August, and after a voyage
of twenty, or, as some say, twenty-three days, they sighted the coast,
and shortly afterwards arrived in Calicut, nearly fourteen months after
they started from Lisbon.

About this time the Memlook Sultans of Egypt absolutely cut off the
trade which had been carried on for centuries between the Italian
Republics and the Malabar coast of India _via_ the overland route and
the Red Sea. It was this fact that gave the discovery of the sea-route
to India such enormous importance, and, ultimately, it was one of the
causes of the commercial downfall of the Italian Republics. The Cape
route became the great high-road of commerce to the East, and remained
so down to the present reign, when the re-establishment of the overland
route, and, eventually, the successful cutting of the Suez Canal,
restored commerce to its old paths.

The discoveries of Columbus, Vasco da Gama, John Cabot, and their
successors, had an enormous influence upon shipbuilding, as they not
only widened the area of seaborne commerce, but offered strong
inducements to navigators to venture on the great oceans, far from land,
in craft specially adapted for such voyages. Hitherto, sailors had
either navigated the great inland seas of Europe or had engaged in the
coasting trade, and the longest voyages undertaken before the end of the
fifteenth century were probably those which English merchants made
between Bristol and Iceland, and between our Eastern ports and Bergen.

Henry VII. not only encouraged commerce and voyages of discovery, but
also paid great attention to the needs of the Royal Navy. He added two
warships to his fleet, which were more powerful vessels than any
previously employed in this country. One of them, named the _Regent_,
was copied from a French ship of 600 tons, and was built on the Rother
about 1490. She carried four masts and a bowsprit, and was armed with
225 small guns, called serpentines. The second ship was named the
_Sovereign_, and it is remarkable, as showing the connection at that
time between land and naval architecture, that she was built under the
superintendence of Sir Reginald Bray, who was also the architect of
Henry VII.'s Chapel at Westminster Abbey, and of St. George's Chapel,
Windsor. The _Sovereign_ carried 141 serpentines.

The _Regent_ was burnt in an action off Brest in the reign of Henry
VIII., in the year 1512. She caught fire from a large French carrack,
called the _Marie la Cordeliere