¹ While Heinrich Barth derived Azeneg from Asuanik (Soninke), Ca da Mosto in the la Relazione describes the Azeneg as veil-bearers across the face, which points to Tuareg. In western Saharan society, Tuareg clans formed a warrior class, while the black Soninke were their dependents, who might have been sold as slaves by their lords. See Barth, Heinrich, Reisen und Entdeckungen in Nord- und Centrai-Afrika in den Jähren 1849 bis 1855 (5 vols.: Gotha, 1857), 5:511Google Scholar; In Nuovo Ramusio. Navigazione Atlantiche del Veneziano Alvisa da Mosto, ed. Gasparrini-Leporace, T. (Rome, 1966), 8Google Scholar; Stewart, C.C., “Southern Saharan Scholarship and the Bilad ai-Sudan,” JAH 13(1970), 73–93Google Scholar; Nicolaisen, Johannes, Structures politiques et socials des Touareg de l'Aïr et de l'Ahaggar (Niamey, 1982)Google Scholar; Norris, H.T., “Znaga Islam during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” BSOAS 32(1985), 496–526CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pollet, Eric and Winter, Grace, La société Soninké (Brussels, 1971).Google Scholar

² He is variously called Laiçarote Passanha or Lançarote da Ilha.

³ Perhaps father of Duarte Pacheco Pereira?

⁴ His reports on Soninke, Mali, and Timbuktu have been entered as “Description of Mauritania and Ethiopia until Sierra Leone” in the collection of Diogo Gomes and Valentim Fernandes in Codex Hispanicus 27, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

⁵ Gomes Eanes de Azurara's Crónica de Guiné of 1453/54 deals with the early voyages; Diogo Gomes' account of 1455 with voyages until Guiné-Bissau, only the Navegazioni report the voyage/s of Pedro de Sintra until Sierra Leone and beyond. de Azurara, Gomes Eanes, Crónica do descrubrimento e conquista da Guiné (London, 1964), 95–100.Google Scholar

⁶ Perhaps his unnamed Portuguese friend was Soeiro da Costa.

⁷ Le Navigazione Atlantiche, ed. Leporace, Tullia Gasparini (Rome, 1966), 117–26.Google Scholar

⁸ da Costa, Abel Fontoura, Historia da Expansão Portuguesa no Mundo (Lisbon, 1937), 357Google Scholar, stated that Pedro de Sintra had discovered Sierra Leone in Henry's lifetime, but “continuando a sua navegação descoubriu sucessivamente desde 13 de Novembro de 1460 até ao segundo semestre de 1461” the places beyond Sierra Leone. Yet Ca' da Mosto is unequivocal: “el re de Portogallo mando, da poi la morte del dito signor Infante don Henrich, 2 caravelle armade, capitanici un Piero de Sinzia, scuder del dito signor re … scorer cum le predite 2 caravelle un pezo avanti per quella costa de' Negri e discoprir paexi nuovi.” Navigazioni Atlantiche, 117

⁹ The usual departure for ships from Iberia to Guinea was October, after the retreat of the Intertropical Front and the end of the rain season, to arrive at Cape Verde in November and return by mid-February.

¹⁰ Cabo Cortese, probably Cabo Montserrado.

¹¹ On 8 December the Catholic church celebrates the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Mentioning twice large fires, indirectly by naming the Gallinas rio delle fiumi and by mentioning the lighting of fires at Cabo Cortese corresponds to a date when the local population began to burn its fields, as is the case in December/January, after clearing the forests for the (upland rice) fields in anticipation of the coming rains: ee Massing, , Economic Developments in the Kru Culture Areas (Wiesbaden, 1980).Google Scholar

¹² The boscho, measured by its distance from Cape Mesurado, may have been the Bassa Hills, and the captive may have spoken a Kru language, as certain Kru tribes were specialized in sailing and fishing, while inland people did not know how to manage canoes, and it is conceivable that the Kru had reached Sierra Leone, and that some been taken from Sierra Leone as interpreters to Portugal. These were called lengua, or in Arabic, terjuman. The possibility of Mandinka as the third language might be envisaged, but is less likely since Malinke had not descended to the Bassa area by that early period. In my view it was a Kru language which by that time may have been spoken at Sierra Leone.

