Prince Henry the Navigator, of Portugal, established his naval college at Sagres in 1418, attracting the leading navigators, geographers and astronomers of the day. His aim was to trace the source of the trade in gold, ivory, slaves and spices, to get in touch with Prester John and find a way to the Orient. Bases were secured in the Madeiras, the Canaries and the Azores. The exploration of the west coast of Africa proceeded. Cape Bojador at 26 N was passed in 1434 and Cape Verde at 15 N in 1445.

One of his captains reported finding cinnamon, but this was a mistaken identification. Columbus in his journal for 19 October 1492, writes ‘And I believe that there are in it many plants and many trees, which are worth a lot in Spain for dyes and for medicines of spicery; but 1 don’t recognize them, which gives me great grief.’ (Morison, 1963). He did discover the red pepper or chillies and possibly the pimento or allspice. In the journal for 15 January 1493, we read ‘Also there is much axi, which is their pepper, and it is stronger than pepper, and the people won’t eat without it, for they find it very wholesome.

One could load 50 caravels a year with it in Hispaniola.’ This, of course, refers to chillies or Capsicum pepper, which is said in the journal for 1 January 1493, as `more valuable than black and malagueta pepper’.

Columbus made three more voyages of discovery to the Western Hemisphere, namely in 1493-6, 1498-1500 and 1502-4. In the course of these voyages he was to discover many more Caribbean islands and the mainland of Venezuela and Central America, but he did not succeed in finding a passage through to Far Cathay, as he so confidently expected. By the Treaty of Tordesillas of 7 June 1494, organized by the Pope, Spain was to receive all land discovered west of 46 37′ W, and Portugal the land to the east of this line. This was later to give Portugal the title to Brazil.

At Calicut the trade between India and Africa was carried out by the Arabs and Persians. After staying some time he returned, losing many men by scurvy in the Indian Ocean, and had to abandon a ship near Mombasa. He reached Lisbon in September 1499, having sailed more than 24 000 nautical miles in just over two years, but only 44 men of the original crew of 170 survived. He brought back with him spices and the possibility of future trading with the Zamorin (King) of Calicut. King Manuel now gloated to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain that he would be able to provide all the spices required.

Cabral sent one of his ships back to Portugal with news of Brazil, so that Amerigo Vespucci was dispatched in 1501 to follow up this discovery; through the German publisher WaldseemUller in 1507 he was to give his name to the American continents of the New World.