In the preceding chapters we have seen with what rapid strides the Spaniards advanced in the discovery and conquest of the New World. It was no sooner demonstrated that a voyage of a month or six weeks across the Atlantic Ocean conducted to fertile countries of indefinite extent, than all the difficulties of the navigation seemed suddenly to vanish, and numbers were found ready to trust their lives and fortunes to the sea, at a time when naval science was so imperfect that a very large proportion of those who ventured on long voyages were sure to perish. The grand motive of all this enterprise was, in the first instance, the famed wealth of India. The ardent wish to arrive at the seat of so much riches even swayed the judgment of Columbus, and concealed from him the true nature of his own discoveries. The Portuguese, in the mean time, had reached the long sought goal by the Cape of Good Hope, and followed up their success with an alacrity worthy of so glorious an achievement. The court of Portugal had long prided itself on the encouragement it gave to maritime enterprise; and when the object of its long continued exertions was at length attained, it proceeded to reap the fruit of its discoveries with the same vigour with which it had prosecuted them hitherto.