¹³ Note that this differs from the modern sequence of toponymy, whereas the St. Paul's river is before Cape Mesurado, in the fifteenth-century toponymy, the Mata lies two miles beyond Cape Mesurado, and the rio Sam Paulo another six miles beyond Mesurado, and is followed by r. Junco. Thus the Mata most likely corresponds to the upper course of the Junk, the São Paulo to the estuary of Farmington and Junk at Marshall/Harbel, near Monrovia International Airport, because Pacheco Pereira mentions the mounts S. Paulo in the interior of the r. S. Paulo. The fifteenth-century rio Junco thus was most likely today's St. John's river; a S. João is not mentioned on any Portuguese map. The 1746 map by Bellin notes: at the Junco “rio de Junko ou del Punto”, at the Farmington it notes “bois nommé mata de santa maria.” Nicolas Bellin, “Partie de la Coste de Guinée, 1746” Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Cartes, portefeuille 112, division 2, pièce no. 11 (2251).

¹⁴ Hereafter “Roteiros,” although the original title is “Livro das Rotas da Madeira até a Mina” in the Codex Hispanicus 27, ff. 294-306; see also Baiâo, Antonio and Bensaúde, Joaquim, O manuscrito Valentim Fernandes (Lisbon, 1940), 220.Google Scholar J. L. “sabe que do Rio do Jumquo ao Resgate de sueiro rudo he pedras e o lomgo do maar ficam tres Ilhas e a Iluguares praya e a lugares pedra grãde.… Sabe do Rio do Jumquo ao Resgate do sueiro ha 4 legoas atee estas 4 legoas he pedreira ao Ilomguo do maar e o Resgate do sueiro tê estes synaes: da bamda daloeste tê hua serra pequena no sertão como fores tamto avamte como o Resgate de sueiro ficartea a serra por cima do Resgate de sueiro este Resgate de sueiro té 4 arvores grãdes soos que parecê pinheiros e daly ao Rio dos çestos ha 2 legoas e como fores tamto avamte come este Resgate tê hûa mata que faz de sy cabo e se fores 2 Ilegoas ao longo nã veras da outre bamda terra e aly e o cabo das baixas e aly e o cestos e amtes que cheques ao Rio dos çestos e amtes que chegues ao Rio dos çestos hûa legoa a tres ilhas da bãda daloeste—sabe que o cabo das baixas esta ao sueste da bamda de çestos e quamdo fores do Resguate do sueiro pera pousar no … Ilevaras fora de ty hua gramde mata darvoredo.

V. F. Sabe que do ryo do Jûco ao Resgate de Soeyro rudo sõ pedras ao lõgo do mar feytas como ilheos pegados na terra, a lugares praya e a lugares pedras grãdes. A atraues da serra esta huã pinha daruores. E do ryo do Jûco ao Resgate do Soeyro ha iiii legoas e tudo he penedia como te digo. Ho Resgate do Soeyro tem estes synaes: da banda do hoeste tem huã serra pequena no sertao q faz qautri mõtes. E como fores tãto auãte como ho Resgate do Resgate do Soeyro ficar te ha da serra por çima do Resgate do Soeyro. E este Resgate do Soeyro te quatto arvores graãdes soos q parecê pinheyros. E daly ao ryo dos Cestos ha 2 legoas.

¹⁵ de Barros, João, Asia, ed. and trans. Feust, E. (Nürnberg, 1844), 59.Google Scholar

¹⁶ On the other hand, as he was relatively old, he might not have gone himself, but only had his trade goods on the ships.

¹⁷ Blog of Francisco António Doria, descendant of António Costa famadoria.blog-spot.com/2007/02/soeiro-da-costa-c-1390-1472-un-dos-doze.html. Columbus, a Genoese himself, married into the highest level of nobility in 1478/79, as his wife was a god-child of the Duke of Bragança, a prince. In his will he left 30,000 reales to the Centurione, as well as members of the Negro and Spinola families from Genova, which he had probably obtained as a loan during his years in Porto Santo and Lisbon (1468-1486).

