way,
and he would throw into the sea whosoever spoke such things. None could
withstand such an iron will, and they struggled on to Mossel Bay,
already discovered by Diaz. Here they landed "and bought a fat ox for
three bracelets. This ox we dined off on Sunday; we found him very
fat, and his meat nearly as toothsome as the beef of Portugal"--a
pleasant meal, indeed, after three months of salted food. Here, too,
they found "penguins as large as ducks, which had no feathers on their
wings and which bray like asses."

But there was no time to linger here. They sailed onwards till they
had passed and left behind the last pillar erected by Diaz, near the
mouth of the Great Fish River. All was new now. No European had sailed
these seas, no European had passed this part of the African coast.
On Christmas Day they found land to which, in commemoration of Christ's
Nativity, they gave the name of Natal. Passing Delagoa Bay and Sofala
without sighting them, Vasco da Gama at last reached the mouth of a
broad river, now known as Quilimane River, but called by the weary
mariners the River of Mercy or Good Tokens. Here they spent a month
cleaning and repairing, and here for the first time in the history
of discovery the fell disease of scurvy broke out. The hands and feet
of the men swelled, their gums grew over their teeth, which fell out
so that they could not eat. This proved to be one of the scourges of
early navigation--the result of too much salted food on the high seas,
and no cure was found till the days of Captain Cook. Arrived at
Mozambique--a low-lying coral island--they found no less than four
ocean-going ships belonging to Arab traders laden with gold, silver,
cloves, pepper, ginger, rubies, and pearls from the East.

[Illustration: AFRICA AS IT WAS KNOWN AFTER DA GAMA'S EXPEDITIONS.
From Juan de la Cosa's map of 1500.]

There were rumours, too, of a land belonging to Prester John where
precious stones and spices were so plentiful that they could be
collected in baskets. His land could only be reached by camels. "This
information rendered us so happy that we cried with joy, and prayed
God to grant us health that we might behold what we so desired," relates
the faithful journal. But difficulties and delays prevented their
reaching the ever-mythical land of Prester John. Their next
landing-place was Mombasa. Here they were nearly killed by some
treacherous Mohammedans, who hated these "dogs of Christians" as they
calle