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37
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
Norway.
Their merchants emulated the magnificence of princes.
All Europe was tributary to their commerce.
Yet this trade had
to pass through various intermediate hands, subject to the delays and charges of internal navigation, and the tedious and uncertain journeys of the caravan.
For a long time, the merchandise of
India was conveyed by the Gulf of Persia, the Euphrates, the Indus, and the Oxus, to the Caspian and the Mediterranean seas ; thence to take a new destination for the various marts of Europe. After the Soldan of Egypt had conquered the Arabs, and restored trade to its ancient channel, it was still attended with great cost and delay.
Its precious commodities had to be conveyed by the
Red Sea; thence on the backs of camels to the banks of the Nile, whence they were transported to Egypt to meet the Italian mer chants.
Thus, while the opulent traffic of the East was engrossed
by these adventurous monopolists, the price of every article was enhanced by the great expense of transportation. It was the grand idea of Prince Henry, by circumnavigating Africa to open a direct and easy route to the source of this com merce, to turn it in a golden tide upon his country.
He was,
however, before the age in thought, and had to counteract igno rance and prejudice, and to endure the delays to which vivid and penetrating minds are subjected, from the tardy co-operations of the dull and the doubtful. yet in its infancy.
The navigation of the Atlantic was
Mariners looked with distrust upon a boisterous
expanse, which appeared to have no opposite shore, and feared to venture out of sight of the landmarks.
Every bold headland,
and far-stretching promontory, was a wall to bar their progress. They crept timorously along the Barbary shores, and thought they had accomplished a wonderful expedition when they had ventured a few degrees beyond the Straits of Gibraltar.
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Cape