ough he had misled later students
by picturing the Indian Ocean as completely surrounded by Africa,
which he conceived to extend indefinitely southward and join Asia
on the southeast, leaving no sea-route open from the Atlantic. There
was another body of opinion of long standing, however, which outlined
Africa much as it actually is. Friar Roger Bacon, whose interest
in the compass has already been mentioned, collected statements of
classical authorities and other evidence to show that Asia could
be reached by sailing directly westward, and that the distance was
not great; and this material was published in Paris in a popular
_Imago Mundi_ of 1410. In general, the best geographical knowledge
of the period, though it underestimated the distance from Europe
westward to Asia and was completely ignorant of the vast continents
lying between, gave support to the theories which the voyages of
Diaz, Vasco da Gama, and Columbus magnificently proved true.

When the best sailors of the time were Italians, and when astronomical
and other scientific knowledge of use in navigation was largely
monopolized by Arabs and Jews, it seems strange that the isolated
and hitherto insignificant country of Portugal should have taken,
and for a century or more maintained primacy in the great epoch
of geographical discovery. The fact is explained, not so much by
her proximity to the African coast and the outlying islands in the
Atlantic, as by the energetic and well-directed patronage which
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) extended to voyages of
exploration and to the development of every branch of nautical
art. The third son of John the Great of Portugal, and a nephew on
his mother's side of Henry IV of England, the prince in 1415 led
an armada to the capture of Ceuta from the Moors, and thereafter,
as governor of the conquered territory and of the southern province
of Portugal, settled at Saigres near Cape St. Vincent. On this
promontory, almost at the western verge of the known world, Henry
founded a city, Villa do Iffante, erected an observatory on the
cliff, and gathered round him the best sailors, geographers and
astronomers of his age.

[Illustration: PORTUGUESE VOYAGES AND POSSESSIONS]

Under this intelligent stimulus, Portuguese navigators within a
century rounded the Cape of Good Hope, opened the sea route to
the Indies, discovered Brazil, circumnavigated the globe, and made
Portugal the richest nation in Europe, with a great c