eyond the range of the mere
conquering soldier. He was especially learned, for that age of the
world, being skilled in mathematical and geographical knowledge. And it
may be noticed here that the greatest geographical discoveries have been
made by men conversant with the book knowledge of their own time. A
work, for instance, often seen in the hands of Columbus, which his son
mentions as having had much influence with him, was the learned treatise
of Cardinal Petro de Aliaco (Pierre d'Ailly), the _Imago Mundi_.

But to return to Prince Henry of Portugal. We learn that he had
conversed much with those who had made voyages in different parts of the
world, and particularly with Moors from Fez and Morocco, so that he came
to hear of the Azeneghis, a people bordering on the country of the
negroes of Jalof. Such was the scanty information of a positive kind
which the Prince had to guide his endeavors. Then there were the
suggestions and the inducements which to a willing mind were to be found
in the shrewd conjectures of learned men, the fables of chivalry, and,
perhaps, in the confused records of forgotten knowledge once possessed
by Arabic geographers. The story of Prister John, which had spread over
Europe since the crusades, was well known to the Portuguese Prince. A
mysterious voyage of a certain wandering saint, called St. Brendan, was
not without its influence upon an enthusiastic mind. Moreover, there
were many sound motives urging the Prince to maritime discovery; among
which, a desire to fathom the power of the Moors, a wish to find a new
outlet for traffic, and a longing to spread the blessings of the faith
may be enumerated. The especial reason which impelled Prince Henry to
take the burden of discovery on himself was that neither mariner nor
merchant would be likely to adopt an enterprise in which there was no
clear hope of profit. It belonged, therefore, to great men and princes,
and among such he knew of no one but himself who was inclined to it.

The map of the world being before us, let us reduce it to the
proportions it filled in Prince Henry's time: let us look at our infant
world. First, take away those two continents, for so we may almost call
them, each much larger than a Europe, to the far west. Then cancel that
square, massive-looking piece to the extreme southeast; happily there
are no penal settlements there yet. Then turn to Africa: instead of that
form of inverted cone which it presents, and which