The Mediæval Period in Europe.—Length of the Middle Age.—By the Middle Ages we mean the centuries between 500 and 1300 A.D. This period begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and the looting of the Imperial City by the rude German tribes, and ends with the rise of a new literature, a new way of looking at the world in general, and a passion for discovery of every kind.

These eight hundred years had been centuries of cruel struggle, intellectual darkness, and social depression, but also of great religious devotion. Edward Gibbon, one of the greatest historians, speaks of this period as “the triumph of barbarism and religion.”

The population of Europe was largely changed, during the first few centuries of the Christian Era, as the Roman Empire, that greatest political institution of all history, slowly decayed. New peoples of German or Teutonic origin came, fighting their way into western Europe and settling wherever the land attracted them. Thus Spain and Italy received the Goths; France, the Burgundians and Franks; England, the Saxons and Angles or English.

These peoples were all fierce, warlike, free, unlettered barbarians. Fortunately, they were all converted to Christianity by Roman priests and missionaries. They embraced this faith with ardor, at the same time that other peoples and lands were being lost to Christendom. Thus it has resulted that the countries where Christianity arose and first established itself, are now no longer Christian, and this religion, which had an Asiatic and Semitic origin, has become the distinguishing faith of the people of western Europe. For centuries the countries of Europe were fiercely raided and disturbed by pillaging and murdering hordes; by the Huns, who followed in the Germans from the East; by the Northmen, cruel pirating seamen from Scandinavia; and, as we have already seen, by the Mohammedans, or Saracens as they were called, who came into central Europe by way of Spain.

Character of the Life during this Period.—Feudalism.—Life was so beset with peril that independence or freedom became impossible, and there was developed a society which has lasted almost down to the present time, and which we call Feudalism. The free but weak man gave up his freedom and his lands to some stronger man, who became his lord. He swore obedience to this lord, while the lord engaged to furnish him protection and gave him back his lands to hold as a “fief,” both sharing in the product. This lord swore allegiance to some still more powerful man, or “overlord,” and became his “vassal,” pledged to follow him to war with a certain number of armed men; and this overlord, on his part, owed allegiance to the prince, who was, perhaps, a duke or bishop (bishops at this time were also feudal lords), or to the king or emperor. Thus were men united into large groups or nations for help or protection. There was little understanding of love of country. Patriotism, as we feel it, was replaced by the passion of fidelity or allegiance to one’s feudal superior.

Disadvantages of Feudalism.—The great curse of this system was that the feudal lords possessed the power to make war upon one another, and so continuous were their jealousies and quarrelings that the land was never free from armed bands, who laid waste an opponent’s country, killing the miserable serfs who tilled the soil, and destroying their homes and cattle.

There was little joy in life and no popular learning. If a man did not enjoy warfare, but one other life was open to him, and that was in the Church. War and religion were the pursuits of life, and it is no wonder that many of the noblest and best turned their backs upon a life that promised only fighting and bloodshed and, renouncing the world, became monks. Monasticism developed in Europe under such conditions as these, and so strong were the religious feelings of the age that at one time a third of the land of France was owned by the religious orders.

The Town.—The two typical institutions of the early Middle Age were the feudal castle, with its high stone walls and gloomy towers, with its fierce bands of warriors armed in mail and fighting on horseback with lance and sword, and the monastery, which represented inn, hospital, and school. Gradually, however, a third structure appeared. This was the town. And it is to these mediæval cities, with their busy trading life, their free citizenship, and their useful occupations, that the modern world owes much of its liberty and its intellectual light.

The Renaissance.—Changes in Political Affairs.—By 1400, however, the Middle Age had nearly passed and a new life had appeared, a new epoch was in progress, which is called the Renaissance, which means “rebirth.” In political affairs the spirit of nationality had arisen, and feudalism was already declining. Men began to feel attachment to country, to king, and to fellow-citizens; and the national states, as we now know them, each with its naturally bounded territory, its common language, and its approximately common race, were appearing.

France and England were, of these states, the two most advanced politically just previous to the fifteenth century. At this distant time they were still engaged in a struggle which lasted quite a century and is known as the Hundred Years’ War. In the end, England was forced to give up all her claims to territory on the continent, and the power of France was correspondingly increased. In France the monarchy (king and court) was becoming the supreme power in the land. The feudal nobles lost what power they had, while the common people gained nothing. In England, however, the foundations for a representative government had been laid. The powers of legislation and government were divided between the English king and a Parliament. The Parliament was first called in 1265 and consisted of two parts,—the Lords, representing the nobility; and the Commons, composed of persons chosen by the common people.

Germany was divided into a number of small principalities,—Saxony, Bavaria, Franconia, Bohemia, Austria, the Rhine principalities, and many others,—which united in a great assembly, or Diet, the head of which was some prince, chosen to be emperor.

Italy was also divided. In the north, in the valley of the Po, or Lombardy, were the duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice; south, on the western coast, were the Tuscan states, including the splendid city of Florence. Thence, stretching north and south across the peninsula, were states of the church, whose ruler was the pope, for until less than fifty years ago the pope was not only the head of the church but also a temporal ruler. Embracing the southern part of the peninsula was the principality of Naples.

In the Spanish peninsula Christian states had arisen,—in the west, Portugal, in the center and east, Castile, Aragon, and Leon, from all of which the Mohammedans had been expelled. But they still held the southern parts of Spain, including the beautiful plain of Andalusia and Grenada.

The Mohammedans, in the centuries of their life in Spain, had developed an elegant and prosperous civilization. By means of irrigation and skillful planting, they had converted southern Spain into a garden. They were the most skillful agriculturists and breeders of horses and sheep in Europe, and they carried to perfection many fine arts, while knowledge and learning were nowhere further advanced than here. Through contact with this remarkable people the Christian Spaniards gained much. Unfortunately, however, the spirit of religious intolerance was so strong, and the hatred engendered by the centuries of religious war was so violent, that in the end the Spaniard became imbued with so fierce a fanaticism that he has ever since appeared unable properly to appreciate or justly to treat any who differed from him in religious belief.

The Conquests of the Mohammedans.—In the fifteenth century, religious toleration was but little known in the world, and the people of the great Mohammedan faith still threatened to overwhelm Christian Europe. Since the first great conquests of Islam in the eighth century had been repulsed from central Europe, that faith had shown a wonderful power of winning its way. In the tenth century Asia Minor was invaded by hordes of Seljuks, or Turks, who poured down from central Asia in conquering bands. These tribes had overthrown the Arab’s power in Mesopotamia and Asia Minor only to become converts to his faith. With freshened zeal they hurled themselves upon the old Christian empire, which at Constantinople had survived the fall of the rest of the Roman world.

