and courage which distinguished American discovery. Prince Henry himself
was hardly a less personage than Columbus. They had different elements to
contend in. But the man whom princely wealth and position, and the
temptation to intrigue which there must have been in the then state of the
Portuguese court, never induced to swerve from the one purpose which he
maintained for forty years, unshaken by popular clamour, however sorely
vexed he might be with inward doubts and misgivings; who passed laborious
days and watchful nights in devotion to this one purpose, enduring the
occasional short-comings of his agents with that forbearance which springs
from a care for the enterprise in hand, so deep as to control private
vexation (the very same motive which made Columbus bear so mildly with
insult and contumely from his followers),--such a man is worthy to be put
in comparison with the other great discoverer who worked out his
enterprise through poverty, neglect, sore travail, and the vicissitudes of
courts. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that Prince Henry was
undoubtedly the father of modern geographical discovery, and that the
result of his exertions must have given much impulse to Columbus, if it
did not first move him to his great undertaking. After the above eulogium
on Prince Henry, which is not the least more than he merited, his kinsmen,
the contemporary Portuguese monarchs, should come in for their share of
honourable mention, as they seem to have done their part in African
discovery with much vigour, without jealousy of Prince Henry, and with
high and noble aims. It would also be but just to include, in some part of
this praise, the many brave captains who distinguished themselves in these
enterprises.


SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE

How far the great discoverer, on whose career we are about to enter, was