At the end of December, 1488, thirty-five thousand li east, in the Kingdom of Portugal, at the port of Lisbon.
A thousand sails stood upright, and masts rose like a forest. Hundreds of merchant ships of every sort were moored here, with dozens of banners from commercial city-states flying at their bows. Black-skinned laborers loaded and unloaded cargo, exquisite carriages carried nobles, and the port market was filled with merchants. This was one of Western Europe's most important trading ports, and also a trade node linking the eastern Atlantic with the Mediterranean.
As the Kingdom of Portugal established a series of castles and strongholds along the coast of West Africa, the spices, gold and silver, ivory, and slaves of the southern continent were transported here in an endless stream by the powerful kingdom fleet, infusing this ancient seaside city with the most vigorous vitality.
And ever since thirty-five years ago, when the mighty Ottomans captured unconquerable Constantinople and completely severed the silk and spice routes between East and West, the port of Lisbon had become the only stable spice port in the Catholic world. Even so, the spices it could provide, compared with the Catholic world's enormous demand, were nothing more than a cup of water before a cartload of burning firewood.
Among the many spices, the nobles and bishops of the Catholic world favored pepper most. Since the days of ancient Rome, pepper had been an important cooking spice. And in medieval medicine, it was also an extremely important medicinal herb. The priests of the churches and the physicians of the academies all believed that pepper could treat all pain, swelling, inflammation, invasions of evil air—and inability in the bedchamber.
Beyond that, in this age when plagues raged, pepper, cloves, and cinnamon were also used to prevent pestilence, their