The Crusades.—The Seljuk Turks had conquered most of Asia Minor, Syria, and the Holy Land. A great fear came over the people of Europe that the city of Constantinople would be captured and they, too, be overwhelmed by these new Mohammedan enemies. The passionate religious zeal of the Middle Age also roused the princes and knights of Europe to try to wrest from the infidel the Holy Land of Palestine, where were the birthplace of Christianity and the site of the Sepulcher of Christ. Palestine was recovered and Christian states were established there, which lasted for over a hundred and eighty years. Then the Arab power revived and, operating from Egypt, finally retook Jerusalem and expelled the Christian from the Holy Land, to which he has never yet returned as a conqueror.

Effects of the Crusades.—These long, holy wars, or “Crusades,” had a profound effect upon Europe. The rude Christian warrior from the west was astonished and delighted with the splendid and luxurious life which he met at Constantinople and the Arabian East. Even though he was a prince, his life at home was barren of comforts and beauty. Glass, linen, rugs, tapestries, silk, cotton, spices, and sugar were some of the things which the Franks and the Englishmen took home with them from the Holy Land. Demand for these treasures of the East became irresistible, and trade between western Europe and the East grew rapidly.

The Commercial Cities of Italy.—The cities of Italy developed this commerce. They placed fleets upon the Mediterranean. They carried the crusaders out and brought back the wares that Europe desired. In this way these cities grew and became very wealthy. On the west coast, where this trade began, were Amalfi, Pisa, Genoa, and Florence, and on the east, at the head of the Adriatic, was Venice. The rivalry between these cities of Italy was very fierce. They fought and plundered one another, each striving to win a monopoly for itself of this invaluable trade.

Venice, finally, was victorious. Her location was very favorable. From her docks the wares could be carried easily and by the shortest routes up the Po River and thence into France or northward over the Alps to the Danube. In Bavaria grew up in this trade the splendid German cities of Augsburg and Nuremberg, which passed these goods on to the cities of the Rhine, and so down this most beautiful river to the coast. Here the towns of Flanders and of the Low Countries, or Holland, received them and passed them on again to England and eastward to the countries of the Baltic.

Development of Modern Language.—Thus commerce and trade grew up in Europe, and, with trade and city life, greater intelligence, learning, and independence. Education became more common, and the universities of Europe were thronged. Latin in the Middle Age had been the only language that was written by the learned class. Now the modern languages of Europe took their form and began to be used for literary purposes. Italian was the first to be so used by the great Dante, and in the same half-century the English poet Chaucer sang in the homely English tongue, and soon in France, Germany, and Spain national literatures appeared. With this went greater freedom of expression. Authority began to have less weight.

Men began to inquire into causes and effects, to doubt certain things, to seek themselves for the truth, and so the Renaissance came. With it came a greater love for the beautiful, a greater joy in life, a fresh zest for the good of this world, a new passion for discovery, a thirst for adventure, and, it must also be confessed a new laxity of living and a new greed for gold. Christian Europe was about to burst its narrow bounds. It could not be repressed nor confined to its old limitations. It could never turn backward. Of all the great changes which have come over life and thought, probably none are greater than those which saw the transition from the mediæval to the modern world.

Trade with the East.—Articles of Trade.—Now we must go back for a moment and pursue an old inquiry further. Whence came all these beautiful and inviting wares that had produced new tastes and passions in Europe? The Italian traders drew them from the Levant, but the Levant had not produced them. Neither pepper, spices, sugarcane, costly gems, nor rich silks, were produced on the shores of the Mediterranean.

Only the rich tropical countries of the East were capable of growing these rare plants, and up to that time of delivering to the delver many precious stones. India, the rich Malaysian archipelago, the kingdom of China,—these are the lands and islands which from time immemorial have given up their treasures to be forwarded far and wide to amaze and delight the native of colder and less productive lands.

Routes of Trade to the Far East.—Three old sailing and caravan routes connect the Mediterranean with the Far East. They are so old that we can not guess when men first used them. They were old in the days of Solomon and indeed very ancient when Alexander the Great conquered the East. One of these routes passed through the Black Sea, and across the Caspian Sea to Turkestan to those strange and romantic ancient cities, Bokhara and Samarkand. Thence it ran northeasterly across Asia, entering China from the north. Another crossed Syria and went down through Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean, A third began in Egypt and went through the Red Sea, passing along the coast of Arabia to India.

All of these had been in use for centuries, but by the year 1400 two had been closed. A fresh immigration of Turks, the Ottomans, in the fourteenth century came down upon the scourged country of the Euphrates and Syria, and although these Turks also embraced Mohammedanism, their hostility closed the first two routes and commerce over them has never since been resumed.

Venetian Monopoly of Trade.—Thus all interest centered upon the southern route. By treaty with the sultan or ruler of Egypt, Venice secured a monopoly of the products which came over this route. Goods from the East now came in fleets up the Red Sea, went through the hands of the sultan of Egypt, who collected a duty for them, and then were passed on to the ships of the wealthy Venetian merchant princes, who carried them throughout Europe. Although the object of intense jealousy, it seemed impossible to wrest this monopoly from Venice. Her fleet was the strongest on the Mediterranean, and her rule extended along the Adriatic to the Grecian islands. All eager minds were bent upon the trade with the East, but no way was known, save that which now Venice had gained.

Extent of Geographical Knowledge.—The Maps of this Period.—To realize how the problem looked to the sailor of Genoa or the merchant of Flanders at that time, we must understand how scanty and erroneous was the geographical knowledge of even the fifteenth century. It was believed that Jerusalem was the center of the world, a belief founded upon a biblical passage. The maps of this and earlier dates represent the earth in this way: In the center, Palestine, and beneath it the Mediterranean Sea, the only body of water which was well known; on the left side is Europe; on the right, Africa; and at the top, Asia—the last two continents very indefinitely mapped. Around the whole was supposed to flow an ocean, beyond the first few miles of which it was perilous to proceed lest the ship be carried over the edge of the earth or encounter other perils.

Ideas about the Earth.—The Greek philosophers before the time of Christ had discovered that the world is a globe, or ball, and had even computed rudely its circumference. But in the Middle Ages this knowledge had been disputed and contradicted by a geographer named Cosmas, who held that the world was a vast plane, twice as long as it was broad and surrounded by an ocean. This belief was generally adopted by churchmen, who were the only scholars of the Middle Ages, and came to be the universal belief of Christian Europe.

