THE MAGNETIC EAST
Within human experience it is a safe maxim, that if you keep on
continuously thinking and longing for a certain object you are almost
sure, eventually, to obtain that which you desire.
There is scarcely any better instance of this on a large scale than
the longing to find a route to India by sea, and the attainment of
this only after long years and years. As a study of perseverance it
is remarkable: but the inspiration of the whole project was to get at
the world’s great treasure-house, to find the way thereto and then
unlock its doors. For centuries there had been trade routes between
Europe and India overland. But the establishment of the Ottoman Empire
in the fifteenth century placed a barrier across these routes. This
suggested that there might possibly be—there was most probably—a route
via the sea, and this would have the advantage of an easier method of
transportation. It is very curious how throughout the ages a vague
tradition survives and lingers on from century to century, finally to
decide men’s minds on some momentous matter. It is not quite a literal
inspiration, for often enough these ancient traditions had a modicum of
truth therein contained.
In my last book, “Ships and Ways of Other Days,” I gave an instance of
this which was remarkable enough to bear repeating. A reproduction was
given of a fourteenth-century portolano, or chart, in which the shape
of Southern Africa was seen to be extraordinarily accurate: and this,
notwithstanding that it was sketched one hundred and thirty-five years
before the Cape of Good Hope had been doubled. Some might suppose this
knowledge to have been the result of second-sight, but my suggestion
is that it was the result of an ancient tradition that the lower
part of the African continent was shaped as depicted. For there is
a well-founded belief that about the beginning of the sixth century
B.C. the Phœnicians were sent by Neco, an Egyptian king, down
the Red Sea; and that after circumnavigating the African continent they
entered the Mediterranean from the westward.
The dim recollection of this voyage over a portion of the Indian Ocean,
coupled with other knowledge derived from the Arabian seamen, doubtless
left little hesitation in the minds of the seafaring peoples of the
Mediterranean that the sea route to India existed if indeed it could be
found. The various fruitless attempts, beginning with Vivaldi’s voyage
from Genoa in 1281, are all evidence that this belief never died. For
years nothing more successful was obtained than to get to Madeira or a
little lower down the west coast of Africa, yet almost every effort was
pushing on nearer the goal; even though that goal was still a very long
way distant. The East was exercising a magnetic influence on the minds
of men: India was bound to be discovered sooner or later, if they did
not weary of the attempt.
Then comes on to the scene the famous Prince Henry the Navigator, who
built the first observatory of Portugal, established a naval arsenal,
gathered together at his Sagres headquarters the greatest pilots and
navigators which could be collected, founded a school of navigation and
chart-making, and then sent his trained, picked men forth to sail the
seas, explore the unknown south with the hope ultimately of reaching
the rich land of India. I have discussed this matter with such detail
in the volume already alluded to that it will be enough if I here
remark briefly that though Prince Henry died in the year 1460 without
any of his ships or men attaining India, yet less than forty years
were to elapse ere this was attained, and his was the influence which
really brought this about. We must never forget that on the historical
road to India through the long ages from the earliest times down to the
fifteenth century the name of Prince Henry the Navigator represents one
of the most important milestones.
[Illustration: THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S SHIP “GENERAL
GODDARD,” COMMANDED BY WM. TAYLOR MONEY, WITH HIS MAJESTY’S SHIP
“SCEPTRE” AND “SWALLOW,” PACKET, CAPTURING SEVEN DUTCH EAST INDIAMEN
OFF ST. HELENA, ON 14TH JUNE, 1795.
(By courtesy of Messrs. T. H. Parker Brothers)]
You know so well how that thereafter, in the year 1486, the King of
Portugal sent forth two expeditions with the desire to find an eastern
route to India, and that one of these proceeded through Egypt, then
down the Red Sea, across the Arabian Sea, and finally after some
hardships reached Calicut, in the south-west of India. The other
expedition consisted of a little squadron under Bartholomew Diaz, and
although it did not get as far as India, yet it passed the Cape of
Torments without knowing it—far out to sea—and even sighted Algoa Bay.
The Cape of Torments he had called that promontory on his way back,
remembering the bad weather which he here found: but the Cape of Good
Hope his master,
King John II., renamed it when Diaz reached home in safety. And then,
finally, the last of these efforts was fraught with success when Vasco
da Gama, in the year 1497, not only doubled the Cape of Good Hope, but
discovered Mozambique, Melinda (a little north of Mombasa), and thence
with the help of an Indian pilot crossed the ocean and reached Calicut
by sea in twenty-three days—an absolutely unprecedented achievement for
one who had sailed all the way from the Tagus.
This was the beginning of an entirely new era in the progress of the
world, and till the crack of doom it will remain a memorable voyage,
not merely for the fact that da Gama was able to succeed where so
many others had failed, but because it unlocked the door of the East,
first to the Portuguese, and subsequently to other nations of Europe.
The twin arts of seamanship and navigation had made this possible,
and it was only because the Portuguese, most especially Prince Henry,
had believed “in ye sea” that the key had been found. As Columbus,
by believing in the sea, was enabled in looking for India to open up
the Western world, so was da Gama privileged to unlock the East. And
since the sea connotes the ship we arrive at the standpoint that it is
this long-suffering creature, fashioned by the hand of man, which has
done more for the civilisation of the world than any other of those
wonderful creations which the human mind has evolved from the things of
the earth.
