He erected stone pillars at various places to claim the new lands for Portugal. The River Congo was found by Diego Cam, who later sailed almost to Walvis Bay, on the south- west coast of Africa. Prince Henry died in 1460, but his work went on, and every Christian who was interested in discovery, astronomy, or map- making turned to Portugal.Ībout eleven years after the prince’s death the equator was passed. Vincent in Portugal, and sent out numerous ships south along the coast of Africa, braving the “Green Sea of Darkness” and its terrors. Prince Henry founded a school of navigation at Sagres, near Cape St. In those days the Mohammedans controlled the overland route to India, and their galleys and pirate vessels harried all commerce in the Mediterranean. It is not known whether Prince Henry’s ambition was to find a way by sea into the heart of Africa to reach the fabled land of Prester John and gain his aid in breaking the power of the Mohammedans, or whether he intended to discover a way round Africa to reach India. Born in 1394, nearly a hundred years before Columbus discovered America, Prince Henry was the younger son of King John I of Portugal, whom he helped in freeing Portugal from the Moors. Portugal’s empire was the fruit of the study and enterprise of Prince Henry the Navigator.

Portugal did not build up her overseas empire by supporting a man obsessed with one idea, as Spain had supported Columbus.

He was one of the greatest navigators of the fifteenth century - that golden age in the history of discovery and navigation. This fort, now known as Fort Jesus, is on the spot reached by Vasco da Gama on Palm Sunday, 1498, under the guidance of two Arab pilots.ĪFTER he had sailed from Portugal with four ships in July 1497, Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope. Six years after Christopher Columbus had sailed across the unknown Atlantic, Vasco da Gama, another great navigator, discovered the sea route to India by way of the Cape of Good HopeĪN ANCIENT PORTUGUESE FORT at Mombasa on the east coast of Africa.

What year did vasco da gama sail