Page "History of Portugal (1415–1578)" Paragraph 21

It was the genius of Prince Henry the Navigator that coordinated and utilized all these tendencies towards expansion.

Prince Henry placed at the disposal of his captains the vast resources of the Order of Christ, of which he was the head, and the best information and most accurate instruments and maps that could be obtained.

He sought to effect a meeting with the half-fabulous Christian Empire of " Prester John " by way of the " Western Nile " ( the Sénégal River ), and, in alliance with that potentate, to crush the Turks and liberate the Holy Land.

The concept of an ocean route to India appears to have originated after his death.

On land he again defeated the Moors, who attempted to retake Ceuta in 1418 ; but in an expedition to Tangier, undertaken in 1437 by King Edward ( 1433 – 1438 ), the Portuguese army was defeated, and could only escape destruction by surrendering as a hostage Prince Ferdinand, the king's youngest brother.

Ferdinand, known as " the Constant ", from the fortitude with which he endured captivity, died unransomed in 1443.

By sea Prince Henry's captains continued their exploration of Africa and the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1433 Cape Bojador was rounded ; in 1434 the first consignment of slaves was brought to Lisbon ; and slave trading soon became the most profitable branch of Portuguese commerce, until India was reached.

The Senegal was reached in 1445, Cape Verde was passed in the same year, and in 1446 Álvaro Fernandes pushed on almost as far as Sierra Leone.

This was probably the farthest point reached before the Navigator died in 1460.

Another vector of the discoveries were the voyages westward, during which the Portuguese discovered the Sargasso Sea and possibly sighted the shores of Nova Scotia well before 1492.