The king displayed great judgment in the selection of both these persons.  Diaz was of a family, several members of which had already signalized themselves by the discoveries on the coast of Africa.  His mode of conducting the enterprize on which he was sent, proved at once his confidence in himself, his courage, and his skill; after reaching 24 deg. south latitude, 120 leagues beyond any former navigator, he stood right out to sea, and never came within sight of the coast again, till he had reached 40 degrees to the eastward of the Cape, which, however, he was much too far out at sea to discover.  He persevered in stretching still farther east, after he made land, till at length he reached the river Del Infante, six degrees to the eastward of the most southern point of Africa, and almost a degree beyond the Cape of Good Hope.  He then resolved to return, for what reason is not known; and on his return, he saw the Cape of Good Hope, to which, on account of the storms he encountered on his passage round it, he gave the appellation of Cabo Tormentoso.  John II., however, augured so well from the doubling of the extremity of Africa having been accomplished, that he changed its name into that of the Cape of Good Hope.

As soon as John II. ascended the throne, he sent two friars and a layman to Jerusalem, with instructions to gain whatever information they could respecting India and Prester John from the pilgrims who resorted to that city, and, if necessary, to proceed further to the east.  As, however, none of this party understood Arabic, they were of little use, and in fact did not go beyond Jerusalem.  In 1487, the king sent Covilham and Paayva on the same mission:  the former had served in Africa as a soldier, and was intimately acquainted with Arabic.  In order to facilitate this enterprise, Covilham was entrusted with a map, drawn up by two Jews, which most probably was a copy of the map of Mauro, of which we have already spoken.  On this map, a passage round the south of Africa was laid down as having been actually accomplished, and Covilham was directed to reach Abyssinia, if possible; and ascertain there or elsewhere, whether such a passage did really exist.  Covilham went from Naples to Alexandria, and thence to Cairo.  At this city he formed an acquaintance with some merchants of Fez and Barbary, and in their company went to Aden.  Here he embarked and visited Goa, Calicut, and other commercial cities of India, where he saw pepper and ginger, and heard of cloves and cinnamon.  From India he returned to the east coast of Africa, down which he went as low as Sofala, “the last residence of the Arabs, and the limit of their knowledge in that age, as it had been in the age of the Periplus.”  He visited the gold mines in the vicinity of this place:  and here he also learnt all the Arabs knew respecting the southern part of Africa, viz. that the sea was navigable to the south-west (and this indeed their countrymen believed, when the author