The Renaissance revived the knowledge of the writings of the old Greek geographers who had demonstrated the earth’s shape to be round and had roughly calculated its size; but these writings did not have sufficient circulation in Europe to gain much acceptance among the Christian cosmographers. The Arabs, however, after conquering Egypt, Syria and northern Africa, translated into their own tongue the wisdom of the Greeks and became the best informed and most scientific geographers of the Middle Age, so that intercourse with the Arabs which began with the Crusades helped to acquaint Europe somewhat with India and China.

The Far East.—The Tartar Mongols.—Then in the thirteenth century all northern Asia and China fell under the power of the Tartar Mongols. Russia was overrun by them and western Europe threatened. At the Danube, however, this tide of Asiatic conquest stopped, and then a long period when Europe came into diplomatic and commercial relations with these Mongols and through them learned something of China.

Marco Polo Visits the Great Kaan.—Several Europeans visited the court of the Great Kaan, or Mongol king, and of one of them, Marco Polo, we must speak in particular. He was a Venetian, and when a young man started in 1271 with his father and uncle on a visit to the Great Kaan. They passed from Italy to Syria, across to Bagdad, and so up to Turkestan, where they saw the wonderful cities of this strange oasis, thence across the Pamirs and the Desert of Gobi to Lake Baikal, where the Kaan had his court. Here in the service of this prince Marco Polo spent over seventeen years. So valuable indeed were his services that the Kaan would not permit him to return. Year after year he remained in the East. He traversed most of China, and was for a time “taotai,” or magistrate, of the city of Yang Chan near the Yangtze River. He saw the amazing wonders of the East. He heard of “Zipangu,” or Japan. He probably heard of the Philippines.

Finally the opportunity came for the three Venetians to return. The Great Kaan had a relative who was a ruler of Persia, and ambassadors came from this ruler to secure a Mongol princess for him to marry. The dangers and hardships of the travel overland were considered too difficult for the delicate princess, and it was decided to send her by water. Marco Polo and his father and uncle were commissioned to accompany the expedition to Persia.

History of Marco Polo’s Travels.—They sailed from the port of Chin Cheu, probably near Amoy,1 in the year 1292. They skirted the coasts of Cambodia and Siam and reached the eastern coasts of Sumatra, where they waited five months for the changing of the monsoon. Of the Malay people of Sumatra, as well as of these islands, their animals and productions, Marco Polo has left us most interesting and quite accurate accounts. The Malays on Sumatra were beginning to be converted to Mohammedanism, for Marco Polo says that many of them were “Saracens.” He gained a good knowledge of the rich and mysterious Indian Isles, where the spices and flavorings grew. It was two years before the party, having crossed the Indian Ocean, reached Persia and the court of the Persian king. When they arrived they found that while they were making this long voyage the Persian king had died; but they married the Mongol princess to his son, the young prince, who had succeeded him, and that did just as well.

From Persia the Venetians crossed to Syria and thence sailed to Italy, and at last reached home after an absence of twenty-six years. But Marco Polo’s adventures did not end with his return to Venice. In a fierce sea fight between the Venetians and Genoese, he was made a prisoner and confined in Genoa. Here a fellow captive wrote down from Marco’s own words the story of his eastern adventures, and this book we have to-day. It is a record of adventure, travel, and description, so wonderful that for years it was doubted and its accuracy disbelieved. But since, in our own time, men have been able to traverse again the routes over which Marco Polo passed, fact after fact has been established, quite as he truthfully stated them centuries ago. To have been the first European to make this mighty circuit of travel is certainly a strong title to enduring fame.

Countries of the Far East.—India.—Let us now briefly look at the countries of the Far East, which by the year 1400 had come to exercise over the mind of the European so irresistible a fascination. First of all, India, as we have seen, had for centuries been the principal source of the western commerce. But long before the date we are considering, the scepter of India had fallen from the hand of the Hindu. From the seventh century, India was a prey to Mohammedan conquerors, who entered from the northwest into the valley of the Indus. At first these were Saracens or Arabs; later they were the same Mongol converts to Mohammedanism, whose attacks upon Europe we have already noticed.

In 1398 came the furious and bloody warrior, the greatest of all Mongols,—Timour, or Tamerlane. He founded, with capital at Delhi, the empire of the Great Mogul, whose rule over India was only broken by the white man. Eastward across the Ganges and in the Dekkan, or southern part of India, were states ruled over by Indian princes.

China.—We have seen how, at the time of Marco Polo, China also was ruled by the Tartar Mongols. The Chinese have ever been subject to attack from the wandering horse-riding tribes of Siberia. Two hundred years before Christ one of the Chinese kings built the Great Wall that stretches across the northern frontier for one thousand three hundred miles, for a defense against northern foes. Through much of her history the Chinese have been ruled by aliens, as they are to-day. About 1368, however, the Chinese overthrew the Mongol rulers and established the Ming dynasty, the last Chinese house of emperors, who ruled China until 1644, when the Manchus, the present rulers, conquered the country.

China was great and prosperous under the Mings. Commerce flourished and the fleets of Chinese junks sailed to India, the Malay Islands, and to the Philippines for trade. The Grand Canal, which connects Peking with the Yangtze River basin and Hangchau, was completed. It was an age of fine productions of literature.

The Chinese seem to have been much less exclusive then than they are at the present time; much less a peculiar, isolated people than now. They did not then shave their heads nor wear a queue. These customs, as well as that hostility to foreign intercourse which they have to-day, has been forced upon China by the Manchus. China appeared at that time ready to assume a position of enormous influence among the peoples of the earth,—a position for which she was well fitted by the great industry of all classes and the high intellectual power of her learned men.

Japan.—Compared with China or India, or even some minor states, the development of Japan at this time was very backward. Her people were divided and there was constant civil war. The Japanese borrowed their civilization from the Chinese. From them they learned writing and literature, and the Buddhist religion, which was introduced about 550 A.D. But in temperament they are a very different people, being spirited, warlike, and, until recent years, despising trading and commerce.

Since the beginning of her history, Japan has been an empire. The ruler, the Mikado, is believed to be of heavenly descent; but in the centuries we are discussing the government was controlled by powerful nobles, known as the Shogun, who kept the emperors in retirement in the palaces of Kyoto, and themselves directed the State. The greatest of these shoguns was Iyeyásu, who ruled Japan about 1600, soon after Manila was founded. They developed in Japan a species of feudalism, the great lords, or “daimios,” owning allegiance to the shoguns, and about the daimios, as feudal retainers, bodies of samurai, who formed a partly noble class of their own. The samurai carried arms, fought at their lords’ command, were students and literati, and among them developed that proud, loyal, and elevated code of morality known as “Búshido,” which has done so much for the Japanese people. It is this samurai class who in modern times have effected the immense revolution in the condition and power of Japan.

