Their last pillar was set up in Algoa Bay, the first land trodden by
Christians beyond the Cape. At the Great Fish River, sixty miles farther
on and quite five hundred miles beyond the point that Diaz was looking
for so anxiously, the crew refused to go any farther and the Admiral
turned back, only certain of one thing, that he had missed the Cape, and
that all his trouble was in vain. Worn out with the worry of his bitter
disappointment and incessant useless labour, he was coasting slowly
back, when one day the veil fell from his eyes. For there came in sight
that "so many ages unknown promontory" round which lay the way to India,
and to find which had been the great ambition of all enterprise since
the expansion of Europe had begun afresh in the opening years of that
fifteenth century.
[Illustration: AFFONSO D' ALBUQUERQUE.]
While Diaz was still tossing in the storms off the Great Cape, Covilham
and his friends had started from Lisbon to settle the course of the
future sea-route to India by an "observation of all the coasts of the
Indian Ocean," to explore what they could of Upper Africa, to find
Prester John, and to ally the Portuguese experiment with anything they
could find of Christian power in Greater or Middle or Further India.
Pages:
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394