commerce was early excited in his mind and irrespective of
his explorations received steady attention. In Azurara's
quaint phrase he brought the East and the West together
that men might learn to exchange wealth.^ The evidence
cited above in regard to his aims shows clearly, however, that
as soon as he realized to what an extent Africa was unex-
plored, the zeal for discovery was awakened in him and soon
took the first place in his mind. However profitable the ex-
peditions down the coast of Africa were during the latter
part of his life, they were evidently a heavy expense during
the earlier years. ^
Early in the next century, in the first glow of triumph over the successful voyage of da Gama to India, a Portu- guese geographer, whose treatise was not printed until 1892, was so profoundly impressed with the magnificent culmination of Prince Henry's work, that he attributed his impulse to
terras illas per aquam maris ad habendum commercia cum ipsis et ad nutrien- dum suos nobiles." Gomez, in Schmeller, 19, on the year 1416. On the basis of this and perhaps with additional information Hieronymus Miinzer wrote about 1494 : " Idem Henricus, frater Eduardi, considerans paternas census non tantis expensis sufficere, animum applicuit terras incognitas aperire. Considerans autem regem de Tunis, i. e. Carthagine multum auri quotannis habere, duos ex- plorationes ad Tunis misit ; certiorque factus, quo modo rex de Tunis merces per Atlantica juga in Aethiopiam meridianem miserit, et aurum sclavosque attulerit, idem hoc ipsum per mare temptayit facere, quod rex de Tunis per terram multis annis potuit efficere." Evidently by this time the voyages were paying so well as to be a valuable adjunct to the royal revenue. (See note, p. 188.) Kunstmann, Hieronymus Miinzer's Bericht iiber die Entdeckung der Guinea, 60.
1 Ca tu per continnades passagees fizeste ajuntar o levante com o poente, porque as gentes aprendessem a comuder as riquezas. Chronica de Guin^, 41.
2 Prince Henry, in 1458, said the voyages had been made " not without great labors on my part and infinite expense, especially of the monies and income of the Order." Souza Holstein, 47. (See above, note 3, p. 175.) The Military Order of Christ (Ordem da Milicia de Nosso Senhor Christo) was the successor and heir of the Templars. The king's charter declared " que a Ordem de Christo se tinha feito em Reformagao do Templo, quo se desfez." Pope John XXII. recog- nized the new order by a brief, March 14, 1319. Santa "Rosa de Viterbo, Eluci- dario das Palavras, Termos, e Frasas Antiquades da Lingua Portugueza, art. " Tempreiros," II, 248, Lisbon, 1865. Prince Henry was appointed Grand Master of the Order by his father. King John, in 1418. He exercised the functions of Master, but did not become a full member. He took the title of Governor. Souza Holstein, A Escola de Sagres, 74.
