[1469-89.] In 1469 Fernam Gomez rented the African trade from the king of Portugal for a term of five years, and during that time pushed his explorations under Santarem and Escobar to Cape St Catherine in 2° south, first crossing the equator in 1471. Under João II., who succeeded Alfonso V. in 1481, the traffic continued, and in 1489 Diogo Cam reached a point in 22°, over two hundred leagues below the Congo River, planting there a cross which is said to be yet standing. Martin Behaim, the mathematician and cosmographer, accompanied Cam on this voyage, and an error or interpolation in _Schedel_, _Registrum, etc._, Nuremberg, 1493, gave rise to the unfounded report that they sailed west and discovered America. _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 257, 283, 292, 309; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 325-38; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. p. xl.; _Harrisse_, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, p. 40; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 74-6; _Otto_, in _Am. Phil. Soc._, vol. ii., 1786. * * * * * We enter now the Columbian epoch proper, to which, as we have seen, the enterprises of Prince Henry and the Portuguese were precursory. About 1484, Christopher Columbus having proposed a new scheme of reaching India by sailing west, the king of Portugal surreptitiously sent a vessel to test his theory, which, after searching unsuccessfully for land westward, returned to the Cape Verde Islands. _Muñoz_, _Hist. Nuevo Mundo_, pp. 53-4 et al. Columbus had resided in Portugal since 1470, and had made several trips in Portuguese ships down the African coast, in the course of which he is supposed to have first conceived his new project. Indignant at the conduct of the Portuguese king, Columbus left for Spain. _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_, in _Barcia_, _Hist. Prim._, tom. i. pp. 9-10; translation in _Pinkerton's Col. Voy._, vol. xii. pp. 1-16; and in _Kerr's Col. Voy._, vol. iii. pp. 1-242. In 1486 Bartolomeu Dias sailed round Cape Good Hope and continued his voyage to Great Fish River on the south-east coast, from which point he was compelled to return on account of the murmurs of his men. The cape, now for the first time doubled by Europeans, was seen and named by him on his return. In 1487 King João sent two priests, Covilham and Payva, to travel in the East, in the hope of gathering more definite information respecting Prester John and his famous Christian kingdom. Prester John they did not find, but Covilham in his wanderings reached Sofala on the east coast of Africa in about 20° south latitude, being the first of his countrymen to sail on the Indian Ocean. At Sofala he learned the practicability of the voyage which Dias had actually accomplished a little before, and a message to that effect was immediately sent to the king. _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 339-42; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. i. p. xl-i; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 230 et seq.; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 77-8.