About the year 1432, Gonzalos was sent with two small vessels to the coast
of Africa on new discoveries.
In 1434, Cape Boyada was doubled: in 1442,
the Portuguese had advanced as far as Rio-do-Ouro, under the tropic of
Cancer. On the return of the ships from this voyage, the inhabitants of
Lisbon first saw, with astonishment, negroes of a jet black complexion, and
woolly hair, quite different from the slaves which had been hitherto
brought from Africa; for, before this time, they had seized, and sold as
slaves, the tawny Moors, which they met with on the coast of Africa. In the
year 1442, however, some of these had been redeemed by their friends, in
exchange for negroes and gold dust. This last article stimulated the
avarice of the Portuguese to greater exertions, than Prince Henry had been
able to excite, and an African company was immediately formed to obtain it,
slaves, &c.; but their commerce was exclusively confined to the coast of
Africa, to the south of Sierra Leone. Dr. Vincent justly remarks, that
Henry had stood alone for almost forty years, and had he fallen before
these few ounces of gold reached his country, the spirit of discovery might
have perished with him, and his designs might have been condemned as the
dreams of a visionary. The importation of this gold, and the establishment
of the African company in Portugal, to continue the remark of the same
author, is the primary date, to which we may refer that turn for adventure
which sprung up in Europe, which pervaded all the ardent spirits in every
country for the two succeeding centuries, and which never ceased till it
had united the four quarters of the globe in commercial intercourse.
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