[1416-28.] Meanwhile Pedro, Henry's brother, travelled extensively, journeying through the Holy Land, visiting Rome, Babylon, and even England. Fortunately he found at Venice a copy of Marco Polo's work, and brought it home to Prince Henry. Galvano's Discov., pp. 66-7; Kunstmann, Entdeckung Am., pp. 11, 12.
[1418.] Gonzalez and Vaz, who were sent this year by Prince Henry on the regular annual expedition, were driven from their course and rediscovered Porto Santo. Galvano, Discov., pp. 62-4; Kunstmann, Entdeckung Am., pp. 11, 12; Curious and Ent. Voy., pp. 14, 15.
[1419.] Nicolo di Conti, Venetian, spent twenty-five years in India, Mangi, and Java, returning in 1444, and confirming many of Polo's statements. Discorso sopra il Viaggio di Nicolo di Conti Venetiano, in Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 373. Twice in 1419, if we may credit Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. i. p. xxvi., did Prince Henry's ships pass seventy leagues beyond Cape Non.
[1420.] Gonzalez again embarks from Portugal intending to plant a colony, and guided by one Morales, a survivor of Machin's voyage, rediscovered Madeira. Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. i. pp. xxvi-vii.; Major's Prince Henry, pp. 73-7; Kunstmann, Entdeckung Am., p. 13; Galvano's Discov., pp. 63-4; Aa, Naaukeurige Versameling, tom. i. pt. ii. p. 16. On a certain map dated 1459 is a cape supposed to be Good Hope, with the statement that in 1420 an Indian junk had passed that point from the east; but for this no authority is given.
1431.] The Formigas and Santa María islands of the Azore group were this year discovered by Cabral. Kunstmann, Entdeckung Am., p. 15, makes the date August 15, 1432. For details of the discovery and settlement of all the eastern Atlantic islands, see idem, pp. 1-25.
[1434-6.] Gil Eannes, after an unsuccessful attempt in the preceding year, succeeded in 1434 in doubling Cape Bojador for the first time. Muñoz, Hist. Nuevo Mundo, p. 34, makes the date 1433, and Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. i. p. xxvii., 1423. In 1435 Eannes with Baldaya passed fifty leagues beyond the cape, and in 1436 Baldaya advanced to a point fifty leagues beyond the inlet since known as Rio d'Ouro.
THE SLAVE-TRADE.
[1441-8.] For several years after the successful doubling of Cape Bojador, no new attempt of importance is recorded, but in 1441 the voyages were renewed, and in the next eight years the exploration was pushed one hundred leagues below Cape Verde. Prior to 1446 fifty-one vessels had traded on the African coast, nearly one thousand slaves had been taken to Portugal, and the discoveries in the Azores had been greatly extended. By these explorations Prince Henry had exploded the theory of a burning zone impassable to man, and of stormy seas impeding all navigation; his belief that Africa might be circumnavigated was confirmed; and he had obtained from the pope a grant to the crown of Portugal of lands he might discover beyond Cape Bojador to the Indies inclusive.
[1455-6.] According to Ramusio, Viaggi, tom. i. p. 105, Alvise Cadamosto, a Venetian, the first of his countrymen as he claims to sail down the new coast, made a voyage for Prince Henry to the Gambia River below Cape Verde. This expedition derives its importance not from the limit reached, where others had preceded him, but from his numerous landing points, careful observations, and the detailed account published by the voyager himself in La Prima Navigazione, etc., Vicenza, 1507; also in Ramusio, Viaggi, tom. i. pp. 104-15. This explorer touched at Porto Santo, Madeira, the Canaries, Cape Blanco, Senegal, Budomel, Cape Verde, and the Gambia River.
[1457.] Cadamosto claims, La seconda navigazione, in Ramusio, Viaggi, tom. i. pp. 116-20, to have made a second voyage, during which he discovered the Cape Verde Islands; but Major, Prince Henry, pp. 278-88, shows that such a voyage was not made in that year, if at all.