hereditary prince, flowed principally from the profits of the Guinea trade or the importation of gold from the haven of Mina; and among the first measures of his reign, he turned his attention to the improvement and extension of that valuable branch of commerce. For this purpose he gave orders to construct a fortress and church at the port of Mina. All the requisite materials were shipped from Lisbon in a squadron of ten caravels and two transports, with 500 soldiers and 200 labourers or workmen of various kinds. The expedition was placed under the command of don Diego d'Azambuja, a brave and experienced officer. As soon as the armament reached the coast of Guinea, Azambuja sent forward a person well acquainted with the country to apprize Camarança, the negro chief of the district, of their arrival, and to desire a conference with him. Early next morning the Portuguese disembarked, carrying their arms concealed upon their persons, lest they might unexpectedly meet with hostilities from the natives. They then marched forward in pompous array to a great tree not far from the negro village of Aldea, and where a spot had been selected as a convenient situation |