The first cargo which da Gama brought home was, so to speak, merely a
small sample of those goods which were to be obtained by the ships that
came after for generation after generation till the present day. It
showed how great and priceless were the riches of the East—spices and
perfumes, pearls and rubies, diamonds and cinnamon. The safe arrival
of these, when da Gama got back home, made a profound impression. But
it was no mere sentimental wonder, for the receipt of all these goods
repaid the cost of the entire expedition sixty-fold. From this time
forth the Portuguese were busily engaged in extracting wealth as men
get it out from a gold mine. Their ships went backwards and forwards in
their long voyages, sometimes narrowly escaping the attentions of the
Moslem pirates anxious to relieve them of their valuable cargoes. Some
Portuguese settled in India, and gradually there came into existence a
fringe of Portuguese nationality extending from the Malabar coast right
away to the Persian Gulf. Even as far as Japan was the East explored,
and the vast fortunes which were brought back ever astonished the
merchants of Europe. The first Portuguese factory was established at
Calicut in the year 1500. For about a hundred years they were able to
benefit, unrivalled, by their newly found treasure-house and to use
their best endeavours, unfettered, to empty it.
In 1503 they erected their first fortress and strengthened their
position. In their hands was the monopoly: theirs were the great
and invaluable secrets of this amazing trade. And considering
everything—the enterprise and training of Prince Henry, the far-sighted
prudence in believing in the sea, the years and years of distressful
voyages, the final attainment of the treasure-land only after many
vicissitudes and the loss of ships and men—we cannot marvel that the
Portuguese preserved these secrets, and held on to their monopoly,
to the annoyance of the rest of civilised Europe. The fact was that
Portugal was then the sovereign of the seas: she was far too strong
afloat for any other country to think of wresting from her by force
what she had obtained only by much study, skill and perseverance. What
she had obtained she was going to hold. Those who wanted these Eastern
goods must come to Lisbon, where the mart was held: and come they did,
but they went back home envious that Portugal should enjoy this secret
monopoly, and wondering all the time how India could be reached by a
new route.
Curiosity and envy combined have been the means of the unravelling of
many a secret. It was so now. Let us not fail to realise how greatly
these human feelings influenced many of the voyages during the next
hundred years. We justly admire the great daring of the Elizabethan
seamen, but though the spirit of adventure and the hatred of Spain
had a great deal to do with the cause of their setting forth to cross
the ocean, yet there was another reason: and this explains much that
is not otherwise quite clear. It is always fair to assume that men do
not act except at the instigation of some clear motive. They do not
persuade merchants to expend the whole of their small wealth in buying
or building ships, victualling them and providing all the necessary
inventories, without some rational cause. In the Elizabethan times,
when wealth was much rarer than it is to-day, the prime motive of these
expeditions was the pursuit of greater wealth.
But as England was not yet as expert at sea as the Portuguese, she
could not hope to obtain the treasures of distant lands. Before she was
ready there was, however, still Spain: and the latter was determined
to do her best to obtain on her own what Portugal was enjoying. In
a word, then, many of the sixteenth-century voyages which we have
attributed, rashly, solely to a hope for adventurous exploration were
in fact animated by the desire to find some new route to India. To
this inspiration must be attributed many of those long sea journeys to
the north, the north-east and the north-west. Men did not endeavour to
find north-east or north-west passages merely for fun, but in order to
discover a road to India. No one knew that it was impossible: if the
Portuguese had been able to go one way, why should not they themselves
go by another route? Remembering this, you must think of Spain sending
Magellan to the west; of England sending Davis to the north-west; and
of Holland sending Barentsz to the north-east to find a passage to the
treasure-land of India or China.
The Spaniards discovered a way to India through the straits which are
called after Magellan, and henceforth did their utmost to keep the
ships of other countries out of their newly found waters, until the
increase of English sea-power and the daring of our more experienced
seamen showed that this Spanish sovereignty on sea could not be
maintained by force. But still the English seamen had not yet reached
India. We must turn for a moment to the Dutch, who were destined to
become a great naval power. In the year 1580 the Spanish and Portuguese
dominions had become united under the Spanish crown, and the Dutch
were excluded from trading with Lisbon, their ships confiscated and
their owners thrown into prison. Now, one of these captains while
undergoing his imprisonment obtained from some Portuguese sailors a
good deal of information concerning the Indian Seas, so that when he
reached the Netherlands again he told the most wonderful accounts to
his countrymen. The latter were so impressed by what was related that
they decided to send an expedition to find the Indies themselves.
Presently, then, we shall see the Dutch not merely casting longing
eyes towards India, but actually getting a footing therein, building
up a very lucrative trade and employing great, well-built craft: but
before we come to that stage we must note the gradual and persistent
way in which the countries outside the Iberian Peninsula felt their
way to this land of spices and precious stones, and after groping some
time in the dark found that which they had been searching for during
generations.