CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 59 tageous to Portugal. The map drawn (1457 - 1459), in the last years of Prince Henry's life, showed the way round the southern point of Africa up to Sofala and " Xengibar " on the east African coast. The subse- quent discovery that the Gulf of Guinea trended almost due east seemed to disclose an even more direct course to India than was actually the case. Not only did the southern route appear a certainty, but care had been taken to secure a monopoly of it for Portugal. The Bull of Pope Nicholas V in 1454 conferred on the Portuguese king all Guinea as far as a certain large river reputed to be the Nile, but which was really the Senegal. A western passage across the Atlantic to India might prove a dangerous rival to the almost discovered passage round the southern extremity of Africa. What between royal hesitations and scien- tific scepticism, Columbus found that little was to be hoped from Portugal (1481-1483). King John n listened to base counsels, and after trying to get a detailed plan from Columbus, sent out a secret expe- dition to secure the discovery on his own account. The surreptitious caravel was driven back by a storm, and in 1484 Columbus quitted Portugal in disgust, to hawk about a new world at incredulous courts during eight more weary years. The other incident which affected the course of East Indian discovery is more honourable to Portugal. Azurara records that one of Prince Henry's main ob- jects was to find out whether any Christian peoples dwelt in the unknown African world. The old con-
