Chapter 5 - Há mar e mar, há ir e voltar
- The Gomes Monopoly and Guinea -
Although Henry the Navigator’s death in 1460 led to Afonso V’s indifference to continuing to continuing his work, he did how an interest in the West African trade. In 1469, he decided to lease the royal monopoly of African trade (except for the
feitoria in Arguim) to a certain
cavaleiro-mercador (that is, a minor noble and a merchant) from Lisbon under the name of
Fernão Gomes. Under an annual rent of 200,000
reais, he was to explore 100 leagues of the African coast per year for five years, and was also received a monopoly of trade in
guinea pepper for another yearly payment of 100,000
reais.
Although under indirect control of the crown, given the fragmentary nature of the sources, by the time his lease expired in 1474, just as the Castilian succession crisis was about to erupt, Gomes’s ships sailed past the lagoons and swamps of the Ivory Coast and the Niger River delta and explored all of Upper and Lower Guinea and beyond up to
Cape Lopes just south of the Equator. In total, the nautical distance Gomes explored as roughly the same as what Prince Henry did.
In addition, three years earlier in 1471, he reached the site of what is to be
Elmina in the Gold Coast, where they found a thriving alluvial gold trade. With the substantial profits he got from the gold and the overall African trade, Gomes assisted Afonso V in his Moroccan conquests, as well as providing the compensation given to the Castilians in the Treaty of Mérida in 1477, and was subsequently knighted in Tânger. He would eventually become a member of the royal council, with honors and enormous economic influence.
Given the large amount of profit generated from Elmina, João II ordered a feitoria and the fort of São Jorge da Mina to be built on the site in 1481 to manage and protect the local gold trade as part of a royal monopoly. He appointed
Diogo de Azambuja to oversee the development of the possession, with a fleet consisting of nine caravels and two ships, with 600 soldiers and 100 masons and carpenters. The construction was quickly completed in 20 days, despite native resistance. Azambuja was named the first governor of the Portuguese Gold Coast, and João II added the title “Lord of Guinea” to his list of noble titles. By the end of the 16th century 24,000 ounces of gold (or a tenth of the world’s supply at the time) were produced from the Portuguese Gold Coast.
Since Guinea is more green and populated than what they had explored along the Saharan coast, they had to make observations more thoroughly. Guinea had many great rivers, and the Portuguese explorers sometimes sailed upstream the rivers for hundreds of kilometers, like the
Gambia and
Niger rivers. From there, various local peoples were contacted and their locations are noted, with descriptions of local manners, customs and wildlife. Some incursions were made into nearby hinterlands and even into the deep interior, despite the fear of deadly diseases at the time. Such journeys were sometimes utilized in order to contact the legendary Christian ruler of Africa by the name of
Prester John via the
Senegal or the Gambia, and also to find a way to the rich gold mines deep into the interior. It was during the late 15th century that Portuguese agents manage to visit Timbuktu and establish relations with the
Mali Empire.
The legendary city of Timbuktu
The discoveries made in Guinea did much to stimulate Portuguese interest in the diverse peoples and cultures through information-gathering and giving extensive descriptions of the region. Returning voyagers often impressed the people back home with curiosities like monkeys, parrots and captured natives themselves. Such fascination with the peoples, cultures and resources contributed to a great outpouring of Portuguese chronicles, proto-scientific reports, travel accounts and narrative poetry for many centuries to come.
- Diogo Cão and the Congo -
When João II succeeded his father in 1481, he determined at the utmost priority to assert Portuguese monopoly in trade and navigation beyond Guinea as a patron for most of the well-known Portuguese explorers. His long and stable reign brought his ships decisively into the south of the equator for the first time. One of the first major explorers involved in João II’s reign was
Diogo Cão, the illegitimate son of a
fidalgo from the royal household. Cão made two voyages (although much of the details are difficult to reconstruct due to the fragmentary nature of the expedition) and was the first European to explore the
Congo River and the coast of what is now the Overseas Province of Angola and the
far western part of Cabo.
Diogo Cão planting a padrão at the mouth of the Congo
His first voyage began in around the midsummer of 1482 to explore the African coast south of the equator. His ship was filled with stone pillars with the emblems of the
Order of Christ and the royal Portuguese coat of arms called
padrãos, with the plan to erect one in every new place he can discover. He discovered the mouth of the mighty Congo river later that same year and planted a
padrão attesting to Portuguese sovereignty, and sailed the same river for a short distance to make contact with the
Kingdom of Kongo by sending four men (and receiving four natives in return) before moving on to the coast of Angola to the Cabo da Santa Maria, where he planted a second
padrão, seizing some natives before heading back home. Upon his return, João II ennobled Cão to a knight of his household, as well as a pension.
Diogo’s second voyager occured years later from 1484 to 1486 to make more contacts with the Kingdom of Kongo, as well as making inquiries about Prester John and searching for a route from Africa to the Arabian Sea via the Congo River. In addition, he also brought permanent stone
padrãos to replace the wooden ones that have been planted in the first journey. Cão sailed 170 kilometres along the Congo to the
Ielala Falls, where he wrote on a stone about his presence upon the discovery of the falls. It was in the second voyage that they aforementioned also traveled overland to what is the capital city of Kongo,
São Salvador. After his voyage along the Congo, he sailed as less vegetation appeared further south into the Cabo da Cruz, where he planted another stone
padrão. He then decided to turn back upon seeing more undesirable terrain, and apparently died during his return voyage in 1486. Upon seeing Cão’s ships returning home, João II decided to move swiftly in order to achieve a breakthrough for Portugal's navigational exceptionalism.
Diogo Cão's inscription in the stone in Ielala Falls. It reads, "Aqui chegaram os navios do esclarecido rei D. João II de Portugal - Diogo Cão, Pero Anes, Pero da Costa" (Here arrived the ships of illustrious John II, King of Portugal – Diogo Cão, Pero Anes, Pero da Costa)