On the shores of the other lands bordering the ocean, there were fishermen and sailors of small coasting vessels which entered the many estuaries cut into the land, but there was no connection by sea with the mass of- world traffic. The Arabs held the Strait of Gibraltar, and traffic was all local.
In view of the geographical facts, then, it was most natural that the discovery of the ocean should fall to Iberia, and that Iberia should be the first to profit by that discovery. We have seen that nearly all the peninsula had been overrun by the Mohammedans ; by the time they reached the West, however, the first fervour of slaughter had died out, and the lives of the original inhabitants were spared : they were suffered to live, though in subjection.
In the North, in the forest fastnesses of the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Mountains, where the Arab horsemen could not easily follow, an unconquered few were left, who remained not only free but Christian. In the Cantabrian Mountains arose the small state of Leon, and in the secluded valleys of the Pyrenees the state of Navarre took its rise. These gradually made headway against the Mohammedans, and recovered and re-chris tianized the land. As each gained in importance, the natural differences between lowlander and highlander asserted themselves. The lowlands on the west of Leon made themselves independent and formed the nucleus of Portugal. From the extended Navarre there split off the valley of the Ebro on the east to form the state of Aragon, and the plateau on the west to form the state of Castile, leaving but a remnant in the mountainous north to be still called Navarre. Later Castile and Leon united to form a larger Castile, so that by the fourteenth century there were three great Christian states in Iberia, Castile alone being still in touch with the sole surviving Mohammedan state of Granada.
Portugal had finished her work of expelling the Moor, but just because Portugal had come into being as a Christian state fighting against the infidel Moor, the tendency was to continue in the course which had brought the state into existence. Because the people were Christians and were accustomed to fighting for their faith against the Moors, it seemed natural to continue to fight as Christians against the Moors even though this involved crossing the sea• to Africa. Hence
by the middle of the fifteenth century there was a province of " Algarve beyond the sea " on the shores of Africa, and the time was ripe for the discovery of the Ocean.
The discovery of the Ocean was probably hastened by the sagacity of one man; but as might have been expected that man was a Portuguese, and his action only hastened the natural course of events. Prince Henry the Navigator grew up having ever before him the power of the Arabs as traders ; on the rocky promontory of Sagres, beside Cape St. Vincent, Prince Henry in 1418 built an observatory, and in the following years sent out ship after ship southward along the coast of Africa, with the express purpose of fostering exploration for the discovery of a sea way to the Indies.
At first progress was slow. Beyond Morocco, the land of the Moors, stretched the vast Sahara desert extending to the verge of the ocean. There the steady trade winds, blowing to the south-west, have parted with their moisture and drop no rain on which vegeta tion might live. Further, from Morocco the coast of Africa trends south-west, and these same trade winds blow so steadily that mariners from Europe were afraid to sail before them as there would be no winds to bring them back. Cape Non seemed to say " No " to the farther advance of such daring sailors as ventured so far. Thus there were good reasons why Africa had never been rounded from the west. But encouragement from Prince Henry and the desire to share in the wealth of the Indies combined to bring about an advance, and in 1447 the object of the exploration was published abroad, so that all good Christians might know, by a grant being made by the Pope to the Crown of Portugal of all lands then or at any future time to be discovered between Cape Non and India. It is interesting to think how much historical momentum that grant represents, the history, as we have seen, being controlled by the geographical conditions.