Excerpt from History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce, Vol. 2 of 4 He had heard, remarks Gaspar Correa,1 from a Caflre or Negro king of Benin, who in 1484 took up his quarters in Lisbon, many marvellous things about India, and its affairs. But though this sable monarch spoke of Prester John, he does not appear to have had any idea of the position of the golden land, over which he was the traditional ruler. Dom John, however, resolved to ascertain this fact, and despatched secretly two young men of his equerries, to learn of many lands, and wander in many parts, because they knew many languages. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.