page_title: Álvaro Fernandes
section_title: 1445 Expedition
hierarchical_section_title: Álvaro Fernandes / 1445 Expedition
caption_attribution_description: English: This large nautical chart of Western African was produced by the French Cartographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin. Depicts Western Africa from The Canary Islands South through Western Sahara, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, the Gambia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. This is primarily a costal chart with depth soundings and navigational marks, but does show the river courses and considerable interior details in the Cape Verde Islands. The remainder of the interior remains largely unmapped. There is a large decorative title cartouche in the upper left as well as a Depot del la Marine stamp in the lower right. All in all, an extraordinary sea chart of Africa’s northwest coast.
context_page_description: Álvaro Fernandes, was a 15th-century Portuguese slave-trader and explorer from Madeira, in the service of Henry the Navigator. He captained two important expeditions, which expanded the limit of the Portuguese discovery of the West African coast, probably as far as the northern borderlands of modern Guinea-Bissau. Álvaro Fernandes's farthest point would not be surpassed for ten years, until the voyage of Alvise Cadamosto in 1456.
context_section_description: In 1443, one of Henry's captains, Nuno Tristão, discovered   the Bay of Arguin (on the modern coast of Mauritania), which was dotted with small Sanhaja Berber fishing villages, the first native settlements the Henrican captains had seen since passing Cape Bojador ten years earlier.  This discovery whet the appetites of Portuguese merchants, who immediately saw the easy and profitable prospect of slave-raiding on those vulnerable settlements.  Between 1444 and 1446, a cascade of Portuguese slave-raiding expeditions, organized by private consortiums and armed with Henry's license, ravaged the Arguin banks, seizing the poor Arguin fishing folk as slaves to sell in Europe.
  One such consortium was organized by the private donatary captains of the Madeira islands, who assembled a small fleet of three caravels.  One of the Madeira ships was outfitted by João Gonçalves Zarco (donatary of Machico, north Madeira) who appointed his nephew, Álvaro Fernandes to captain it.  The second ship was commanded by Tristão Vaz Teixeira (donatary captain of Funchal, south Madeira) and the third by  Álvaro de Ornellas.
  The 15th-century chronicler Gomes Eanes de Zurara asserts that Álvaro Fernandes went out alone, personally instructed by Prince Henry to 'avoid' any raids, and aim straight for the "Land of the Blacks" (Sub-Saharan Africa) for the glory of exploration alone. This, however, seems improbable, given the participation of the other captains and the events that transpired. The deserted Madeira islands were in the process of being colonized, and in need of slave labor, and the Madeira fleet very probably set out with the intention to raid the Arguin banks for it.
  The Madeira fleet did not reach the Arguin banks, but only got as far as Cape Blanc before two of the ships (Tristão Vaz Teixeira and Ornellas) decided to turn back.  This might have been because of poor weather, or possibly because they came across the note (nailed on a wooden cross erected at Cape Blanc) left a little earlier by slave-raider Antão Gonçalves warning future Portuguese slave-raiding captains that Arguin island had been devastated, that the remaining population had fled to the hinterlands, and they should try looking for captives elsewhere. It is known that Ornellas proceeded to raid the Canary island of La Palma and captured some Guanche slaves. It uncertain what Vaz Teixeira did.  It was probably at Cape Blanc that Álvaro Fernandes decided to part ways and press south by himself, and try his luck in the "Land of the Guineus" (generic term for the  Black African peoples below the Senegal River), the discovery of which had just been announced a few months earlier (1444/45) by Nuno Tristão and Dinis Dias.
  Skipping Arguin, Álvaro Fernandes sailed straight south, reaching the mouth of the Senegal River. He stopped there only long enough to fill two barrels with river water. It is probable Fernandes did not try to raid at Senegal because Dinis Dias had attacked a local pirogue there earlier, thus the local Wolof populations on the banks of the river were alert to the hostile intentions of Portuguese caravels.
  Álvaro Fernandes continued sailing down the Grande Côte of Senegal until Cape Verde, the farthest point reached by Dinis Dias.  It is uncertain if Dias actually surpassed the cape.  If not, then Álvaro Fernandes may very well have been the first European to double Cape Verde and sail into the Angra de Bezeguiche (Bay of Dakar).  Fernandes anchored at Bezeguiche island (Gorée island), which was uninhabited, but had many wild goats, which the crew proceeded to slaughter for food. Fernandes is said to have left his marker on the island by carving Prince Henry the Navigator's knightly motto, Talent de bien faire ("Hunger for good deeds")  on a tree trunk.
  While idling off the island, a couple of curious native canoes (five men each) from the mainland (Wolof or more probably Lebou people) paddled out to the caravel.  The first encounter went smoothly enough—gestures were exchanged expressing peaceful intentions, and several of the natives were invited aboard, and giv
caption: Sea chart of West Africa, c. 1765
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