The English Geographical Society did well, at its special meeting
on Monday, to honour the memory of Prince Henry the Navigator, for he was the son of an English Princess (Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt), a Knight of the Garter, and the man who did more than any other to open up the paths of the sea, and so to lay the foundation of England's greatness. Prince Henry was a younger son of the King of Portugal, and the Portuguese, at the time of his manhood, the first half of the fifteenth century, were entering upon that brilliant period of exploration, con- quest, and colonisation which, though it used up the energies of the gallant little nation, gave Portugal an imperishable name in history. Prince Henry, with rare inspiration, saw that through the exploration of the African coasts his country might gain fame and fortune. Accordingly he built himself a dwelling and an observatory on a wild and barren promon- tory stretching out into the Atlantic,—a promontory near Cape St. Vincent, on which the Druids had built a circular temple, and where they believed the gods assembled at night, —and there constituted what was a school of navigation and geography. These facts, and the splendid work accomplished by the sailor Prince, were eloquently related by Mr. Clements Markham. The Portuguese Minister, who was present, men- tioned with pride that he himself was a Member of the Order of Christ, of which Prince Henry had been the head, and whose great wealth he used to fit out his expeditions of dis- covery. It was appropriate that the Duke of York, who can boast that he and Prince Henry have a common ancestry, that he is a Knight of the Garter, and also that he is a sailor Prince, should have helped to celebrate the fifth centenary of the navigator's birth.
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