¹⁸ Portugalliae Monumenta Africana, vol. I doc. 81 1472 -reclamação em Cortes; doc 85 1 de Junho de 1473, carta de prorogação a Fernão Gomes. Portugaliae Monumenta Africana (Lisbon, 1993), 1:21.Google Scholar

¹⁹ As Isabella and Ferdinand married secretly in 1468, and Afonso had himself wanted to marry the heiress of Castile, in agreement with her brother Enrique IV, Afonso had probably made up his mind to fight for Caslilian succession as early as 1468.

²⁰ Barros, Decadas, 1^a Decada, cap. I 58.

²¹ Valentim Fernandes' description is based on Diogo Gomes and ends before Cape Mount; therefore we only have Duarte Pacheco as a first-hand source, and perhaps Joao de Lisboa's Roteiro. As we will see, Barros is too contradictory to be taken as reliable.

²² It is about 1000 kilometers from Sierra Leone to Cape Palmas; from there to Cape Three Points another 1000, kilometres, and then 1000 kilometers more to the River Niger. Thus theoretically the anonymous map could indeed date from 1471, three years after the contract started. However, if São Tomé was really discovered in 1470—and it is absent from that map—then the discoveries as far as Lagos were made before December 1470

²³ Príncipe was called Ano Bom until 1501, when a ship of Fernã;o de Melo “rediscovered” it and renamed it Príncipe, while the island south of São Tomé was renamed Anobom. Today it belongs to Equatorial Guinea.

²⁴ História da Expansão Portuguesa no Mundo, ed. Baião, A., Cidade, H., and Murias, M. (Lisbon 1937), 359Google Scholar; d'Almeida, Pedro Ramos, História do Colonialismo Portugues em África (Lisbon 1978)Google Scholar; and others such as de Melo, Francisco Manuel, Conde de Ficalho, Memória sobre a Malagueta (Lisbon 1945)Google Scholar, report the discovery of Mina in January 1471. For Principe Fernandes, however, states that it was discovered on 1 January 1501 by one of Fernão de Melo's ships.

²⁵ da Costa, Abel Fontoura, Uma carta naútica Portuguesa anónima de c. 1471 (Lisbon. 1940).Google Scholar Fontoura da Costa dated this map to 1471; however, it represents the state of discovery before 1470, perhaps that of 1469

²⁶ But it is also conceivable that the sailors went as far as Cape Three Points in the first year, and reserved the voyage beyond for the next season, and thus would have reached Mina in January 1470, which is likely, as those who report its discovery for January 1471 based themselves on Barros, who made this mistake.

²⁷ Pero d'Escobar is remembered on a much later map inserted into Pieter de Marees, a map in the Portuguese language, by the “Barreras de P.˚ Descobar,” after Rio de S. André. This corresponds to modem Grand Lahou. I found this nowhere else, but it indicates that the mapping traditions were by no means uniform. It appears that he is mentioned on a padrão by Diogo Cão at Ielala, Congo; see Peres, Damiao, Diogo Cão (Lisbon, 1940).Google Scholar

²⁸ I have based this on the earliest maps of 1470; Appendix 1 gives a list of all maps which record geographical features on the Malagueta coast, while Appendix 2 provides details from selected maps.

²⁹ Perhaps a sign that Soeiro da Costa had reached this destination on his previous voyage, even though he seems to have come in under the Gomes contract, as another site is marked with his name in the Ivory coast.

³⁰ This would have been during the Portugal-Castilian war, when Burgundy capitalists became involved in the Guinea trade through Flanders, a Castilian ally. This alliance was cemented in 1496 by the double marriage of crown prince Juan with princess Margaret, and princess Juana with Philippe I. of Burgundy. Juan's death in 1497, however, made Juana heiress. Although first recognized by the Cortés, her father Ferdinand declared her mentally ill and unfit to govern after Isabela's death in 1505, in order to keep power in Spain. He could not tolerate that her husband Philippe/Felipe would become king of Spain—and he died under mysterious circumstances. Instead, he made his grandson Charles—also the grandson of emperor Maximilian I—heir apparent. This increased tremendously the German capital invested in overseas voyages and spice trade. Later the French claimed that Breton sailors founded Petit Dieppe after the rio Junco at Tabocanee—Coste de Guinée, 1746, Bellin ‘Marine’: portefeuille 112, div. 2 #11.

