Madeira, and then returned home. The Prince, on hearing of this,
dispatched a ship carrying some colonists provided with agricultural
instruments, plants, and seeds, as well as cattle and other animals.
Among the latter were a couple of rabbits, which increased so
prodigiously, that the corn and plants of all descriptions were
destroyed by them, and as they could not be got rid of, it became
necessary to remove the human inhabitants.

The next year, by order of the Prince, Gonzales, again sailing,
re-discovered the island of Madeira, at which the Englishman, Lionel
Machin, with the hapless Arabella Darcy, two centuries before, had
landed and died. The Portuguese gave to it the name of Madeira, which
means Wood, in consequence of finding it overgrown with trees. To clear
a part for settlement they set the wood on fire, but being of a dry
character, the trees burned until the whole were destroyed.

Several years passed, when Prince Enrique dispatched an experienced
seaman, Captain Gilianez, charging him to pass the dreaded Cape of
Bojador. Gilianez proceeded thirty leagues beyond it, but dreaded to go
farther. He turned back, therefore, satisfied at having performed his
commission. Next year he proceeded another twelve leagues to the south,
to a part of the coast where a number of sea-wolves, or rather seals,
were taken.

Thus, year by year, expeditions were sent out, each gaining, step by
step, a knowledge of the African coast, until in the reign of Dom Joao
the Second, in 1486, Bartholomew Diaz sailed with three ships, resolved
to proceed farther than any of his predecessors. Touching at several
places on the coast, he at length reached an until then unknown cape, to
which he gave the name of Il Cabo Tormentoso, or the Cape of Storms, on
account of the furious gales and heavy seas he there encountered.

The seamen, frightened by the weather, and believing that Nature had set
a barrier against their further progress, insisted on returning,
although Diaz was convinced that he had reached the southern end of the
continent. On the arrival of Diaz at Lisbon, the King, delighted with
his discovery, gave to the cape the name of Cabo de Boa Esperanza, or
Cape of Good Hope. Dom Joao had in the meantime dispatched overland two
envoys with directions to visit the kingdom of Prester John, and was
preparing to send out an expedition by sea, when death put a stop to his
projects.

His successor, Dom Manoel, resolved, ho