He Accordingly Passed To The Southwards Of The
Senegal River, Which Divides The Azanhaji Moors From The Jaloffs, Or Most
Northern Negroes, And Fell In With Some Almadias Or Canoes, One Of Which
He Captured, With Four Natives.
Proceeding still farther on, without
stopping to satisfy his curiosity in visiting the coast, he at length
reached the most westerly promontory of Africa, to which he gave the name
of Cabo Verde, or the Green Cape, from the number of palm trees with
which it was covered.
Alarmed by the breakers with which the shore was
everywhere guarded, Denis did not venture to proceed any farther,
especially as the season was already far advanced, but returned with his
captives to Portugal, where he met with a flattering reception from Don
Henry, both on account of his discovery of the Cape de Verd, and for the
natives he had procured from the newly discovered coast, without having
been traded for with the Moors.
SECTION V.
_Progress of Discovery from Cape de Verd to the Gambia_.
Soon after the return of Denis from the Cape de Verd, Gonzales Pachecos,
a wealthy officer belonging to the household of Don Henry, fitted out a
ship at his own expence, of which he gave the command to Dinisianez da
Gram, one of the princes equerries, who was accompanied by Alvaro Gil, an
essayer of the mint, and Mafaldo de Setubal. After touching at Cape
Branco, they steered along the coast for the isle of Arguin, making
descents in several places, where they made a considerable number of
captives from the Moors. At the isle _De las Garcas_ they found another
caravel, commanded by Lourenco Dias, which formed part of a considerable
squadron that had been lately fitted out from Lagos. Two days afterwards,
the admiral of that squadron, Lancarot, and nine other caravels arrived.
Gram informed Lancarot of his success in making fifty prisoners, whom he
had dearly purchased by the loss of seven of his men, who had been
murdered by the Moors. Lancarot immediately sailed for Arguin, bent on
revenge, and sacrificed the lives of eight, and the liberty of four of
the natives, to the memory of Gonzales da Cintra and the mariners of Gram.
On this occasion two of the Portuguese officers were knighted on the
newly discovered coast, which seems then to have been a fashionable
ambition among them, no doubt arising from the prevailing zeal for
maritime discovery. From Arguin Lancarot passed over to the isle of Tider,
whence the inhabitants made their escape to the adjacent continent; but
the Portuguese soon followed, and the astonished Moors fled on all sides,
after a sharp skirmish, in which a good many of them were slain, and
sixty taken prisoners.
The fleet now separated, a part returning home by way of the Canaries,
while Lancarot, with several other caravels, advanced along the coast of
Africa southwards, till he got beyond what the Moors called the Cahara,
or Sahara, of the Assenaji. This Moorish nation is mentioned by Abulfeda
as the ruling tribe in Audagost, or Agadez, and as inhabiting the
southern part of Morocco.
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