states of the kings, his ancestors. He thought of carrying the Gospel to the Moors, and to the idolaters who peopled the shores of Western Africa, which were but little known at that time.
Some partial discoveries were made under the auspices of Don Henry. The Holy See naturally encouraged these discoveries, the twofold object of which was the knowledge of the earth, and the propagation of Christianity. To give the zeal of the prince a pledge of his good-will, the Holy Father conferred on the Crown of Portugal the right of primacy over all the barbarous countries it should discover from Cape Bajador to the East Indies. And at the same time that he menaced with the denunciations of the Church whosoever should dare to thwart these beneficent expeditions, the Holy Father granted a plenary indulgence to all those who, in making part of them, should perish in fulfilling the conditions of it. If the capital of the Christian world applauded these efforts, the maritime cities of Italy, and the republics of the coasts, became concerned about them, but from other motives, seeing that their interests were threatened.
The death of Prince Henry weakened the impulse given to the spirit of discovery. Meanwhile, Lisbon was still the city of maritime progress. It was there that the ablest shipwrights were found; that the best planispheres and works on astronomy were sold, that atlases, and the most exact marine charts, were executed, and where the most capable pilots were most numerous. The name of Pilot, at that time, meant every naval officer who was not the captain of a ship. It was applied even to captains of the second order in the navy. A very large number of mar- iners, whom the munificence of the prince mathematician attracted to Lisbon, still continued their residence there, notwithstanding the loss of their liberal patron.
It is, therefore, not surprising that Bartholomew Columbus, the brother of Christopher, should have settled there, in order to turn to account his talents in geography, the
