Again, Henry was founding upon his work of exploration an over-sea dominion, a "commercial and colonial" empire for his country. He desired to see her rich and prosperous, and there cannot be any reasonable doubt that his ideas agreed with those of Italian land and sea travellers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. He and they were agreed in thinking it possible and very important to secure a large share of Asiatic, especially of Indian, trade for their respective countries. By exploring and making practicable the maritime route around Africa to the Indies, he would probably raise Portugal into the wealthiest of European nations. Azurara's "second reason" for the "search after Guinea" is that "many kinds of merchandise might be brought to this realm ... and also the products of this realm might be taken there, which traffic would bring great profit to our countrymen."
Thirdly, Prince Henry had the temperament of a Crusader and a missionary. Of him, fully as much as of Columbus, it may be said that if he aimed at empire, it was for the extension of Christendom. Azurara's three final reasons for Henry's explorations all turn upon this. The Prince desired to find out the full strength of the Moors in Africa, "said to be very much greater than commonly supposed," "because every wise man" desires "a knowledge of the power of his enemy." He also "sought to know if there were in those parts any Christian princes" who would aid him against the enemies of the faith. And, lastly, he desired to "make increase in the faith of Jesus Christ, and to bring to Him all the souls that should be saved."
It has often been pointed out how the Infant was aided in his work by the tendencies of his time and country; how in him the spirit of mediæval faith and the spirit of material, even of commercial, ambition, were united; how he was the central representative of a general expansive and exploring movement; and how he took up and carried on the labours of various predecessors. At the same time it must be recognised that his work forms an epoch in the history of geographical, commercial, and colonial advance; that he gave a permanence and a vitality to the cause of maritime discovery which it had never possessed before; that even his rediscoveries of islands and mainland frequently had all the meaning and importance of fresh achievements; that he made his nation the pioneer of Europe in its conquest of the outer world; and that without him the results of the great forty years (1480-1520) of Diaz, Columbus, Da Gama, and Magellan must have been long, might have been indefinitely, postponed.
Barros (Decade I, i, 2) tells us a story, probable enough, about the inception of the Infant's plans of discovery. He relates how one night, after much meditation, he lay sleepless upon his bed, thinking over his schemes, till at last, as if seized with a sudden access of fury, he leapt up, called his servants, and ordered some of his barcas to be immediately made ready for a voyage to the south along the coast of Marocco. His court was astonished, and attributed this outburst to a divine revelation. It was natural enough—the resolution of a man, weary with profound and anxious thought, to take some sort of decisive action, to embark without further delay on the realisation of long-cherished schemes.
To summarise the course of the Prince's life, from 1415, before entering on any discussion of special points: After the Conquest of Ceuta he returned to Portugal; was created Duke of Viseu and Lord of Covilham (1415), having already received his knighthood at "Septa"; and began to send out regular exploring ventures down the West Coast of Africa—"two or three ships" every year beyond Cape Non, Nun, or Nam. In 1418 he successfully went to the help of the Governor of Ceuta against the Moors of Marocco and Granada.[[5]] On this second return from Africa, when in 1419 he was created Governor of the Algarve or southmost province of Portugal, he is supposed by some to have taken up his residence at Sagres,[[6]] near Cape St. Vincent, and to have begun the establishment of a school of cartography and navigation there. All this, however, is disputed by others, as is the tradition of his having established Chairs of Mathematics and Theology at Lisbon.[[7]]
In 1418-20, however, his captains, João Gonçalvez Zarco and Tristam Vaz Teixeira, certainly re-discovered Porto Santo and Madeira.[[8]] In 1427, King John and Prince Henry seem to have sent the royal pilot, Diego de Sevill, to make new discoveries in the Azores; and, in 1431-2, Gonçalo Velho Cabral made further explorations among the same; but the completer opening up and settlement of the Archipelago was the work of later years, especially of 1439-66. We shall return to this matter in a special discussion of Prince Henry's work among the Atlantic islands. To the same we must refer the traditional purchase of the Canaries in 1424-5 and the settlement of Madeira in the same year,[[9]] confirmed by charters of 1430 and 1433. King John, on his death-bed, is said to have exhorted Henry to persevere in his schemes, which he was at this very time pursuing by means of a fresh expedition to round Cape Bojador, under Gil Eannes (1433). Azurara from this point becomes our chief authority down to the year 1448, and this and the subsequent voyages are fully described in his pages. Gil Eannes, unsuccessful in 1433,[[10]] under the stimulus of the Infant's reproaches and appeals passed Cape Bojador in 1434;[[11]] and next summer (1435) the Portuguese reached the Angra dos Ruyvos (Gurnet Bay), 150 miles beyond Bojador, and the Rio do Ouro, 240 miles to the south. Early in 1436 the "Port of Gallee," a little North of C. Branco (Blanco), was discovered by Baldaya, but as yet no natives were found; no captives, gold dust, or other products brought home. Exploration along the African mainland languished from this year till 1441;[[12]] but in 1437 the Prince took part in the fatal attack on Tangier, and in 1438 the death of King Edward caused a dispute over the question of the Regency during the minority of his young son Affonso. Throughout these internal troubles Henry played an important part, successfully supporting the claims of his brother Pedro against the Queen-mother, Leonor of Aragon. All this caused a break of three or four years in the progress of his discoveries; but the colonisation of the Azores went forward, as is shown by the license of July 2, 1439, from Affonso V, to people "the seven islands" of the group, then known.
