Prince Henry's work was, above all, justified by its permanence. Unlike earlier ancient and mediæval attempts at West African exploration, his movement issued in complete success. Azurara gives us, no doubt, a fairly complete account of the earlier stages of that movement, but it is probable that even his record omits some of the ventures undertaken from Portugal along the West African mainland; while it is certain that we must look elsewhere for a completer picture of the Infant's activity among the Atlantic Islands and in the Great Ocean. These additional sources of information must be examined in turn. First of all, it will be advisable to finish the chronicle of West African coasting down to the Navigator's death. After that, the triumphant prosecution of this line of advance to the Cape of Good Hope will call for a brief notice. And, thirdly, something must be said about the progress of discovery and colonisation in the archipelagos of Madeira, the Canaries, the Azores, and the Cape Verdes, especially considered in relation to that Westward route to India which Columbus advocated and commenced.
It has already been stated that although Azurara's Chronicle officially ends in 1453, and appears to record nothing later than the events of 1448, yet very important expeditions were sent forth in the last years of the Prince's life, especially those of Cadamosto[[33]] and Diego Gomez. An attempt has been made to prove that the second voyage of Cadamosto, on which he claimed to have discovered the Cape Verde Islands, is untruly reported and may be dismissed as fabulous. But there seems no sufficient ground for this. "In an account of travels, printed long after its author's death, some contradictory statements, possibly arising through copyists' errors, do not justify such a conclusion." And the mistakes contained in the assailed narrative are not serious or unexplainable enough for rejecting it as a whole.[[34]] Luigi, Alvise, or Aloysius, da Ca da Mosto[[35]] was a young Venetian (a noble, according to some) who had embarked on August 8, 1454, with Marco Zeno on a commercial venture,[[36]] and was delayed by storm near Cape St. Vincent while on his voyage from Venice to Flanders. He now heard of the "glorious and boundless conquests" of Prince Henry, "whence accrued such gain that from no traffic in the world could the like be had. The which," continues the candid trader, "did exceedingly stir my soul, eager as it was for profit above all other things, and so I made suit to be brought before the Infant"—who was then at the village of Reposeira, near Sagres. Cadamosto was easily persuaded to sail in the service of Portugal,[[37]] and set out, with Vicente Diaz, on March 22, 1455. He visited Porto Santo and Madeira, and at Cape Branco began a "peaceful exploration" of the interior, for the study of its natural conditions, inhabitants, trade, and so forth. Proceeding to the Senegal, he continued his investigations; which were extended to the Canaries as well as to Madeira. He notices the fort built by the Prince's orders in the Bight of Arguim (1448), and the new start lately made by Portuguese trade with the natives. This trade at Arguim had included nearly a thousand slaves a year, so that the Europeans, who used to plunder all this coast as far as the Senegal, now found it more profitable to trade. Slave-raiding among the Azanegue tribes north of the Senegal had ceased, "for the Prince will not allow any wrong-doing, being only eager that they should submit themselves to the law of Christ."[[38]] Before passing Cape Verde, Cadamosto met with two ships, one commanded by a Genoese, Antonio, or Antoniotto, surnamed Ususmaris or Uso di Mare,[[39]] the other by an unnamed Portuguese in Henry's service. The expeditions united and sailed on together to the Gambia, where they were unable to open intercourse with the natives, and so returned to Portugal. Cadamosto gives very full descriptions of the life, habits, government, trade, etc., of both the "Moors" (Azanegues) and Negroes (Jaloffs) of Guinea, which have been often noticed,[[40]] and sometimes paraphrased; and which show a great development of commercial interest and statesmanlike inquiry on anything recorded in Azurara. At his furthest point the explorer noticed that the North Star was so low that it appeared almost to touch the sea, and here he seems to have seen the Southern Cross.
In the next year, 1456, Cadamosto sailed out again with Antoniotto Uso di Mare, made straight for Cape Branco, and found, three days' sail from this point, "certain islands" off Cape Verde "where no one had been before."[[41]] The explorer then, in his own as well as in the official, "Ramusian," or Venetian, account, proceeded to the Gambia, opened trade successfully with the natives, and explored the coast "about 25 leagues" beyond this river as far as the Bissagos Islands, or some point of the mainland not far distant.
