_Commencement of Portuguese Discoveries, from Cape Non to Cape Bojador_ Three years before the reduction of Ceuta, the Duke of Visco had sent a vessel in 1412 to explore the western coast of Africa, being the first voyage of discovery undertaken by the Portuguese, or by any other nation in modern times. The commander was instructed to endeavour to follow the western coast of Africa, to the southward of Cape Chaunar, called by the Portuguese mariners Cape Nao, Non, or Nam, which, extending itself from the foot of Mount Atlas, had hitherto been the _non plus ultra_ or impassable limit of European navigation, and had accordingly received its ordinary name from a negative term in the Portuguese language, as implying that there was no navigation beyond; and respecting which a proverbial saying was then current, of the following import: Whoe'er would pass the Cape of Non Shall turn again; or else be gone. The success of this earliest voyage, fitted out for the purpose of discovery, is not recorded; but Don Henry continued to send some vessels every year to the same coast, with the same instructions of endeavouring to explore the coast beyond Cape Non. Not daring to trust themselves beyond sight of land, the mariners crept timorously along the coast, and at length reached Cape Bojador, only sixty leagues, or 180 miles beyond Cape Non. This cape, which stretches boldly out into the ocean, from which circumstance it derives its name[1], filled the Portuguese mariners with terror and amazement; owing to the shoals by which it is environed for the space of six leagues, being perpetually beaten by a lofty and tremendous surge, which precluded them, from all possibility of proceeding beyond it in their ordinary manner of creeping along the coast; and they dared not to stretch out into the open sea in quest of smoother water, lest, losing sight of land altogether, they might wander in the trackless ocean, and be unable to find their way home. It is not impossible that they might contemplate the imaginary terrors of the torrid zone, as handed down from some of the ancients, with all its burning soil and scorching vapours; and they might consider the difficulties of Cape Bojador as a providential bar or omen, to warn and oppose them against proceeding to their inevitable destruction. They accordingly measured back their wary steps along the African coast, and returned to Portugal, where they gave an account of their proceedings to Don Henry, in which, of course, the dangers of the newly discovered cape would not be diminished in their narrative[2].