Portugal, was still a Moorish city. Soon after his honeymoon, he began preparations for its reduction, and in the course of the following year he led an army against it and laid siege to it. Strongly fortified, and numerously defended, Lisbon long resisted his utmost exertions, and at last it was but an accident which enabled him to carry it. A fleet of adventurers, French, English, and Flemings, bound for the Holy Land, chanced to anchor at the mouth of the Tagus. The King of Portugal besought their aid.

"You are going to fight the Infidels of Palestine," said he; "there are Infidels in yonder city."

The crusaders were easily persuaded to lend him their aid, and Lisbon was quickly reduced and added to the possessions of Alfonse. This important conquest brought troops of other crusaders to his assistance. Within a few months, twelve other Moorish strongholds were captured by him.

The reign of this valiant king lasted just sixty years, during which he scarcely enjoyed five years, in all, of peace. Now he warred with the Moors, now with Christians; sometimes with both at once. When he was seventy years of age he was still active in the field against one of his own sons-in-law, by whom he was taken prisoner, but soon after honorably released.

His long reign began and ended in victory. In the seventyfifth year of his age, the Moors made one more mighty effort to dislodge him from his little kingdom, and win back the provinces of which he had despoiled them. To the Moors of Spain were added vast numbers from Africa, and a countless host swept over the Christian provinces, led on by the king of Morocco himself. Nothing stopped them but one of Alfonse's strongholds, which he had fortified against the day of need. When the Moors had exhausted themselves in vain assaults upon this fortress, Alfonse fell upon them, and gave them a defeat as signal as that which had won him a crown. A year after, the founder of the kingdom of Portugal died, aged seventysix, leaving to his son, Sancho, tranquil and prosperous domin1ons, which he governed in the spirit and manner of his father. Alfonse found Portugal a province, and left it a nation. He defended it by his sword, and founded the institutions by vir

tue of which it became great. His death interrupted not the advance of his kingdom, because he had known how to rear a son who was but another Alfonse. Strength and courage he exhibited in a high degree, and these are usually sufficient for a great personal success. But to found a family, to be the progenitor of a line of noble kings, a man must be wise and virtuous, and both in an eminent degree. How many men there are among us to to-day who have made a great fortune; but how few of them have succeeded in the infinitely more difficult task of rearing a son worthy to inherit and able to use it!

BARTHOLOMEW DIAS.

ALL sailors and geographers, I repeat, should pronounce with respect the word, Portugal; for it was that little kingdom which led the way in navigating the ocean. But for Portugal, Columbus had never discovered America. It was the example of Portuguese navigators that gave him courage to undertake his great voyage; and it was while living in Portugal and exercising his vocation of map-maker that the conviction grew in his mind of the existence of land in the western hemisphere. Alfonse, the first and greatest King of Portugal, was, as I have said, the progenitor of a noble line of kings, who raised one of the smallest of kingdoms to a rank and importance in Europe scarcely inferior to that of the largest.

The first of the series of events which ended in the discovery of a new world was the introduction of the Mariner's Compass, without which it had never been safe to venture out of sight of land. No one knows who invented this sublime instrument. We only know that it was first used in navigating the seas about the year 1420,-seventy years before Columbus sailed.

The whole of that period of seventy years was filled with events of the highest interest to navigators. Then it was that the science of navigation began to exist. In the court of a Portuguese king the compass was first seriously studied. There, too, were constructed the first tables of the sun's declinations, for sailors' use; and there was first disclosed the modern mode of taking observations of the sun. By Portuguese navigators the islands lying off the African coast- the Azores, Madeiras, Cape Verdes, and others were discovered. Portuguese sailors first ventured down along the coast of Africa; first visited the negro in his native home; first saw the elephant; first brought

to Europe pepper, ivory, and gold dust, from the shores of Guinea; first planted the cross upon those distant coasts; first saw that remote headland which was afterwards named the Cape of Good Hope; first doubled the cape, and so reached by sea the East Indies. These were great achievements, second in importance only to the discovery of a new continent, and surpassing even that in difficulty and danger.

Of the Portuguese navigators who preceded Columbus, Bartholomew Dias was the most famous and successful. It was in 1486 six years before the discovery of America-that Dias At that time, made the voyage which immortalizes his name. the principal islands off the northern coast of Africa were paying tribute to the Portuguese king, and the coast itself had been explored to a point within 1,100 miles of the southern extremity of the continent. Beyond that point all was as yet unknown. But there existed then in Portugal such an enthusiasm for explorations and discoveries, that no sooner had one navigator returned and related his adventures than plans were entertained for new attempts. This was the case in 1486. A ship returned in that year which had sailed up the river Congo, and brought home a chief of the country to be baptized a Christian. Religious zeal, the desire of gain and national pride, all concurred to induce the King of Portugal to fit out a new expedition, to ascertain, if possible, how far Africa extended, and what there was at the end of it. They had been working at Africa for many a year. Great and strange things had been discovered; but they had not yet reached the bottom of the mystery.

Two vessels, each of fifty tons burthen, were equipped and armed, and placed under the command of Dias, a man of rank and a member of the king's household. The little vessels put to sea, followed by the ardent wishes of all Portugal. Columbus was not upon the shore to see them off; for, one year before, after having long endeavored to obtain the patronage of the King of Portugal, he had left that country and offered his services to the King of Spain. How bitterly the King of Portugal regretted this six years after!

The two ships sped away before favorable gales, and quickly reached the southernmost point attained by previous navigators.

Beyond latitude twenty-two degrees nothing was known; and Dias had no guide but the line of the coast. This, however, proved to be a very deceptive guide; for sometimes it stretched away toward the west, then indented eastward; so that, in attempting to make short cuts, he often lost the land, sailed many days out of his course, and was then obliged to retrace his steps and grope about, as it were, until he found the continent again. As the ships advanced toward the south, the astonishment of the navigators was unbounded when they found the weather daily growing colder. This was contrary to all past experience. No European had ever before gone far enough south of the equator to discover that the temperature lowers as you go south of the equator in the same proportion as when you go north of it. This fact was the first great discovery of Dias and his followers.

Sailing along the coast, he saw at length the lofty promontory, a thousand feet above the level of the sea, which terminates the continent. He had accomplished his mission, but he knew it not. Still hugging the shore, he soon observed that the line of coast now tended northward; whence he gradually concluded that he had doubled the southern extremity of Africa.

It is much to the credit of Dias and of the enlightened king whom he served, that, in obedience to his orders, he treated the natives of Africa with all possible kindness. Four negro women, beguiled from their home by previous explorers, he carried back to their country, loaded with presents. He exchanged gifts, also, with the chiefs whose dominions he visited, and treated them with great consideration. They reciprocated his kindness and supplied him with provisions. On one occasion, however, he encountered a hostile tribe. Soon after rounding the great cape, he had occasion to land for a supply of water. On reaching the spring, he found a great assemblage of natives, who attempted to drive away the sailors by a shower of stones, hurled from slings. Dias ordered up one of those enormous bow-guns in use at that time; by means of which a large stone was thrown into the crowd of howling savages, stretched one of them lifeless upon the ground, and put the rest to flight.

This encounter completed the discouragement of his men. Dias wished to push on, in quest of the rich shores of India;