ry and patience in making this voyage.
He had proved that the stories about the fiery zone were false, and
that the African coast had an end.

[Illustration: Spanish and Portuguese Vessels.]

It remained, however, for Vasco da Gama, then a young man of about
twenty years of age, to prove that India could be reached in this way.

In 1497 Da Gama sailed from Lisbon to the Cape of Good Hope, doubled
the cape, and proceeded across the Indian Ocean to Hindustan.

He returned to Lisbon in 1499, his ships loaded with the rich products
of the East, including cloves, spices, pepper, ginger, and nutmeg.
He also brought with him rich robes of silk and satin, costly gems,
and many articles made of carved ivory, or of gold and of silver.

The King of Portugal was greatly pleased with what Da Gama had
accomplished, and his successful voyage was the wonder of the day.

[Illustration: Costume of Explorers.]

The same year that Da Gama returned from India by a route around the
south end of Africa, with his ships loaded with rich produce, Sebastian
Cabot returned from a fruitless voyage to the strange, barren coast
of North America.

It was no wonder that the voyages of Columbus and the Cabots were
thought unsuccessful as compared with the voyage Da Gama had just
finished.

No one then dreamed of a New World; all were searching for the
Orient--for golden Cathay.

JOHN AND SEBASTIAN CABOT'S VOYAGES.

John Cabot was a Venetian merchant, and a bold seafaring man. For
purposes of trade he had taken up his home in Bristol, England. Bristol
at that time was the most important seaport of England, and carried
on a large fishing trade with Iceland.

[Illustration: Sebastian Cabot.]

When the news of the voyage of Columbus reached Bristol, Cabot begged
the English king, Henry VII., to let him go and see if he could find
a shorter route to the Indies. The king gave his consent, and told
Cabot to take possession of any land he might discover for England.

Cabot fitted out his vessel and, taking his son Sebastian and a crew
of eighteen men with him, set sail in 1497. He headed his ship westward,
hoping to reach the Spice Islands and that part of Asia which was so
rich in gold, and which Columbus had failed to find. At last, one sunny
morning in June, land was sighted in the distance.

This land, which was probably a part of Nova Scotia, proved to be a
lonely shore with dense forests. Cabot called it "Land First Seen."
It wa