''Spice and the Devil's Cave'' is a book by

Agnes Hewes Agnes Danforth Hewes (March 30, 1874 – September 30, 1963) was an American writer of children's literature, three times a runner-up for the annual Newbery Medal. Her early childhood overseas had a huge influence on her life and writing. Biogra ...

that was published in 1930. This piece of

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

is a retroactive winner of the

Newbery Honor Newbery is a surname. People *Chantelle Newbery (born 1977), Australian Olympic diver *David Newbery (born 1943), British economist *Eduardo Newbery (1878–1908), Argentine odontologist and aerostat pilot *Francis Newbery (disambiguation), seve ...

award. The setting is

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, Portugal in the late 1490s, as

Vasco de Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

Bartholomew Diaz Bartolomeu Dias ( 1450 – 29 May 1500) was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward route for ships lay in the o ...

, and

Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan ( or ; pt, Fernão de Magalhães, ; es, link=no, Fernando de Magallanes, ; 4 February 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer. He is best known for having planned and led the 1519 Spanish expedition to the East ...

discuss their plans to find the elusive sea route around the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

, which would enable Portugal to access the spice-rich countries of the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

External links

''Spice and the Devil's Cave''
HTML ebook, with illustrations by Lynd Ward, at Celebration of Women Writers 1930 American novels Children's historical novels American children's novels Newbery Honor-winning works Novels set in Lisbon Novels set in the 1490s 1930 children's books Children's books set in Portugal Children's books set in the 15th century {{1930s-child-hist-novel-stub