of the Periplus visited them); but they knew not where the sea terminated.  At Sofala also Covilham gained some information respecting the island of the Moon, or Madagascar.  He returned to Cairo, by Zeila, Aden, and Tor.  At Cairo, he sent an account of the intelligence to the king, and in the letter which contained it, he added, “that the ships which sailed down the coast of Guinea, might be sure of reaching the termination of the continent, by persisting in a course to the south, and that when they should arrive in the eastern ocean, their best direction must be to enquire for Sofala and the island of the Moon.”

“It is this letter,” observes Dr. Vincent, “above all other information, which, with equal justice and equal honour, assigns the theoretical discovery to Covilham, as the practical to Diaz and Gama; for Diaz returned without hearing any thing of India, though he had passed the Cape, and Gama did not sail till after the intelligence of Covilham had ratified the discovery of Diaz.”  One part of the instructions given to Covilham required him to visit Abyssinia:  in order to accomplish this object, he returned to Aden, and there took the first opportunity of entering Abyssinia.  The sovereign of his country received and treated him with kindness, giving him a wife and land.  He entered Abyssinia in 1488, and in 1521, that is, 33 years afterwards, the almoner to the embassy of John de Lima found him.  Covilham, notwithstanding he was as much beloved by the inhabitants as by their sovereign, was anxious to return to Portugal, and John de Lima, at his request, solicited the king to grant him permission to that effect, but he did not succeed.  “I dwell,” observes Dr. Vincent, “with a melancholy pleasure on the history of this man,—­whom Alvarez, the almoner, describes still as a brave soldier and a devout Christian;—­when I reflect upon what must have been his sentiments on hearing the success of his countrymen, in consequence of the discovery to which he so essentially contributed. They were sovereigns of the ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to the straits of Malacca:  he was still a prisoner in a country of barbarians.”

It might have been supposed, that after it had been ascertained by Diaz that the southern promontory of Africa could be doubled, and by Covilham, that this was the only difficulty to a passage by sea to India, the court of Portugal would have lost no time in prosecuting their discoveries, and completing the grand object they had had in view for nearly a century:  this, however, was not the case.  Ten years, and another reign, and great debates in the council of Portugal were requisite before it was resolved that the attempt to prosecute the discovery of Diaz to its completion was expedient, or could be of any advantage to the nation at large.  At last, when Emanuel, who was their sovereign, had determined on prosecuting the discovery of India, his choice of a person to conduct the enterprise fell on Gama.  As he had armorial