The Malay Archipelago.—If now we look at the Malay Islands, we find, as we have already seen, that changes had been effected there. Hinduism had first elevated and civilized at least a portion of the race, and Mohammedanism and the daring seamanship of the Malay had united these islands under a common language and religion. There was, however, no political union. The Malay peninsula was divided. Java formed a central Malay power. Eastward among the beautiful Celebes and Moluccas, the true Spice Islands, were a multitude of small native rulers, rajas or datos, who surrounded themselves with retainers, kept rude courts, and gathered wealthy tributes of cinnamon, pepper, and cloves. The sultans of Ternate, Tidor, and Amboina were especially powerful, and the islands they ruled the most rich and productive.

Between all these islands there was a busy commerce. The Malay is an intrepid sailor, and an eager trader. Fleets of praos, laden with goods, passed with the changing monsoons from part to part, risking the perils of piracy, which have always troubled this archipelago. Borneo, while the largest of all these islands, was the least developed, and down to the present day has been hardly explored. The Philippines were also outside of most of this busy intercourse and had at that date few products to offer for trade. Their only connection with the rest of the Malay race was through the Mohammedan Malays of Jolo and Borneo. The fame of the Spice Islands had long filled Europe, but the existence of the Philippines was unknown.

Summary.—We have now reviewed the condition of Europe and of farther Asia as they were before the period of modern discovery and colonization opened. The East had reached a condition of quiet stability. Mohammedanism, though still spreading, did not promise to effect great social changes. The institutions of the East had become fixed in custom and her peoples neither made changes nor desired them. On the other hand western Europe had become aroused to an excess of ambition. New ideas, new discoveries and inventions were moving the nations to activity and change. That era of modern discovery and progress, of which we cannot yet perceive the end, had begun.

An Eastern Passage to India.—The Portuguese.—We have seen in the last chapter how Venice held a monopoly of the only trading-route with the Far East. Some new way of reaching India must be sought, that would permit the traders of other Christian powers to reach the marts of the Orient without passing through Mohammedan lands. This surpassing achievement was accomplished by the Portuguese. So low at the present day has the power of Portugal fallen that few realize the daring and courage once displayed by her seamen and soldiers and the enormous colonial empire that she established.

Portugal freed her territory of the Mohammedan Moors nearly a century earlier than Spain; and the vigor and intelligence of a great king, John I., brought Portugal, about the year 1400, to an important place among the states of Europe. This king captured from the Moors the city of Ceuta, in Morocco; and this was the beginning of modern European colonial possessions, and the first bit of land outside of Europe to be held by a European power since the times of the Crusades. King John’s youngest son was Prince Henry, famous in history under the title of “the Navigator.” This young prince, with something of the same adventurous spirit that filled the Crusaders, was ardent to extend the power of his father’s kingdom and to widen the sway of the religion which he devotedly professed. The power of the Mohammedans in the Mediterranean was too great for him hopefully to oppose and so he planned the conquest of the west coast of Africa, and its conversion to Christianity. With these ends in view, he established at Point Sagres, on the southwestern coast of Portugal, a naval academy and observatory. Here he brought together skilled navigators, charts, and geographies, and all scientific knowledge that would assist in his undertaking.1

He began to construct ships larger and better than any in use. To us they would doubtless seem very clumsy and small, but this was the beginning of ocean ship-building. The compass and the astrolabe, or sextant, the little instrument with which, by calculating the height of the sun above the horizon, we can tell distance from the equator, were just coming into use. These, as well as every other practicable device for navigation known at that time, were supplied to these ships.

Exploration of the African Coast.—Thus equipped and ably manned, the little fleets began the exploration of the African coast, cautiously feeling their way southward and ever returning with reports of progress made. Year after year this work went on. In 1419 the Madeira Islands were rediscovered and colonized by Portuguese settlers. The growing of sugarcane was begun, and vines were brought from Burgundy and planted there. The wine of the Madeiras has been famous to this day. Then were discovered the Canaries and in 1444 the Azores. The southward exploration of the coast of the mainland steadily continued until in 1445 the Portuguese reached the mouth of the Senegal River. Up to this point the African shore had not yielded much of interest to the Portuguese explorer or trader. Below Morocco the great Sahara Desert reaches to the sea and renders barren the coast for hundreds of miles.

South of the mouth of the Senegal and comprising the whole Guinea coast, Africa is tropical, well watered, and populous. This is the home of the true African Negro. Here, for almost the first time, since the beginning of the Middle Ages, Christian Europe came in contact with a race of ruder culture and different color than its own. This coast was found to be worth exploiting; for it yielded, besides various desirable resinous gums, three articles which have distinguished the exploitation of Africa, namely, gold, ivory, and slaves.

Beginning of Negro Slavery in Europe.—At this point begins the horrible and revolting story of European Negro slavery. The ancient world had practiced this ownership of human chattels, and the Roman Empire had declined under a burden of half the population sunk in bondage. To the enormous detriment and suffering of mankind, Mohammed had tolerated the institution, and slavery is permitted by the Koran. But it is the glory of the mediæval church that it abolished human slavery from Christian Europe. However dreary and unjust feudalism may have been, it knew nothing of that institution which degrades men and women to the level of cattle and remorselessly sells the husband from his family, the mother from her child.

Slaves in Portugal.—The arrival of the Portuguese upon the coast of Guinea now revived not the bondage of one white man to another, but that of the black to the white. The first slaves carried to Portugal were regarded simply as objects of peculiar interest, captives to represent to the court the population of those shores which had been added to the Portuguese dominion. But southern Portugal, from which the Moors had been expelled, had suffered from a lack of laborers, and it was found profitable to introduce Negroes to work these fields.

Arguments to Justify Slavery.—So arose the institution of Negro slavery, which a century later upon the shores of the New World was to develop into so tremendous and terrible a thing. Curiously enough, religion was evoked to justify this enslavement of the Africans. The Church taught that these people, being heathen, were fortunate to be captured by Christians, that they might thereby be brought to baptism and conversion; for it is better for the body to perish than for the soul to be cast into hell. At a later age, when the falsity of this teaching had been realized, men still sought to justify the institution by arguing that the Almighty had created the African of a lower state especially that he might serve the superior race.

The coast of Guinea continued to be the resort of slavers down to the middle of the last century, and such scenes of cruelty, wickedness, and debauchery have occurred along its shores as can scarcely be paralleled in brutality in the history of any people.

