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60 THE QUEST FOR INDIA BY SEA fused tradition of a Christian potentate Prester John, and of a Christian nation in Ethiopia, had received confirmation from friars since Prince Henry's death. King John n of Portugal (1481 - 1495) resolved to seek out this lost Christian kingdom by sea and land. In August, 1486, he sent forth with that object the ships under Bartholemeu Dias, which, as we have seen, dis- covered the Cape of Good Hope, but which only pro- ceeded up the east coast of Africa to a little beyond Algoa Bay. After an unsuccessful land mission by way of Jerusalem, John II despatched Pedro de Covilham and Affonso de Paiva to gather information via Egypt about Prester John's country and the Indian Ocean. Covilham and Paiva started in May, 1487 (while Bar- tholemeu Dias was still absent on his sea expedition with the same purpose), and travelled by Naples, Rhodes, and Cairo to the Red Sea. At Aden they parted, Covilham sailing east in an Arab ship to the Indian coast and Paiva west to Abyssinia. Covilham, the first Portuguese explorer in India, stayed some time on the Malabar coast and visited the very cities which were destined to become the cen- tres of Portuguese activity. On his return voyage he touched at Sofala, the spot on the southeastern coast of Africa marked on the Portuguese map of 1457 - 1459, and thus supplied the missing link between the sea discoveries round Africa and their ultimate goal in India. He also obtained some knowledge of the neigh- bouring island of Madagascar, known to the Moors as the Island of the Moon.