³¹ To deduce from present mining areas along the Birim river and in the hinterland of Secondi-Takoradi, such as Tarkwah, Prestea, placer mining in shallow shafts and gold washing were practiced no more than 70 kilometers inland.

³² The feast of Saint Catherine's is celebrated on 25 November in the Catholic liturgy.

³³ João II was born 3 March 1455 as Afonso V's third child. His older sister Juana was married to Enrique IV of Castile and became mother of Juana, who was married to crown prince Afonso, who died in 1468, so that the marriage was never consummated. Subsequently, Afonso V married her himself. With his older brother's death, João was next male in Une for the succession. The handover document is in PMA document 90, dd 31 August 1474, “Carta de ordenação a regulamentar o comercio da Guiné e ilhas do Atlantico doado ao principe D. João.”

³⁴ PMA, 1, documents 94ff. Isabela's own mother had been the sister of Henri the Navigator.

³⁵ PMA, 1, document 99.

³⁶ Nothing more is heard of him.

³⁷ PMA, 1, documents 105 and 106, dd of 17 February and 16 May 1479.

³⁸ Apparently Dutch-Flemish capital, especially by Thomas Perrot, merchant from Brugge, was invested and committed in the Castilian trade with Africa. It is highly unlikely that it would have managed to sail in the rainy season between May and October 1479, or would not have been met and mentioned by de la Fosse if it had been at the coast later than October.

³⁹ The departure and defeat of the fleet are reported in de Almeida, Pedro Ramos, História do Colonialismo Portuguesa em Africa: cronologia (Lisbon, 1978), sub 1479.Google Scholar However, there is no evidence for an encounter n the west coast of Africa even though PMA 1 contains four documents (nos. 107-10), from the municipal archive of Sevilla dating from May and june of 1479, indicating that João Diaz de Alcoçer was ordered to fit out and send an armada to Mina. Document 111 contains the peace clause of the Treaty of Alcàçovas of 3 September 1479, suggesting that this fleet never left Spain.

⁴⁰ Foulché-Delbosc, Isabel, Eustache de la Fosse: voyage à la côte centrale d'Afrique en Portugal et en Espagne (Paris, 1897), 12–13.Google Scholar

⁴¹ The earliest map—that of 1470 and J. Reinel of 1540 show the Portuguese royal flag with the quina at Mina and at Cape Palmas: Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica (6 vols.: Lisbon, 1960), 1:3, 45.Google Scholar So does the 1502 Cantino map at cedoc.mo.it/estense/img/geo/Cantino/index.html.

⁴² Perhaps in response to the escape of de la Fosse in June of 1480. The relevant document is PMA 1, 115 of 6 April 1480 “Carta de poder e faculdade concedida ao principe D. João para dar em regimento aos seus capitães enviados à Guiné que prendam e lancem ao mar as tripulações dos navios e caravelas de espanhois e outros estrangeiros que forem encontrados fora dos limites estipulados pelas pazes entre Portugal e Castela.

⁴³ See PMA, 1, document 90, dd 31 August 1474, cited above. The gatos de algalia could only have been leopards or civet cats.

⁴⁴ Rui de Pina and Barros mention the landing at Elmina on San Sebastian's day (20 January). Pero de Sintra, perhaps the one who already came in 1461 with Soeiro da Costa, was captain of one of the urcas. The names of the captains for the ten ships are not all known.

⁴⁵ Other than that he was rewarded for his services after his return in 1485, we hear little of Diogo de Azambuja afterwards: ANTT 159, “Carta de merce a Diego de Azanbuja para serviços prestado em Mina.” His brother Pero, who had initially led the expedition, had died in Cape Verde of the pest contracted in Lisbon. Barros, , Asia, 66.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ At the end of the Gomes contract, Diogo Cão was sent on royal orders to secure the trade at Mina against interlopers. His immediate successors in the post are not known, but Duarte Coelho served as capitão-mor from 1531 to 1534, and Manuel Macedo around 1540; see Teixeira da Mota, “Duarte Pacheco,” and idem., “The Mande Trade in Costa da Mina” in Conference on Manding Studies, 1972 (London, 1972). Pero de Escobar joined Diogo Cão to Congo and was on Vasco da Gama's India fleet in 1498. Anyway, Diogo Cão and Diogo Vaz appear to have been in Lisbon in 1479, and together on at least one of the Congo voyages, passing Sâo Tomé, as I note in my “Valentim Fernandes' Five Maps” in this issue.