The Portuguese can hardly be said to have colonized the coast in the sense of raising up there a Portuguese population. As he approached the equator the white man found that, in spite of his superior strength, he could not permanently people the tropics. Diseases new to his experience attacked him. His energy declined. If he brought his family with him, his children were few or feeble and shortly his race had died out.

The settlements of the Portuguese were largely for the purposes of trade. At Sierra Leone, Kamerun, or Loango, they built forts and established garrisons, mounting pieces of artillery that gave them advantage over the attacks of the natives, and erecting warehouses and the loathsome “barracoon,” where the slaves were confined to await shipment. Such decadent little settlements still linger along the African coast, although the slave-trade happily has ended.

The Successful Voyage of Vasco da Gama.—Throughout the century Prince Henry’s policy of exploration was continued. Slowly the middle coast of Africa became known. At last in 1486, Bartholomew Diaz rounded the extremity of the continent. He named it the Cape of Storms; but the Portuguese king, with more prophetic sight, renamed it the Cape of Good Hope. It was ten years, however, before the Portuguese could send another expedition. Then Vasco da Gama rounded the cape again, followed up the eastern coast until the Arab trading-stations were reached. Then he struck across the sea, landed at the Malabar coast of India, and in 1498 arrived at Calcutta. The end dreamed of by all of Europe had been achieved. A sea-route to the Far East had been discovered.

Results of Da Gama’s Voyage.—The importance of this performance was instantly recognized in Europe. Venice was ruined. “It was a terrible day,” said a contemporary writer, “when the word reached Venice. Bells were rung, men wept in the streets, and even the bravest were silent.” The Arabs and the native rulers made a desperate effort to expel the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean, but their opponents were too powerful. In the course of twenty years Portugal had founded an empire that had its forts and trading-marts from the coast of Arabia to Malaysia. Zanzibar, Aden, Oman, Goa, Calicut, and Madras were all Portuguese stations, fortified and secured. In the Malay peninsula was founded the colony of Malacca. It retained its importance and power until in the last century, when it dwindled before the competition of Singapore.

The work of building up this great domain was largely that of one man, the intrepid Albuquerque. Think what his task was! He was thousands of miles from home and supplies, he had only such forces and munitions as he could bring with him in his little ships, and opposed to him were millions of inhabitants and a multitude of Mohammedan princes. Yet this great captain built up an Indian empire. Portugal at one bound became the greatest trading and colonizing power in the world. Her sources of wealth appeared fabulous, and, like Venice, she made every effort to secure her monopoly. The fleets of other nations were warned that they could not make use of the Cape of Good Hope route, on penalty of being captured or destroyed.

Reaching India by Sailing West.—The Earth as a Sphere.—Meanwhile, just as Portugal was carrying to completion her project of reaching India by sailing east, Europe was electrified by the supposed successful attempt of reaching India by sailing directly west, across the Atlantic. This was the plan daringly attempted in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. Columbus was an Italian sailor and cosmographer of Genoa. The idea of sailing west to India did not originate with him, but his is the immortal glory of having persistently sought the means and put the idea into execution.

The Portuguese discoveries along the African coast gradually revealed the extension of this continent and the presence of people beyond the equator, and the possibility of passing safely through the tropics. This knowledge was a great stimulus to the peoples of Europe. The geographical theory of the Greeks, that the world is round, was revived. The geographers, however, in making their calculations of the earth’s circumference, had fallen into an error of some thousands of miles; that is, instead of finding that it is fully twelve thousand miles from Europe around to the East Indies, they had supposed it about four thousand, or even less. Marco Polo too had exaggerated the distance he had traveled and from his accounts men had been led to believe that China, Japan, and the Spice Islands lie much further to the east than they actually do.

By sailing west across one wide ocean, with no intervening lands, it was thought that one could arrive at the island-world off the continent of Asia. This was the theory that was revived in Italy and which clung in men’s minds for years and years, even after America was discovered.

An Italian, named Toscanelli, drew a map showing how this voyage could be made, and sent Columbus a copy. By sailing first to the Azores, a considerable portion of the journey would be passed, with a convenient resting-stage. Then about thirty-five days’ favorable sailing would bring one to the islands of “Cipango,” or Japan, which Marco Polo had said lay off the continent of Asia. From here the passage could readily be pursued to Cathay and India.

The Voyage of Christopher Columbus.—The romantic and inspiring story of Columbus is told in many books,—his poverty, his genius, his long and discouraging pursuit of the means to carry out his plan. He first applied to Portugal; but, as we have seen, this country had been pursuing another plan steadily for a century, and, now that success appeared almost at hand, naturally the Portuguese king would not turn aside to favor Columbus’s plan.

For years Columbus labored to interest the Spanish court. A great event had happened in Spanish history. Ferdinand, king of Aragon, had wedded Isabella of Castile, and this marriage united these two kingdoms into the modern country of Spain. Soon the smaller states except Portugal were added, and the war for the expulsion of the Moors was prosecuted with new vigor. In 1492, Grenada, the last splendid stronghold of the Mohammedans in the peninsula, surrendered, and in the same year Isabella furnished Columbus with the ships for his voyage of discovery.

Columbus sailed from Palos, August 3, 1492, reached the Canaries August 24, and sailed westward on September 6. Day after day, pushed by the strong winds, called the “trades,” they went forward. Many doubts and fears beset the crews, but Columbus was stout-hearted. At the end of thirty-four days from the Canaries, on October 12, they sighted land. It was one of the groups of beautiful islands lying between the two continents of America. But Columbus thought that he had reached the East Indies that really lay many thousands of miles farther west. Columbus sailed among the islands of the archipelago, discovered Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti), and then returned to convulse Europe with excitement over the new-found way to the East. He had not found the rich Spice Islands, the peninsula of India, Cathay or Japan, but every one believed that these must be close to the islands on which Columbus had landed.

The tall, straight-haired, copper-colored natives, whom Columbus met on the islands, he naturally called “Indians”; and this name they still bear. Afterwards the islands were called the “West Indies.” Columbus made three more voyages for Spain. On the fourth, in 1498, he touched on the coast of South America. Here he discovered the great Orinoco River. Because of its large size, he must have realized that a large body of land opposed the passage to the Orient. He died in 1506, disappointed at his failure to find India, but never knowing what he had found, nor that the history of a new hemisphere had begun with him.