In 1441[[13]] exploration began again in earnest with the voyage of Antam Gonçalvez, who brought to Portugal the first native "specimens"—captives and gold dust—from the coasts beyond Bojador; while Nuno Tristam in the same year pushed on to Cape Blanco. These decisive successes greatly strengthened the cause of discovery in Portugal, especially by offering fresh hopes of mercantile profit. In 1442 Nuno Tristam reached the Bight or Bay of Arguim,[[14]] where the Infant erected a fort in 1448, and where for some years the Portuguese made their most vigorous and successful slave-raids. Private venturers now began to come forward, supplementing Prince Henry's efforts by volunteer aid, for which his permission[[15]] was readily granted. Especially the merchants and seamen of Lisbon and of Lagos, close to Sagres, showed interest in this direction. Whatever doubts exist as to the earlier alleged settlement of the Infant at Cape St. Vincent, it is certain that after his return from Tangier (1437) he erected various buildings[[16]] at Sagres, and resided there during a considerable part of his later life. This fact is to be connected with the new African developments at Lagos.[[17]]
In 1444 and 1445 a number of ships sailed with Henry's license to "Guinea," and several of their commanders achieved notable successes. Thus Dinis Diaz, Nuno Tristam, and others reached the Senegal. Diaz rounded Cape Verde in 1445,[[18]] and in 1446 Alvaro Fernandez sailed on as far as the River Gambia (?) and the Cape of Masts (Cabo dos Mastos). In 1445, also, João Fernandez spent seven months among the natives of the Arguim coast, and brought back the first trustworthy account of a part of the interior. Gonçalo de Sintra and Gonçalo Pacheco, in 1445, and Nuno Tristam in 1446,[[19]] fell victims to the hostility of the Moors and Negroes, who, perhaps, felt some natural resentment against their new visitors. For, in Azurara's estimate, the Portuguese up to the year 1446 had carried off 927 captives from these parts; and the disposition and conversion of these prisoners occupied a good portion of the Infant's time. He probably relied on finding efficient material among these slaves for the further exploration and Christianization of the Coast, and even of the Upland. We know that he used some of them as guides and interpreters.[[20]]
One of the latest voyages recorded by Azurara is that of "Vallarte the Dane" (1448), which ended in utter destruction near the Gambia, after passing Cape Verde. The chronicler, though writing in 1453, does not continue his record beyond this year, 1448; his promise to give us the remainder of the Infant's achievements in a second chronicle seems never to have been fulfilled; and his descriptions of Madeira and the Canaries, in the latter part of the Chronicle of Guinea, are unfortunately of only slight value for the history of discovery. Yet, before the Prince's death in 1460[[21]] and in the last six years of his life, several voyages of some importance prove that Azurara's silence is merely accidental. Cadamosto's two journeys of 1455-6, and Diego Gomez' ventures of 1458-60, advanced West African discovery almost to Sierra Leone. The former, a Venetian seaman in the service of Prince Henry, also explored part of the courses of the Senegal and the Gambia and gained much information about the native tribes. One of his chief exploits, an alleged discovery of the Cape Verde islands, has been disputed in the name of Diego Gomez, who in 1458-60 twice sailed to Guinea, and on the second voyage "sighted islands in the Ocean, to which no man had come before." We postpone this point for further examination, only adding that we believe Cadamosto's prior claim to be sound, although the islands in question do not appear in any document before 1460.
Meanwhile the Prince, when his explorations (from 1441) first began to promise important results, obtained from Pope Eugenius IV a plenary indulgence to those who shared in the war against the Moors consequent on the new discoveries,[[22]] and from the Regent D. Pedro he also gained a donation of the Royal Fifth on the profits accruing from the new lands, as well as the sole right of permitting voyages to these parts. The Infant's work, was moreover, recognised in bulls of Nicholas V (1455) and of Calixtus III (March 13th, 1456). In earlier life—apparently soon after the capture of Ceuta and the embassy of Manuel Palæologus asking for help against the Turks—he had been invited, Azurara tells us, by a predecessor[[23]] of the Pontiffs above-named to take command of the "Apostolic armies," and similar invitations reached him from the Emperor of Germany,[[24]] the King of England (Henry V or VI)[[25]] and the King of Castille.[[26]] We may also briefly notice in this place, referring to a later page for a more detailed treatment of the subject, that the Infant, in 1445 and 1446, repeated his earlier attempts (in 1424 and 1425) to secure the Canaries for Portugal, both by means of purchase and of armed force; and that, from 1444-5 especially, he colonised, as well as discovered, and traded with increased energy in the Madeira Group, the Azores, and (if his experiment at Arguim in 1448 may stand as an example) even on the mainland coast of Africa.