But we must turn our attention south to watch what was going on in the Mediterranean. Briefly this is what had happened. Already in the thirteenth century merchant ships had become more enterprising, for about the year 1270 Malocello had reached the Canary Isles, and in 1281, Vivaldi had set forth from Genoa to find the East Indies via the west coast of Africa, but failed. For you must remember that during the latter part of the twelfth century the compass, crude and inaccurate, yet of immense utility, had been introduced into Europe from the East. Then comes into our story that great man Prince Henry the Navigator, son of the King of Portugal, and nephew of Henry IV of England. Henry devoted his life to developing the science and art of navigation, creating an observatory and nautical school at Sagres, near Cape St. Vincent, and doing all he possibly could to encourage maritime discovery. The result of this was that the Portuguese became great sea-travellers, big shipowners and expanded in commerce and colonies. Henry the Navigator was born in 1394 and died in 1460, and to his foresight, organisation and enthusiastic intellect can be traced the rapid and marvellous Portuguese achievements which followed at sea. Thus in 1442 Madeira and the Azores had been discovered in the Atlantic, trade with Africa materially increased, especially on the west coast, and the traffic in black slaves become very profitable. Then in 1486 the Cape of Good Hope was rounded and the sea route at last opened to the East Indies, instead of the long and perilous overland route to the Levant which had been used always up till now. In 1498 Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon to Calicut, and two years later the Portuguese had landed in Brazil. Thus by the dawn of the sixteenth century Portugal had reached a wonderful height of prosperity. The great Eastern trade was in her hands; Ceylon, the Sunda Islands, Malacca and Ormuz in the Persian Gulf were hers; and all this pre-eminence had been won by studying the problems of the sea and then applying that knowledge in ships manned by practical navigators and sailors. Portugal had risen up by the twelfth century as a separate kingdom, and Spain had been passing through a period of complete anarchy, but on the death of the Spanish Henry IV, Isabel and Ferdinand had ascended the throne of Castile, and then law and order were restored, the last Moorish stronghold was captured in 1492, and a few months later the Genoese sailor Columbus, under the patronage of Ferdinand and Isabella, was allowed to set forth on his historic voyage which discovered the West Indies. He returned home, went across the Atlantic again in 1493 and discovered Dominica; then made his third voyage, in which he discovered the mainland of South America in 1498, and finally, on his last voyage, explored the southern shore of the Mexican Gulf.