Page "Alvise Cadamosto" Paragraph 10

Pressing south, Cadamosto and Usodimare finally discovered the mouth of the Gambia River in late June or early July, 1455.

They set about sailing upriver, but their advance faced unremitting hostility from the Mandinka inhabitants upriver.

Subjected to intense missile fire, they barely fended off a massed canoe attack that sought to trap and board them.

According to Cadamosto's interpreters, the Mandinka believed the Portuguese were cannibals, that they had come to the region to buy black men to eat.

Urged by their frightened crews ( and probably desirous to keep his human cargo intact-he had been carrying a shipload of slaves since Cayor ), Cadamosto decided to call off venturing further and backed out of the river.

Cadamosto does not supply details of the return trip to Portugal.