The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-11-14

with men OF science, and with travellers.
He assembled around his person African
traders and travellers. He had negroes
brought TO him from the interior OF the con-
tinent,-the blacks of Jalof,-and with pa
tient study of their language, %endeavored to
hnd out some of the secrets of the great
Ethiopian land. He especially wished to
determine whether or no a navigable sea
bounded its southern shores, and would per-
nit a Portuguese feet to sail along It's
coasts, till doubling some southern extremity
It could sail northward into the waters of
India, and thence TO the Red Sea. He saw
that this would be the great and easy high
way TO the treasures of the East, and If
found out by him would win for Portugal
the wealth and repown, that Arabs, Egyp-
tians, and Lombards of his day had been
winning for ages. However the Princes
passion was more for discovery than acqui-
sition. He also preserved his mothers faith to
open up new ways for the Cross, and TO en-
nance the glory of his country by carrying
her religion and her flag into unknown
lands. But this ardent soul was checked by
the ignorance and fears of his age. A gate
way was opened, but he could find none
willing to enter on the pathway beyond. A
degree or two beyond the Straits was the
limit of enterprise in his day. The great
CULTS leading to destruction as then supposed
lay beyond thestormy headiand of Cape Non;
and the navigation of those days would not
leave the limits of well known coasts.
But Henry who had studied carefully all
that was sam about the navigations of ilanno,
Eudoxus, Menelaus and the Periplus of the
E%rythrPan sea, and whose clear mind
doubted not that nature was controlled and
regulated in all parts of the globe even as be
beheld it in the Mediterranean sea, saw that
men needed more knowledge TO get rid Of
many imaginary terrors of unknown seas,
and he resolved to concentrate all information
from geographers and mariners in
A STUDY OF THE SEA.
The young Prince in his twenty-frst year,
turned his back on the splendors of his faith
er's court and on all the opportunities for
military glory in Africa and in Europe, for
which he was prominently qualified to win
a great share, in order TO study the mysteries
of the sea, and to search out the great secrets
of the Earth.s
He retired to a retreat near the lofty head
lands of Cape St. Vincent, which overlook
the ocean, the object Of his Constant thoughts,
and there he established an academy for the
study of navigation, and the first observatory.
He who had gathered around his standard
at one time, heroes to capture and destroy a
strong city, was now equally successful in
rallying around his person, men OF skill to
enable him to assault the dangers of the
deep. His chief worker was one James of
Maiorca but there came also many captains
and geogaphers, and among others Peres-
trello, who had with him a little Phillipa,
that was to help WELD a great influence,
in stimulating maritime enterprise and dis
covery, even as the illustrious royal Phillipa
had done.
THE FIRST CHART MAKER.
The especial skill of this little maiden's
father was to delineate the outlines of lands
and waters and his pencil was one of the
foremost under the direction of the great
Prince, to make the first of charts for the
purpose of navigation. "a story is told by
Mattheo in relation TO thu photographer and
his daughter, which is a illustration not
only of the enthusiasm and research of the
period inspired by Prince Henry, but also of
| the noble spirit of the women, which in that
day stimulated the enterprise of men.
Perestrello though a noble Italian cavalier,
and distinguished by his Prince for his voy-
ages and discoveries as well as his charts,
was somewhat negligent in respect to his
means of subsistence and on one occasion,
when he desired TO execute a large chart, ne
had no proper material for its delineation
and he could not conveniently procure 1t,
not having in his purse even a solitary
moravedi but the enthusiastic and loving
Phillipa understanding the need, and sym
pathizing with the desire of her Jealous
father, took from her scanty wardrobe a
garment of fine linen, which furnished the
desired surface for the dclineations of the
photographer. And this PhillIpa, beautiful
and enthusiastic, and of a nature to inspire
men of high purpose became
THE WIFE OF coLUMBUs.IO
Here was a Phillipa fitted to continue the
inspiration begun by the Royal Phillipa =
and the great Prince the promoter of dlscOv-
erv, and the great discoverer himself. both
derived their inspirations from two women
Of the same name,--both naturaliZed in
! Portugal, the one an English woman and
the other an Italian;-and the world should
! recognize how much the founders OF Its
greatest movements and acquisitions In
/ modern DAYS were indebted to the inspira-.
ton of two noble women. who in an era that
! produced an Isabella of Spain, showed that
noble feminine souls grasped and even
prompted every high purpose of the foremost
men of an enterprising age of the world.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE MARRIAGE OF
1t is well to consider the opportunities and
influences that attended the marriage of the
Discoverer of America with the fair deposit
tarv of the accumulated knowledge and ex-
p~erience Of the Founder of the spirit of
modern discovery and of ocean navigation
and if we glance at the achievements of the
latter,-undertaken with such zeal and main
9 .'.Comeeando do epo do InfAnte Dom Enrique
que foy o primeiro inuentor desta miicia austral ct
oriental" De Barros, Decada Primeira dos feitos
Que os qRortogueses feEeraon. Fol. 4, 1923.
10 Irving says it was 4 snatch Of mere affection. "
And if it had been q match of mere fortune, with the
daughter Of some rich grandee Of Lisbon, Columbus
very likely would not have been the discoverer Of
America; but living as he did in poverty, with the
enthusiasiic wife and daughter Of Peresirello, who