The results of this mania, as it was then considered, of Prince Henry are well known—­the discovery of Madeira, the Azores, Senegambia, Angola, Benguela, etc., and, after Prince Henry’s death, the Cape of Good Hope, Goa, Macao, the islands, etc.; all of which were colonized by Portuguese.  These colonies, and the commerce which sprang up with them, afforded outlets for the downtrodden serfs of Portugal.  Such was the beneficial result of this partial measure of freedom that in the course of the following two centuries Portugal became one of the leading nations of the world, with a population of 5,000,000 and a flag respected in every clime.

Unhappily, this interval of prosperity to Portugal was the cause of infinite misery to the negro race.  The discoveries in Africa and Asia afforded a career to the enslaved Portuguese; yet, by leading, as they did, to the discovery of America, they were eventually the cause of the slave-trade, which without America could not have flourished.  Such will ever be the result of the attempt to palliate instead of cure evil.  Moreover, the discovery of America and the resulting slave-trade were the cause of Portugal’s retrogression to the point whence she had started in Prince Henry’s time.  When gold and slaves rendered maritime discovery profitable to the aristocratic class, all the nobles went into it—­not only the aristocrats of Portugal, but those also of Spain, England, France, Holland, Italy.  They all went into the trade of acquiring empires, and it is not to be wondered at if in this rivalry of greed and violence Portugal, exploited and burdened with serfdom and other features of bad government at home, was distanced and overcome.  Her colonies were captured and reduced by foreign enemies, or invaded and ruined by one of the several political diseases from which she had never wholly rid herself.  For example, the once magnificent city of Goa, which formerly contained a population of 150,000 Christians and 50,000 Mohammedans, is now an almost deserted ruin, with but 40,000 inhabitants, chiefly ecclesiastical.

When Pombal assumed the reins of government in 1750 the population of Portugal had been reduced to less than 2,000,000:  there was neither agriculture, manufactures, army nor navy.  Perceiving this state of affairs, and recognizing the cause of it, Pombal caused the vines to be torn up by the roots and corn planted in their place.  Ruffianism was crushed, the Jesuits were banished, the nobility were taught to respect the civil law, the peasantry were encouraged.  After twenty-seven years of reforms and prosperity Pombal was dismissed from office and the old abuses were reinstated, among them those worst incidents of emphyteusis which had been devised by the base ring of nobles and ecclesiastics who held the land in their grasp.

These abuses remained without material change until 1832, and thus you have a complete history of emphyteusis from the first to the last day of its institution in Portugal.  In truth, however, its last day has not come even yet, for many of its incidents still linger in the code of laws.