f the great ocean, and so opening the door of courage to those
who should come after. His ships and men reached the islands of
Madeira and Porto Santo in 1418 and 1420, which were granted to
him by the king, his brother, in 1433. They doubled the Cape of
Bojador in 1433. In 1435 they went a hundred and fifty miles
beyond Cape Bojador. In 1443 they went twenty-five miles beyond
Cape
16
Blanco. In 1445 they reached the mouth of the River Senegal. In
1455 he passed Cape Verde and went as far as to the mouth of the
River Gambia. Prince Henry, the Navigator, died Nov. 13, 1460.
8. The enterprise which Prince Henry, the Navigator, had so
well begun, was continued after his death. In 1462 the Cape Verde
Islands were discovered and colonized. In the same year an
expedition under Pedro de Cintra reached a point on the Serra
Leone coast, six hundred miles beyond the Gambia. In 1469
another expedition under Fernan Gomez reached the Gold Coast.
In 1484 Diogo Cam reached the mouth of the Congo. In 1486
Barholomew Dias succeeded in rounding the extreme southern
point of Africa, as far as to Algoa Bay. The cape he named Cabo
Tormentoso, -- Cape Torment, -- but the king of Portugal, Joao II,
cheered with the prospect that the way was now surely opened to
India, named it Cape of Good Hope.
9. This continued series of successes had drawn to Lisbon, the
Portuguese capital, adventurous strangers "from all parts of the
world;" and among these there came from Genoa, in Italy, in 1470,
Christopher Columbus. He entered the service of the king of
Portugal, where he remained till 1484, making "several voyages to
the coast of Guinea." As early as 1474 he had determined in his
mind that the world is round; that therefore India should be
reached by sailing westward; and that he would sail in that
direction to find it. His project he made known to King Joao II,
who referred him to his Committee of Council for Geographical
Affairs. The committee rendered a decidedly adverse report; but
the bishop of Ceuta, seeing that the king was inclined to favor
Columbus's view, suggested to him that he reap the advantag