The Voyage of the Cabots.—In the same year that Columbus discovered the Orinoco, Sebastian Cabot, of Italian parentage, like Columbus, secured ships from the king of England, hoping to reach China and Japan by sailing west on a northern route. What he did discover was a rugged and uninviting coast, with stormy headlands, cold climate, and gloomy forests of pine reaching down to the sandy shores. For nine hundred miles he sailed southward, but everywhere this unprofitable coast closed the passage to China. It was the coast of Labrador and the United States. Yet for years and years it was not known that a continent three thousand miles wide and the greatest of all oceans lay between Cathay and the shore visited by Cabot’s ships. This land was thought to be a long peninsula, an island, or series of islands, belonging to Asia. No one supposed or could suppose that there was a continent here.

Naming the New World.—But in a few years Europe did realize that a new continent had been discovered in South America. If you will look at your maps, you will see that South America lies far to the eastward of North America and in Brazil approaches very close to Africa. This Brazilian coast was visited by a Portuguese fleet on the African route in 1499, and two years later an Italian fleet traversed the coast from the Orinoco to the harbor of Rio Janeiro. Their voyage was a veritable revelation. They entered the mighty current of the Amazon, the greatest river of the earth. They saw the wondrous tropical forests, full of monkeys, great snakes, and stranger animals. They dealt and fought with the wild and ferocious inhabitants, whose ways startled and appalled the European. All that they saw filled them with greatest wonder. This evidently was not Asia, nor was it the Indies. Here, in fact, was a new continent, a veritable “Mundus Novus.”

The pilot of this expedition was an Italian, named Amerigo Vespucci. On the return this man wrote a very interesting letter or little pamphlet, describing this new world, which was widely read, and brought the writer fame. A few years later a German cosmographer, in preparing a new edition of Ptolemy’s geography, proposed to give to this new continent the name of the man who had made known its wonders in Europe, So it was called “America.” Long after, when the northern shores were also proved to be those of a continent, this great land was named “North America.” No injustice was intended to Columbus when America was so named. It was not then supposed that Columbus had discovered a continent. The people then believed that Columbus had found a new route to India and had discovered some new islands that lay off the coast of Asia.

Spain Takes Possession of the New Lands.—Of these newly found islands and whatever wealth they might be found to contain, Spain claimed the possession by right of discovery. And of the European nations, it was Spain which first began the exploration and colonization of America. Spain was now free from her long Mohammedan wars, and the nation was being united under Ferdinand and Isabella. The Spaniards were brave, adventurous, and too proud to engage in commerce or agriculture, but ready enough to risk life and treasure in quest of riches abroad. The Spaniards were devotedly religious, and the Church encouraged conquest, that missionary work might be extended. So Spain began her career that was soon to make her the foremost power of Europe and one of the greatest colonial empires the world has seen. It is amazing what the Spaniards accomplished in the fifty years following Columbus’s first voyage.

Hispaniola was made the center from which the Spaniards extended their explorations to the continents of both North and South America. On these islands of the West Indies they found a great tribe of Indians,—the Caribs. They were fierce and cruel. The Spaniards waged a warfare of extermination against them, killing many, and enslaving others for work in the mines. The Indian proved unable to exist as a slave. And his sufferings drew the attention of a Spanish priest, Las Casas, who by vigorous efforts at the court succeeded in having Indian slavery abolished and African slavery introduced to take its place. This remedy was in the end worse than the disease, for it gave an immense impetus to the African slave-trade and peopled America with a race of Africans in bondage.

Other Spanish Explorations and Discoveries.—Meanwhile, the Spanish soldier, with incredible energy, courage, and daring, pushed his conquests. In 1513, Florida was discovered, and in the same year, Balboa crossed the narrow isthmus of Panama and saw the Pacific Ocean. Contrary to what is often supposed, he did not dream of its vast extent, but supposed it to be a narrow body of water lying between Panama, and the Asian islands. He named it the “South Sea,” a name that survived after its true character was revealed by Magellan. Then followed the two most romantic and surprising conquests of colonial history,—that of Mexico by Cortes in 1521, and of Peru by Pizarro in 1533–34. These great countries were inhabited by Indians, the most advanced and cultured on the American continents. And here the Spaniards found enormous treasures of gold and silver. Then, the discovery of the mines of Bogota opened the greatest source of the precious metal that Europe had ever known. Spaniards flocked to the New World, and in New Spain, as Mexico was called, was established a great vice-royalty. Year after year enormous wealth was poured into Spain from these American possessions.

Emperor Charles V.—Meanwhile great political power had been added to Spain in Europe. In 1520 the throne of Spain fell to a young man, Charles, the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella. His mother was Juana, the Spanish princess, and his father was Philip the Handsome, of Burgundy. Philip the Handsome was the son of Maximilian, the Archduke of Austria. Now it curiously happened that the thrones of each of these three countries was left without other heirs than Charles, and in 1520 he was King of Spain, Archduke of Austria, and Duke of Burgundy and the Low Countries, including the rich commercial cities of Holland and Belgium. In addition to all this, the German princes elected him German emperor, and although he was King Charles the First of Spain, he is better known in history as Emperor Charles the Fifth.2

He was then an untried boy of twenty years, and no one expected to find in him a man of resolute energy, cold persistence, and great executive ability. But so it proved, and this was the man that made of Spain the greatest power of the time. He was in constant warfare. He fought four wars with King Francis I. of France, five wars with the Turks, both in the Danube valley and in Africa, and an unending succession of contests with the Protestant princes of Germany. For Charles, besides many other important changes, saw the rise of Protestantism, and the revolt of Germany, Switzerland, and England from Catholicism. The first event in his emperorship was the assembling of the famous German Diet at Worms, where was tried and condemned the real founder of the Protestant religion, Martin Luther.

The Voyage of Hernando Magellan.—In the mean time a way had at last been found to reach the Orient from Europe by sailing west. This discovery, the greatest voyage ever made by man, was accomplished, in 1521, by the fleet of Hernando Magellan. Magellan was a Portuguese, who had been in the East with Albuquerque. He had fought with the Malays in Malacca, and had helped to establish the Portuguese power in India.

On his return to Portugal, the injustice of the court drove him from his native country, and he entered the service of Spain. Charles the Fifth commissioned him to attempt a voyage of discovery down the coast of South America, with the hope of finding a passage to the East. This was Magellan’s great hope and faith,—that south of the new continent of America must lie a passage westward, by which ships could sail to China. As long as Portugal was able to keep closed the African route to all other ships than her own, the discovery of some other way was imperative.

On the 20th of September, 1519, Magellan’s fleet of five ships set sail from Seville, which was the great Spanish shipping-port for the dispatch of the colonial fleets. On December 13 they reached the coast of Brazil and then coasted southward. They traded with the natives, and at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata stayed some days to fish.

