ABSTRACT
The Prince Henry who reveals the workings of his mind is about as far away as possible from the nineteenth-century concept of him as humanist and scientist. Gomes Eannes de Zurara's suggestion that astrological prediction influenced Prince Henry's career more than anything else usually gets scant attention from students of his life. Mr. E. W. Bovill discounts the sincerity of the claims of Prince Henry and his seamen that the discovery of Guinea was carried on for missionary purposes. Prince Henry himself was a great spender. He always maintained a large household of young knights and squires. The anachronistic vision of Prince Henry led, past Africa, towards the Indian Ocean and a great commercial empire. Dom Pedro's prudence perhaps would have led to no more than acceptance by the Portuguese of a modest provincial status on the confines of western Europe.
