a king. Ever since the twelfth century there had been stories circulated
through Europe about the enormously wealthy monarch who ruled over a
vast number of Christians "in the Indies." At first Prester John's
domain was supposed to be in Asia; later the legends shifted it over to
Africa, Abyssinia probably; and it was with this division of "India"
that the Portuguese Prince Henry hoped to establish a trade; not, at
first, by rounding Africa and sailing up its east coast to Abyssinia,
but by merely cruising down the coast of Western Africa till Abyssinia's
Atlantic shores were reached; for so vague was the geography of that
far-away day that Abyssinia was supposed to stretch from Ethiopia to the
Atlantic. "If," reasoned Prince Henry, "my sailors can feel their way
down Africa till they come to Prester John's territory, not only could
our nation secure the rich trade which now goes to the Moors, but we
could form a treaty with the African Christians and ask them to come to
Europe and help us should the Moors ever again advance against us." This
plan was approved by Pope Nicholas V., who sanctioned Prince Henry's
enterprise in the hope of "bringing the people of India, who are reputed
to honor Christ, to the aid of European Christians against Saracens and
other enemies." This projected exploration of the African coast by
"Henry the Navigator" was the whole foundation for the _mistaken
statements that Christopher Columbus was trying to find "a sea route to
India_." Prince Henry was trying to find a sea route to an African
India which he supposed lay about where Guinea lies; and as for
Christopher, he never undertook to find either this African India, nor
the true Asiatic India; _he only promised the Spanish sovereigns that
he would find "lands in the west_."

Having straightened out the long-lived confusion about "the short route
to India," let us see how Prince Henry went to work. Northern or
Mediterranean Africa was well known to Europe, but not the Atlantic