coast to signify their claim; but making no settlements, for
Africa was only an obstruction on the way to the Indies.

Each successive voyage was made under a different commander, until
1486, when the squadron of Bartholomew Diaz was blown offshore, out
into the Atlantic. When the storm fell he sailed east until he had
passed the expected meridian of Africa, and then, turning northward,
struck land far beyond Cape Agulhas. He had solved the problem, and
India was within his reach. His men soon after refused to go farther,
and he was forced to renounce the prize. On his way back he doubled
the Cape, which, from his former experience, he called the Cape
Tempestuous, until the king, showing that he understood, gave it a
name of better omen. Nevertheless, Portugal did no more for ten
years, the years that were made memorable by Spain. Then, under a new
king, Emmanuel the Fortunate, Vasco da Gama went out to complete the
unfinished work of Diaz, lest Columbus, fulfilling the prophecy of
Toscanelli, should reach Cathay by a shorter route, and rob them of
their reward. The right man had been found. It was all plain
sailing; and he plucked the ripe fruit. Vasco da Gama's voyage to the
Cape was the longest ever made till then. At Malindi, on the
equatorial east coast of Africa, he found a pilot, and, striking
across the Indian Ocean by the feeble monsoon of 1497, sighted the
Ghats in May. The first cargo from India covered the expenses many
times over. The splendour of the achievement was recognised at once,
and men were persuaded that Emmanuel would soon be the wealthiest of
European monarchs. So vast a promise of revenue required to be made
secure by arms, and a force was sent out under Cabral.

The work thus attempted in the East seemed to many too much for so
small a kingdom. They objected that the country would break its back
in straining so far; that the soil ought first to be cultivated at
home; that it would be better to import labour from Germany than to
export it to India. Cabral had not been many weeks at sea when these
murmurs received a memorable confirmation. Following the advice of Da
Gama to avoid the calms of the Gulf of Guinea, he took a westerly
course, made the coast of South America, and added, incidentally and
without knowing it, a region not much smaller than Europe to the
dominions of his sovereign.

The Portuguese came to India as traders, not as conquerors, and
desired, not territory