The weather grew rapidly colder and more stormy as they went farther south, and Magellan decided to stop and winter in the Bay of San Julian. Here the cold of the winter, the storms, and the lack of food caused a conspiracy among his captains to mutiny and return to Spain. Magellan acted with swift and terrible energy. He went himself on board one of the mutinous vessels, killed the chief conspirator with his own hand, executed another, and then “marooned,” or left to their fate on the shore, a friar and one other, who were leaders in the plot.

The Straits of Magellan.—The fleet sailed southward again in August but it was not until November 1, 1520, that Magellan entered the long and stormy straits that bear his name and which connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. South of them were great bleak islands, cold and desolate. They were inhabited by Indians, who are probably the lowest and most wretched savages on the earth. They live on fish and mussels. As they go at all times naked, they carry with them in their boats brands and coals of fire. Seeing the numerous lights on the shore, Magellan named these islands Tierra del Fuego (the Land of Fire). For twenty days the ships struggled with the contrary and shifting winds that prevail in this channel, during which time one ship deserted and returned to Spain. Then the remaining four ships passed out onto the boundless waters of the Pacific.

Westward on the Pacific Ocean.—But we must not make the mistake of supposing that Magellan and his followers imagined that a great ocean confronted them. They expected that simply sailing northward to the latitude of the Spice Islands would bring them to these desired places. This they did, and then turned westward, expecting each day to find the Indies; but no land appeared. The days lengthened into weeks, the weeks into months, and still they went forward, carried by the trade winds over a sea so smooth and free from tempests that Magellan named it the “Pacific.”

But they suffered horribly from lack of food, even eating in their starvation the leather slings on the masts. It was a terrible trial of their courage. Twenty of their number died. The South Pacific is studded with islands, but curiously their route lay just too far north to behold them. From November 28, when they emerged from the Straits of Magellan, until March 7, when they reached the Ladrones, they encountered only two islands, and these were small uninhabited rocks, without water or food, which in their bitter disappointment they named las Desventuradas (the Unfortunate Islands).

The Ladrone Islands.—Their relief must have been inexpressible when, on coming up to land on March the 7th, they found inhabitants and food, yams, cocoanuts, and rice. At these islands the Spaniards first saw the prao, with its light outrigger, and pointed sail. So numerous were these craft that they named the group las Islas de las Velas (the Islands of Sails); but the loss of a ship’s boat and other annoying thefts led the sailors to designate the islands Los Ladrones (the Thieves), a name which they still retain.

The Philippine Islands.—Samar.—Leaving the Ladrones Magellan sailed on westward looking for the Moluccas, and the first land that he sighted was the eastern coast of Samar. Pigafetta says: “Saturday, the 16th of March, we sighted an island which has very lofty mountains. Soon after we learned that it was Zamal, distant three hundred leagues from the islands of the Ladrones.”3

Homonhón.—On the following day the sea-worn expedition, landed on a little uninhabited island south of Samar which Pigafetta called Humunu, and which is still known as Homonhón or Jomonjól.

It was while staying at this little island that the Spaniards first saw the people of the Philippines. A prao which contained nine men approached their ship. They saw other boats fishing near and learned that all of these people came from the island of Suluan, which lies off to the eastward from Jomonjól about twenty kilometres. In their life and appearance these fishing people were much like the present Samal laut of southern Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.

Limasaua.—Pigafetta says that they stayed on the island of Jomonjól eight days but had great difficulty in securing food. The natives brought them a few cocoanuts and oranges, palm wine, and a chicken or two, but this was all that could be spared, so, on the 25th, the Spaniards sailed again, and near the south end of Leyte landed on the little island of Limasaua. Here there was a village, where they met two chieftains, whom Pigafetta calls “kings,” and whose names were Raja Calambú and Raja Ciagu. These two chieftains were visiting Limasaua and had their residences one at Butúan and one at Cagayan on the island of Mindanao. Some histories have stated that the Spaniards accompanied one of these chieftains to Butúan, but this does not appear to have been the case.

On the island of Limasaua the natives had dogs, cats, hogs, goats, and fowls. They were cultivating rice, maize, breadfruit, and had also cocoanuts, oranges, bananas, citron, and ginger. Pigafetta tells how he visited one of the chieftains at his home on the shore. The house was built as Filipino houses are today, raised on posts and thatched. Pigafetta thought it looked “like a haystack.”

It had been the day of San Lazarus when the Spaniards first reached these islands, so that Magellan gave to the group the name of the Archipelago of Saint Lazarus, the name under which the Philippines were frequently described in the early writings, although another title, Islas del Poniente or Islands of the West, was more common up to the time when the title Filipinas became fixed.

Cebu.—Magellan’s people were now getting desperately in need of food, and the population on Limasaua had very inadequate supplies; consequently the natives directed him to the island of Cebu, and provided him with guides.

Leaving Limasaua the fleet sailed for Cebu, passing several large islands, among them Bohol, and reaching Cebu harbor on Sunday, the 7th of April. A junk from Siam was anchored at Cebu when Magellan’s ships arrived there; and this, together with the knowledge that the Filipinos showed of the surrounding countries, including China on the one side and the Moluccas on the other, is additional evidence of the extensive trade relations at the time of the discovery.

Cebu seems to have been a large town and it is reported that more than two thousand warriors with their lances appeared to resist the landing of the Spaniards, but assurances of friendliness finally won the Filipinos, and Magellan formed a compact with the dato of Cebu, whose name was Hamalbar.

The Blood Compact.—The dato invited Magellan to seal this compact in accordance with a curious custom of the Filipinos. Each chief wounded himself in the breast and from the wound each sucked and drank the other’s blood. It is not certain whether Magellan participated in this “blood compact,” as it has been called; but later it was observed many times in the Spanish settlement of the islands, especially by Legaspi.

The natives were much struck by the service of the mass, which the Spaniards celebrated on their landing, and after some encouragement desired to be admitted to the Spaniards’ religion. More than eight hundred were baptized, including Hamalbar. The Spaniards established a kind of “factory” or trading-post on Cebu, and for some time a profitable trade was engaged in. The Filipinos well understood trading, had scales, weights, and measures, and were fair dealers.

Death of Magellan.—And now follows the great tragedy of the expedition. The dato of Cebu, or the “Christian king,” as Pigafetta called their new ally, was at war with the islanders of Mactán. Magellan, eager to assist one who had adopted the Christian faith, landed on Mactán with fifty men and in the battle that ensued was killed by an arrow through the leg and spear-thrust through the breast. So died the one who was unquestionably the greatest explorer and most daring adventurer of all time. “Thus,” says Pigafetta, “perished our guide, our light, and our support.” It was the crowning disaster of the expedition.

