Note 1 — Chapter IV · The Great Geographical Discoveries.

See the noted work The Life of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator, and its Results, by Richard Henry Major, London, 1868. Many of the views of Mr. Major upon the importance of Prince Henry’s work and especially its early aims, have been contradicted in more recent writings. The importance of the Sagres Observatory is belittled. Doubts are expressed as to the farsightedness of Prince Henry’s plans, and the best opinion of to-day holds that he did not hope to discover a new route to India by way of Africa, but sought simply the conquest of the “Guinea,” which was known to the Europeans through the Arab Geographers, who called it “Bilad Ghana” or “Land of Wealth.” The students, if possible, should read the essay of Mr. E. J. Payne, The Age of Discovery, in the Cambridge Modern History, Vol I.