onours and estates.

It was the last time he was to see his gallant brother. Before the
return of Don Bartholomew, feeling his end approaching, leaving his
eldest son Don Diego his heir, he made his dying bequests in the
presence of his faithful followers, Mendez and Fiesco, and on the 20th
of May, 1506, at the age of seventy years, he yielded up his dauntless
spirit to his Maker.

CHAPTER NINE.

VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA, TO FIND A WAY TO INDIA BY SEA, AND TO DISCOVER
THE KINGDOM OF PRESTER JOHN--A.D. 1497.

Early voyages of Portuguese to coast of Africa--Prince Henry of
Portugal--Cape Bojador discovered--Madeira visited by Gonzales--Dom Joao
the Second--Bartholomew Diaz discovers Cape of Storms, called by the
King Cape of Good Hope--Envoys sent to Prester John--King Manuel fits
out a squadron--Appoints Vasco da Gama to command them--Paulo da Gama--
Nicholas Coelho--Grand ceremony at leave-taking--Squadron sails--Meet at
Cape de Verde Islands--Enter a bay on African coast--Intercourse with
natives--Veloso nearly caught by them--Ships stand off the land--Terror
of the crews--Wish to return--Da Gama refuses--The Cape of Good Hope
doubled--Ships stand along south coast of Africa--No natives seen--A
tremendous gale--Clamours to return--Mutiny suppressed by a device of
Coelho's--Da Gama puts his pilots in irons.

Nearly a century before Vasco da Gama sailed on his renowned voyage, a
spirit of discovery had been aroused in the breasts of the rulers of
Portugal. Prince Enrique, who had accompanied his father, King Joao, on
an expedition against Cueta in Africa, had obtained from several Moors
much information concerning the coasts of that dark continent, which had
fired his ambition to ascertain more about it. Hitherto Europeans had
not ventured beyond the Cape, to which was given the name of Cabo Nao,
signifying in Portuguese, No, or in other words, This cape is not to be
passed.

Prince Enrique, believing this idea to be a bugbear, fitted out two
vessels in A.D. 1417, with orders to their commanders to push beyond the
dreaded cape. This they succeeded in doing; but on finding the sea
breaking furiously on another cape farther to the south, to which they
gave the name of Bojador, they also turned back.

The next year the Prince sent a second expedition under Joao Gonzales.
Being driven off the African coast by a gale, the ships put into the
harbour of Porto Santo in a small island a little to the northward of