Cadamosto's account of his two voyages is rightly praised[[42]] as "detailed and vivid." He certainly compiled a map of his journeys, for in noticing the river Barbasini beyond Cape Verde, he says: "I have named it so on the Chart which I have made." The interesting suggestion, that some of Benincasa's portolanos (especially that of 1471) were based on Cadamosto's descriptions and plans of the West African shore-land, is hardly susceptible of proof, but it is not without some corroborative evidence, as may be seen elsewhere.[[43]] Also, "the journeys of this Marco Polo of West Africa were undertaken in a more scientific spirit, and were more free from chivalrous outrages," than most of those who preceded him along this coast.[[44]] This is not merely due to himself. It appears from his express statements that the Infant now discouraged slave-raiding, and urged his captains to something of higher value than seal and sea-calf hunting. The value of Cadamosto's work was mainly in his observations and descriptions. He advanced only a little way beyond some of the Prince's earlier explorers (e.g., Alvaro Fernandez), except for his discovery of the Cape Verde islands, but he seems to have named[[45]] and mapped out more carefully than before a good many points of the littoral beyond Cape Verde, and his writings surpass in geographical value anything to be found in Azurara. His notes are also of high value for ethnology and anthropology, and give a better account of the trade-routes, etc. of North-west Africa than any Christian writing of the time. Finally, he is more reliable than many subsequent and more pretentious travellers, and his narrative is as picturesque and effective as it is reliable. For "one inquisitive person shall bring home a better account of countries than twenty who come after him."
A little subsequent to what we may suppose was the second return of the Venetian adventurer from Africa, in 1456, the Infant sent out Diego Gomez with orders to "go as far as he could." The explorer passed a "great river beyond the Rio Grande," when strong currents in the sea alarmed him and caused him to put back. Like Cadamosto, however, he trafficked and conversed with the natives, especially of the Gambia, and gained some useful information about their trade, politics, and geography. Some of the facts he related about wars among the negro states of the interior were confirmed by a "merchant in Oran," who corresponded with the Prince.[[46]] As a result of Gomez' first voyage, the Infant seems to have sent out, in 1458, a mission to convert the negroes of the Gambia "with a priest, the Abbot of Soto de Cassa, and a young man of his household named John Delgado." Two years after this (i.e., in 1460) Gomez went out again. Near the Gambia he fell in with two ships—one under Gonçalo Ferreira, of Oporto, who was trading in horses with the negroes for native produce; the other was under Antonio Noli, of Genoa. Soon after, Gomez and Ferreira seized an interloper, one De Prado, who had come to Cape Verde without permission to dispose of a rich cargo, as Gomez was informed by a "caravel from Gambia." It is noticeable how the West African trade had now increased, and how many expeditions are incidentally mentioned in this one record of Gomez.
He concludes by stating that he and Noli left the mainland coast, and after sailing two days and one night towards Portugal, "sighted islands in the Ocean," which are described in terms very similar to Cadamosto's. These were certainly the Cape Verde Islands of modern geography, which are first mentioned in documentary history in a Portuguese Decree of December 3rd, 1460. Gomez makes no reference to any previous visit or claim of a prior discovery of these islands, but that is natural enough.
Was such a previous visit made? Around this point, and the consequent prior claim of the Venetian, a long controversy has been waged, which is briefly discussed in the section of this Introduction on the "Atlantic Islands" (especially pp. xcii-xcvi).
The second voyage of Diego Gomez was probably among the last ventures of which the Prince received any account. He must have died soon after the second return of the explorer, who seems to have attended him in his last illness (13th November, 1460). But it is probable that before his end he had prepared for the expedition which Pedro de Sintra carried out in 1461, and which is described by Cadamosto, apparently before the close of 1463.
[33] 1507 (Vicenza) Edition, is the earliest text of Cadomosto's Voyages, printed in "Paesi novamente retrovati et novo mondo da Alberico Vesputio Florentino intitulato." This was republished at Milan in 1508; and in this year two versions appeared: 1. In Latin, by Madrignano, "Itinerarium Portugallensium ...," Milan. 2. In German, by Jobst Ruchamer, "Neue unbekanthe landte," Nürnberg. In 1516 appeared in Paris a French version by Mathurin du Redouer: "Sensuyt le nouveau monde ..." A good many discrepancies occur in these various editions and translations.
[34] See pp. xcii-xcvi of this Introduction.