sted by a Cortes at
Evora and executed, and he murdered his cousin the duke of Vizeu with
his own hand) he destroyed the power of the feudal nobility. Enriched by
the confiscation of his victims' possessions, the king was enabled to do
without the help of the Cortes, and so to establish himself as a
despotic ruler. Yet he governed for the benefit of the people at large,
and reversing the policy of his father Affonso directed the energies of
his people towards maritime commerce and exploration instead of wasting
them in quarrelling with Castile or in attempting the conquest of
Morocco. It was he who, following the example of his grand-uncle Prince
Henry, sent out ship after ship to find a way to India round the
continent of Africa. Much had already been done, for in 1471 Fernando Po
had reached the mouth of the Niger, and all the coast southward from
Morocco was well known and visited annually, for slaves used to
cultivate the vast estates in the Alemtejo; but it was not till 1484
that Diogo Cao, sent out by the king, discovered the mouth of the Congo,
or till 1486 that Bartholomeu Diaz doubled the Cabo Tormentoso, an
ill-omened name which Dom Joao changed to Good Hope.

Dom Joao II. did not live to greet Vasco da Gama on his return from
India, for he died in 1495, but he had already done so much that Dom
Manoel had only to reap the reward of his predecessor's labours. The one
great mistake he made was that in 1493 he dismissed Columbus as a
dreamer, and so left the glory of the discovery of America to Ferdinand
and Isabella. Besides doing so much for the trade of his country, Dom
Joao did what he could to promote literature and art. Andrea da
Sansovino worked for him for nine years from 1491 to 1499, and although
scarcely anything done by him can now be found, he here too set an
example to Dom Manoel, who summoned so many foreign artists to the
country and who sent so many of his own people to study in Italy and in
Flanders.

Four years before Dom Joao died, his only son Affonso, riding down from
Almerim to the Tagus to meet his father, who had been bathing, fell from
his horse and was killed. In 1495 he himself died, and was succeeded by
his cousin, Manoel the Fortunate. Dom Manoel indeed deserved the name of
'Venturoso.' He succeeded his cousin just in time to see Vasco da Gama
start on his great voyage which ended in 1497 at Calicut. Three years
later Pedro Alvares Cabral landed in Brazil, and before the king died,