narrative. But we cannot understand the background that
lies behind the history of Canada without knowing why
such men as Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama and
the Cabots began the work of discovery.

First, we have to realize the peculiar relations between
Europe, ancient and mediaeval, and the great empires of
Eastern Asia. The two civilizations had never been in
direct contact. Yet in a sense they were always connected.
The Greeks and the Romans had at least vague reports of
peoples who lived on the far eastern confines of the
world, beyond even the conquests of Alexander the Great
in Hindustan. It is certain, too, that Europe and Asia
had always traded with one another in a strange and
unconscious fashion. The spices and silks of the unknown
East passed westward from trader to trader, from caravan
to caravan, until they reached the Persian Gulf, the Red
Sea, and, at last, the Mediterranean. The journey was so
slow, so tedious, the goods passed from hand to hand so
often, that when the Phoenician, Greek, or Roman merchants
bought them their origin had been forgotten. For century
after century this trade continued. When Rome fell, other
peoples of the Mediterranean continued the Eastern trade.
Genoa and Venice rose to greatness by this trade. As
wealth and culture revived after the Gothic conquest
which overthrew Rome, the beautiful silks and the rare
spices of the East were more and more prized in a world
of increasing luxury. The Crusades rediscovered Egypt,
Syria, and the East for Europe. Gold and jewels,
diamond-hilted swords of Damascus steel, carved ivory,