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About this time the Azores were colonized by the Portuguese, for these islands had been so little disturbed by man that even the birds could easily be taken by the hand. Henry, the Infante, bestowed the islands upon the explorers as an hereditary tenure.

In the second half of the fifteenth century, during the reign of Alfonso the Fifth, we have very inadequate reports of the progress of Portuguese exploration. We know, however, that the explorers advanced along the rivers of West Africa, especially the Gambia, which stream they ascended to transact business with caravans from the Soudan. It was at that time the European world began traffic in the great and rich resources of Central Africa. On the thirteenth of November, 1460, the Infante died, and the prosperity which had attended Portuguese explorations languished. History has honored him with the surname “Navigator,” though he took no personal part in exploration. Under his encouragement, the Portuguese, who before his time had timidly returned home from Cape Bajador, became bold seafarers. Discoveries rapidly advanced in his lifetime but Alfonso the Fifth wasted his inheritance. He gave no thought to new explorations for those already made were yielding him rich returns. The sugar plantations in Madeira brought him large profits, slaves were exchanged for horses, and the coast supplied great store of gold-dust, musk, ivory, and ginger. Notwithstanding their discouragement, the explorers pushed farther south. Before the close of the fifteenth century they found the Zaira, the Congo of our maps. King John the Second, like “Navigator” Henry, was greatly interested in sea voyages and the sciences. Under his patronage Bartholomew Dias, in 1486, left Lisbon with two small vessels and a supply boat, sailed south, and passed the mouth of the Congo. As the wind was contrary he put out to sea but was so driven about by storms that at last he found the coast of Africa on his left. He had rounded the southern extremity of the Dark Continent and, finding land, he kept on in a northerly direction.[4] His sailors, however, refused to go farther and insisted he should return. As he could not conciliate them, he began the home voyage reluctantly, passing again the mysterious cape, which he named Tormentoso, the name being subsequently changed by John the Second to Good Hope, and reached Lisbon in December, 1487, after an absence of sixteen months and seventeen days. Dias was poorly rewarded for his great discovery. He was not given command of a fleet a second time, but served as a simple captain under Cabral,[5] the discoverer of Brazil, and, in rounding the Cape of Good Hope during a fearful storm, May 23, 1500, was drowned.