VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA, TO FIND A WAY TO INDIA BY SEA, AND TO DISCOVER THE KINGDOM OF PRESTER JOHN--A.D. 1497. Early voyages of Portuguese to coast of Africa--Prince Henry of Portugal--Cape Bojador discovered--Madeira visited by Gonzales--Dom Joao the Second--Bartholomew Diaz discovers Cape of Storms, called by the King Cape of Good Hope--Envoys sent to Prester John--King Manuel fits out a squadron--Appoints Vasco da Gama to command them--Paulo da Gama-- Nicholas Coelho--Grand ceremony at leave-taking--Squadron sails--Meet at Cape de Verde Islands--Enter a bay on African coast--Intercourse with natives--Veloso nearly caught by them--Ships stand off the land--Terror of the crews--Wish to return--Da Gama refuses--The Cape of Good Hope doubled--Ships stand along south coast of Africa--No natives seen--A tremendous gale--Clamours to return--Mutiny suppressed by a device of Coelho's--Da Gama puts his pilots in irons. Nearly a century before Vasco da Gama sailed on his renowned voyage, a spirit of discovery had been aroused in the breasts of the rulers of Portugal. Prince Enrique, who had accompanied his father, King Joao, on an expedition against Cueta in Africa, had obtained from several Moors much information concerning the coasts of that dark continent, which had fired his ambition to ascertain more about it. Hitherto Europeans had not ventured beyond the Cape, to which was given the name of Cabo Nao, signifying in Portuguese, No, or in other words, This cape is not to be passed. Prince Enrique, believing this idea to be a bugbear, fitted out two vessels in A.D. 1417, with orders to their commanders to push beyond the dreaded cape. This they succeeded in doing; but on finding the sea breaking furiously on another cape farther to the south, to which they gave the name of Bojador, they also turned back. The next year the Prince sent a second expedition under Joao Gonzales. Being driven off the African coast by a gale, the ships put into the harbour of Porto Santo in a small island a little to the northward of Madeira, and then returned home. The Prince, on hearing of this, dispatched a ship carrying some colonists provided with agricultural instruments, plants, and seeds, as well as cattle and other animals. Among the latter were a couple of rabbits, which increased so prodigiously, that the corn and plants of all descriptions were destroyed by them, and as they could not be got rid of, it became necessary to remove the human inhabitants. The next year, by order of the Prince, Gonzales, again sailing, re-discovered the island of Madeira, at which the Englishman, Lionel Machin, with the hapless Arabella Darcy, two centuries before, had landed and died. The Portuguese gave to it the name of Madeira, which means Wood, in consequence of finding it overgrown with trees. To clear a part for settlement they set the wood on fire, but being of a dry character, the trees burned until the whole were destroyed.