United States or Lebanon ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Some time between 1448 and 1454 a fortress was built in one of the islands of Arguim, which islands had already become a place of bargain for gold and negro slaves. This was the first Portuguese establishment on the coast of Africa. It seems that a system of trade was now established between the Portuguese and the negroes.
The next year Nuño Tristam went farther down the African coast; and, off Adeget, one of the Arguim Islands, captured eighty natives, whom he brought to Portugal. These, however, were not negroes, but Azeneghis. The tide of popular opinion was now not merely turned, but was rushing in full flow, in favor of Prince Henry and his discoveries.
He now doubled Cape Blanco, or Branco, which he had discovered in his former voyage, and, about ten leagues farther to the south-east, fell in with an island, or rather cluster of seven islands, called Adeget by the natives, but which have since, with the bay in which they lie, received the name of Arguim, or Arguin.
He was to be sought for, to be hunted out, to be produced; and this change accordingly gave rise to a new branch of commerce. Some time before 1454 a Portuguese factory was established at one of the Arguim islands, and this factory soon systematized the slave-trade.
Word Of The Day