The Portuguese can hardly be said to have colonized the coast in the sense of raising up there a Portuguese population. As he approached the equator the white man found that, in spite of his superior strength, he could not permanently people the tropics. Diseases new to his experience attacked him. His energy declined. If he brought his family with him, his children were few or feeble and shortly his race had died out. The settlements of the Portuguese were largely for the purposes of trade. At Sierra Leone, Kamerun, or Loango, they built forts and established garrisons, mounting pieces of artillery that gave them advantage over the attacks of the natives, and erecting warehouses and the loathsome "barracoon," where the slaves were confined to await shipment. Such decadent little settlements still linger along the African coast, although the slave-trade happily has ended. The Successful Voyage of Vasco da Gama.--Throughout the century Prince Henry's policy of exploration was continued. Slowly the middle coast of Africa became known. At last in 1486, Bartholomew Diaz rounded the extremity of the continent. He named it the Cape of Storms; but the Portuguese king, with more prophetic sight, renamed it the Cape of Good Hope. It was ten years, however, before the Portuguese could send another expedition. Then Vasco da Gama rounded the cape again, followed up the eastern coast until the Arab trading-stations were reached. Then he struck across the sea, landed at the Malabar coast of India, and in 1498 arrived at Calcutta. The end dreamed of by all of Europe had been achieved. A sea-route to the Far East had been discovered. Results of Da Gama's Voyage.--The importance of this performance was instantly recognized in Europe. Venice was ruined. "It was a terrible day," said a contemporary writer, "when the word reached Venice. Bells were rung, men wept in the streets, and even the bravest were silent." The Arabs and the native rulers made a desperate effort to expel the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean, but their opponents were too powerful. In the course of twenty years Portugal had founded an empire that had its forts and trading-marts from the coast of Arabia to Malaysia. Zanzibar, Aden, Oman, Goa, Calicut, and Madras were all Portuguese stations, fortified and secured. In the Malay peninsula was founded the colony of Malacca. It retained its importance and power until in the last century, when it dwindled before the competition of Singapore.