an, the point where these
two lines intersect is the _exact_ position of the ship upon the sea.

The size and form of ships having gradually improved, the compass and
other scientific appliances having been discovered, cannon also and
gunpowder having been invented, seamen became more courageous and
venturesome; and at last the Portuguese nation began that career of
maritime enterprise which won for it the admiration of the world.

About the beginning of the fourteenth century (1330), the Canary
Islands, lying off the west coast of Africa, were re-discovered by the
accident of a French ship being blown off the coast in a storm, and
finding shelter amongst them. This group had been known to the ancients
under the name of the Fortunate Islands, but had been forgotten for more
than a thousand years. During the course of the century the Spaniards
plucked up courage to make discoveries and settlements upon them,
although by so doing they were compelled to undergo that much-dreaded
ordeal--sailing _out of sight_ of their once fondly "hugged" land!

In the beginning of the next century arose a prince, Don Henry, son of
John the First of Portugal, whose anxiety to promote discovery, and to
find a passage by sea round the coast of Africa to India, induced him to
send out many expeditions, all of which accomplished something, and many
of which added very extensively to the geographical knowledge of the
world at that time. Navigators, sent out by him from time to time,
discovered the Madeira Islands; sailed along the western coast of Africa
a considerable distance; ascertained the presence of gold-dust among the
savages on the Gulf of Guinea; discovered the Azores, besides numerous
other islands and lands; crossed the equator, and approached to within
about eighteen hundred miles of the south-most cape of Africa.

The discovery of gold-dust stirred up the energies of the Portuguese in
a remarkable degree, and caused them cheerfully to undertake ventures
which, without that inducement, they would probably never have
undertaken at all. Moreover, they had now learned to quail less at the
idea of losing sight of land; and towards the end of the fifteenth
century (1486), Bartholomew Diaz, an officer of the household of John
the Second, achieved the grand object which had long been ardently
desired by the Portuguese--he doubled the great southern cape of Africa,
which King John named the "Cape of Good Hope," although Diaz had name