In This Situation, The Settlement Of The Acores Was Of
Considerable Importance.
In 1457, Don Henry procured the grant of many
valuable privileges to this favourite colony, the principal of which was
the exemption of the inhabitants from any duties on their commerce to the
ports of Portugal and even of Spain.
In 1461, a fort was erected in the isle of Arguin on the African coast of
the Moors, to protect the trade carried on there for gold and negro
slaves. Next year, 1462, Antonio de Noli, a Genoese, sent by the republic
to Portugal, entered into the service of Don Henry, and in a voyage to
the coast of Africa, discovered the islands which are known by the name
of the Cape de Verd Islands, though they lie 100 leagues to the westward
of that Cape. In the same year Pedro de Cintra, and Suera de Costa,
penetrated a little farther along the coast of Africa, and discovered the
river or Bay of Sierra Liona or Mitomba, in lat. 8 deg. 30' N. This
constituted the last of the Portuguese discoveries, carried on under the
direct influence and authority of Don Henry, the founder and father of
modern maritime discovery, as he died next year, 1463, at Sagres, in the
sixty-seventh year of his age; and, for a time, the maritime enterprise
of the Portuguese nation was palsied by his death.
Thus, during a long period of fifty-two years, this patriotic prince
devoted almost his whole attention, and the ample revenues which he
enjoyed as Duke of Viseo end grand master of the military order of Christ,
in extending the maritime knowledge, and consequently the commercial
prosperity of his country.
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