Magellan Monument, Manila.

The Fleet Visits Other Islands.—After Magellan’s death, the natives of Cebu rose and killed the newly elected leader, Serrano, and the fleet in fear lifted its anchors and sailed southward from the Bisayas. They had lost thirty-five men and their numbers were reduced to one hundred and fifteen. One of the ships was burned, there being too few men surviving to handle three vessels. After touching at western Mindanao, they sailed westward, and saw the small group of Cagayan Sulu. The few inhabitants they learned were Moros, exiled from Borneo. They landed on Paragua, called Puluan (hence Palawan), where they observed the sport of cock-fighting, indulged in by the natives.

From here, still searching for the Moluccas, they were guided to Borneo, the present city of Brunei. Here was the powerful Mohammedan colony, whose adventurers were already in communication with Luzon and had established a colony on the site of Manila. The city was divided into two sections, that of the Mohammedan Malays, the conquerors, and that of the Dyaks, the primitive population of the island. Pigafetta exclaims over the riches and power of this Mohammedan city. It contained twenty-five thousand families, the houses built for most part on piles over the water. The king’s house was of stone, and beside it was a great brick fort, with over sixty brass and iron cannon. Here the Spaniards saw elephants and camels, and there was a rich trade in ginger, camphor, gums, and in pearls from Sulu.

Hostilities cut short their stay here and they sailed eastward along the north coast of Borneo through the Sulu Archipelago, where their cupidity was excited by the pearl fisheries, and on to Maguindanao. Here they took some prisoners, who piloted them south to the Moluccas, and finally, on November 8, they anchored at Tidor. These Molucca islands, at this time, were at the height of the Malayan power. The ruler, or raja of Tidor was Almanzar, of Ternate Corala; the “king” of Gilolo was Yusef. With all these rulers the Spaniards exchanged presents, and the rajas are said by the Spaniards to have sworn perpetual amnesty to the Spaniards and acknowledged themselves vassals of the king. In exchange for cloths, the Spaniards laid in a rich cargo of cloves, sandalwood, ginger, cinnamon, and gold. They established here a trading-post and hoped to hold these islands against the Portuguese.

The Return to Spain.—It was decided to send one ship, the “Victoria,” to Spain by way of the Portuguese route and the Cape of Good Hope, while the other would return to America. Accordingly the “Victoria,” with a little crew of sixty men, thirteen of them natives, under the command of Juan Sebastian del Cano, set sail. The passage was unknown to the Spaniards and full of perils. They sailed to Timor and thence out into the Indian Ocean. They rounded Africa, sailing as far south as 42 degrees. Then they went northward, in constant peril of capture by some Portuguese fleet, encountering storms and with scarcity of food. Their distress must have been extreme, for on this final passage twenty-one of their small number died.

At Cape Verdi they entered the Portuguese port for supplies, trusting that at so northern a point their real voyage would not be suspected. But some one of the party, who went ashore for food, in an hour of intoxication boasted of the wonderful journey they had performed and showed some of the products of the Spice Islands. Immediately the Portuguese governor gave orders for the seizure of the Spanish vessel and El Cano, learning of his danger, left his men, who had gone on shore, raised sail, and put out for Spain.

On the 6th of September, 1522, they arrived at San Lucar, at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, on which is situated Seville, one ship out of the five, and eighteen men out of the company of 234, who had set sail almost three full years before. Spain welcomed her worn and tired seamen with splendid acclaim. To El Cano was given a title of nobility and the famous coat-of-arms, showing the sprays of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and the effigy of the globe with the motto, the proudest and worthiest ever displayed on any adventurer’s shield, “Hic primus circumdedisti me.”

The First Circumnavigation of the Earth.—Thus with enormous suffering and loss of life was accomplished the first circumnavigation of the earth. It proved that Asia could be reached, although by a long and circuitous route, by sailing westward from Europe. It made known to Europe that the greatest of all oceans lies between the New World and Asia, and it showed that the earth is incomparably larger than had been believed and supposed. It was the greatest voyage of discovery that has ever been accomplished, and greater than can ever be performed again.

New Lands Divided between Spain and Portugal.—By this discovery of the Philippines and a new way to the Spice Islands, Spain became engaged in a long dispute with Portugal. At the beginning of the modern age, there was in Europe no system of rules by which to regulate conduct between states. That system of regulations and customs which we call International Law, and by which states at the present time are guided in their dealings, had not arisen. During the middle age, disputes between sovereigns were frequently settled by reference to the emperor or to the pope, and the latter had frequently asserted his right to determine all such questions as might arise. The pope had also claimed to have the right of disposing of all heathen and newly discovered lands and peoples.

So, after the discovery of the East Indies by Portugal and of the West Indies by Spain, Pope Alexander VI., divided the new lands between them. He declared that all newly discovered countries halfway around the earth to the east of a meridian 100 leagues west of the Azores should be Portuguese, and all to the west Spanish. Subsequently he shifted this line to 270 leagues west of the Azores. This division, it was supposed, would give India and the Malay islands to Portugal, and to Spain the Indies that Columbus had discovered, and the New World, except Brazil.

As a matter of fact, 180 degrees west of the meridian last set by the pope extended to the western part of New Guinea, and not quite to the Moluccas; but in the absence of exact geographical knowledge both parties claimed the Spice Islands. Portugal denied to Spain all right to the Philippines as well, and, as we shall see, a conflict in the Far East began, which lasted nearly through the century. Portugal captured the traders, whom El Cano had left at Tidor, and broke up the Spanish station in the Spice Islands. The “Trinidad,” the other ship, which was intended to return to America, was unable to sail against the strong winds, and had to put back to Tidor, after cruising through the waters about New Guinea.

Effect of the Century of Discoveries.—This circumnavigation of the globe completed a period of discovery which had begun a hundred years before with the timid, slow attempts of the Portuguese along the coast of Africa. In these years a new era had opened. At its beginning the European knew little of any peoples outside of his own countries, and he held not one mile of land outside the continent of Europe. At the end of a hundred years the earth had become fairly well known, the African race, the Malay peoples, the American Indians, and the Pacific islanders had all been seen and described, and from now on the history of the white race was to be connected with that of these other races. The age of colonization, of world-wide trade and intercourse, had begun. The white man, who had heretofore been narrowly pressed in upon Europe, threatened again and again with conquest by the Mohammedan, was now to cover the seas with his fleets and all lands with his power.