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Last Updated: Jun 28, 2008 - 12:29:23 AM |
In 1445 an expedition was fitted out by Prince Henry himself, and the
command given to Gonsalvo de Cintra, who was unsuccessful in an attack
on the natives near Cape Blanco. He and some other of the principal men
of the expedition lost their lives. These were the first Portuguese who
died in battle on that coast. In the same year the Prince sent out
three other vessels. The captains received orders from the Infante, Don
Pedro, who was then Regent of Portugal, to enter the river D'Oro, and
make all endeavors to convert the natives to the faith, and even, if
they should not receive baptism, to make peace and alliance with them.
This did not succeed. It is probable that the captains found
negotiation of any kind exceedingly tame and apparently profitless in
comparison with the pleasant forays made by their predecessors. The
attempt, however, shows much intelligence and humanity on the part of
those in power in Portugal. That the instructions were sincere is
proved by the fact of this expedition returning with only one negro,
gained in ransom, and a Moor who came of his own accord to see the
Christian country.
This same year 1445 is signalized by a great event in the progress of
discovery along the African coast. Dinis Dyaz, called by Barros and the
historians who followed him Dinis Fernandez, sought employment from the
Infante, and, being intrusted by him with the command of a vessel,
pushed boldly down the coast, and passed the river Sanaga (Senegal),
which divides the Azeneghis - whom the first discoverers always called
Moors - from the negroes of Jalof. The inhabitants were much astonished
at the presence of the Portuguese vessel on their coasts, and at first
took it for a fish or a bird or a phantasm; but when in their rude
boats - hollowed logs - they neared it, and saw that there were men in
it, judiciously concluding that it was a more dangerous thing than fish
or bird or phantasm, they fled. Dinis Fernandez, however, captured four
of them off that coast, but as his object was discovery, not
slave-hunting, he went on till he discovered Cape Verd, and then
returned to his country, to be received with much honor and favor by
Prince Henry. These four negroes taken by Dinis Fernandez were the
first taken in their own country by the Portuguese. That the Prince was
still engaged in high thoughts of discovery and conversion we may
conclude from observing that he rewarded and honored Dinis Fernandez as
much as if he had brought him large booty; for the Prince "thought
little of whatever he could do for those who came to him with these
signs and tokens of another greater hope which he entertained."
In this case, as in others, we should do great injustice if we supposed
that Prince Henry had any of the pleasure of a slave-dealer in
obtaining these negroes: it is far more probable that he valued them as
persons capable of furnishing intelligence, and, perhaps, of becoming
interpreters, for his future expeditions. Not that, without these
especial motives, he would have thought it anything but great gain for
a man to be made a slave, if it were the means of bringing him into
communion with the Church.
After this, several expeditions, which did not lead to much, occupied
the Prince's time till 1447. In that year a fleet, large for those
times, of fourteen vessels, was fitted out at Lagos by the people
there, and the command given by Prince Henry to Lancarote. The object
seems to have been, from a speech that is recorded of Lancarote's, to
make war upon the Azeneghi Moors, and especially to take revenge for
the defeat before mentioned which Gonsalvo de Cintra suffered in 1445
near Cape Blanco. That purpose effected, Lancarote went southward,
extending the discovery of the coast to the Gambia. In the course of
his proceedings on that coast we find again that Prince Henry's
instructions insisted much upon the maintenance of peace with the
natives. Another instance of the same disposition on his part deserves
to be especially recorded. The expedition had been received in a
friendly manner at Gomera, one of the Canary Islands. Notwithstanding
this kind reception, some of the natives were taken prisoners. On their
being brought to Portugal, Prince Henry had them clothed and afterward
set at liberty in the place from which they had been taken.
This expedition under Lancarote had no great result. The Portuguese
went a little farther down the coast than they had ever been before,
but they did not succeed in making friends of the natives, who had
already been treated in a hostile manner by some Portuguese from
Madeira. Neither did the expedition make great spoil of any kind. They
had got into feuds with the natives, and were preparing to attack them,
when a storm dissipated their fleet and caused them to return home.
It appears, I think, from the general course of proceedings of the
Portuguese in those times, that they considered there was always war
between them and the Azeneghi Moors - that is, in the territory from
Ceuta as far as the Senegal River; but that they had no declared
hostility against the negroes of Jalof, or of any country farther
south, though skirmishes would be sure to happen from ill-understood
attempts at friendship on the one side, and just or needless fears on
the other.
The last public enterprise of which Prince Henry had the direction was
worthy to close his administration of the affairs relating to
Portuguese discovery. He caused two ambassadors to be despatched to the
King of the Cape Verd territory, to treat of peace and to introduce the
Christian faith. One of the ambassadors, a Danish gentleman, was
treacherously killed by the natives, and upon that the other returned,
having accomplished nothing.
Don Alfonso V, the nephew of Prince Henry, now took the reins of
government, and the future expeditions along the coast of Africa
proceeded in his name. Still it does not appear that Prince Henry
ceased to have power and influence in the management of African
affairs; and the first thing that the King did in them was to enact
that no one should pass Cape Bojador without a license from Prince
Henry. Some time between 1448 and 1454 a fortress was built in one of
the islands of Arguim, which islands had already become a place of
bargain for gold and negro slaves. This was the first Portuguese
establishment on the coast of Africa. It seems that a system of trade
was now established between the Portuguese and the negroes.
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