This activity was followed by another pause. Dom Henry was deeply affected by the overthrow of his brother Dom Pedro; and his nephew, Affonso V., failed to give him the moral and material support he had formerly received. It is indeed a blot upon the reputation of “the Navigator” that he made no greater effort to assist the great regent, and that he was not by his side at Alfarrobeira. The next decade is marked only in the history of maritime exploration by the discoveries of Luigi Cadamosto, a Venetian, who had entered the service of Dom Henry, and who had become his right hand both as a cartographer and an explorer. On the voyages of Cadamosto there has been much controversy. Some writers, resting upon certain notes of his, assert that he discovered the Gambia as early as 1445, and the Cape Verde Islands in 1446; but modern inquirers believe that he greatly antedated his discoveries in order to enhance his own glory. It is now generally believed that in his famous voyage in 1455 and 1456 he managed to get past the Senegal, and discovered the Gambia, and that the Cape Verde Islands were discovered in 1460 by Diogo Gomes. The tale that Cadamosto went as far as the Rio Grande is quite discredited, and seems in itself, apart from the evidence, to be most improbable. [Illustration: STATUE OF PRINCE HENRY. (_From Major’s “Prince Henry the Navigator.”_)] The period of the discoveries made under the direction and inspiration of Prince Henry “the Navigator” was then at an end, for he died at Sagre on November 13, 1460. What he had done appears better from a study of the map then in any number of words. He had not discovered a direct sea route to India, but he had paved the way for it, and it was quite certain that, if it existed, the gallant captains trained by him would find the route in time. His services are beyond dispute, and though he left no successor to carry on the work, he had given it such an impulse, that it remained only for the sailors themselves to complete it. He was never married, but was succeeded as Duke of Viseu, Lord of Beja and Madeira, and Grand Master of the Order of Christ, by his nephew, Dom Ferdinand, the second son of King Edward, and brother of Affonso V., whom he had adopted. This prince had also become Grand Master of the Order of Santiago by his marriage with his first cousin, Donna Leonor, daughter of Dom John, the fourth son of John “the Great,” by whom he was father of Dom Manoel, or Emmanuel, who reigned under the title of Emmanuel “the Fortunate,” and was to reap the fruits of the discoveries of Vasco da Gama and Pedro Alvares Cabral.