⁴⁷ Bartolomé de las Casas, Apologética História, cap. III. This was probably between 1478 and 1482, as Columbus claimed to have been in Thule in 1477—perhaps with Corte Real or English ships from Bristol, where his brother Bartolomé was resident.

⁴⁸ The Planisferio Cantino of 1502 in the Estense Library at Modena, shows the following text under the inscription “Castello damina”: “donde tracem ao muyto excelente principe dom manuell rey de Portugal cada anno doze caravelas com ouro traze cada caravel con outra XXV mjll pesos dour oval cada pesos quinhentos reaes e mais traem muytos escravos, pimento e outras coisas de muyto proveito.”

⁴⁹ Cf. Vogt, John, “The Early Slave Trade between São Tomé and Mina,” IJAHS 6(1973), 353–67.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ According to Peres, Damião, Os mais antigos roteiros da Guiné (Lisbon 1952)Google Scholar, Valentim Fernandes work was based on a manuscript in Munich of 1495, and João de Lisbõa's was printed in 1514, while Pacheco Pereira's Esmeraldo appeared in 1505. I have some doubts on these dates: Fernandes says himself at the end of Codex Hispanicus 27 that he compiled the manuscript in 1506. Pacheco Pereira was governor of Elmina from 1520 to 1522, and I doubt that he had compiled the information in the Esmeraldo so much earlier than that. It is extremely unlikely that Pacheco's account appeared before that of Valentim Fernandes' Furley, J.T., “Provisional List of Some Portuguese Governors of the Captaincy da Mina,” Transactions of the Ghana Historical Society 2/2(1956), 53–62Google Scholar; Pereira, Duarte Pacheco, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, ed. Mauny, Raymond (Bissau, 1956).Google Scholar

⁵¹ Ibid., 111, reads “da costa da Malagueta, a qual faz fimno ditto cabo das Palmas.”

⁵² Essentially one should rely only on Fernandes' Livro de Rotas, of which João de Lisboa is an incomplete copy, since I found it virtually identical with the former, but containing omissions, e.g., the distance between Lagea and Curraes. He also writes Lagoa instead Lagea.

⁵³ Map of Liberia 1:125,000, US Geological Survey, sponsored by USAID (based on 1968/69 aerial photography); Planimetrie Map of Liberia 1:500,000, US Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington D.C. 1957 (based on 1953 aerial photography).

⁵⁴ I took Cape Palmas and Cape Mesurado as two fix points, and verified the distance between them by measurement, coming to 395 km. Taking Pacheco's measurements one arrives at 418 km.

⁵⁵ The early form of the name appears strange: “Mesurado” means “measured”. The meaning of this is not further explained. The modern form would appear more logical “Monserrado” “dented mountain” or even “Moncerrado” “obscure, dark mountain.” Pacheco Pereira,, 111, has “e pera hua parte se aparte hua mamõa et pera outra parte outra.” In Portuguese “mama” means “breast.”

⁵⁶ The roteiros seem to omit 6 leagues, as they give 4 leagues from rio Junco to Resgate do Soeiro and only 2 leagues from there to Cestos, while Pacheco gives 12 leagues for the whole distance from rio Junco to Cestos.

⁵⁷ The Zeguebos “nam sam circoncisos, e andam nuus, sam idolatras e he gente sem doutrina nem bondade, sam grandes Pescadores e vaão a pescar 2 ou 3 leguas no mar em unas almadias que parecem lancadeiras de tecelam.” Initially, I assumed them to be Gebbe-Bassa, as the river Cess forms the border between the Bassa and the Kru, but now I believe that the Zeguebos were probably Kru, as they, rather than the Bassa, were experienced fishermen and to this day abhor circumcision. “Fishing tribes” (Gbeta-Klepo and Kabor from southeastern Liberia) had colonized the entire coast.

⁵⁸ Foulché-Delbosc, De la Fosse, Voyage; Pereira, Pacheco, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, 105Google Scholar;

⁵⁹ Tied together by the stems and sold in bundles, apparently not in baskets. The spice is widely found and used in West Africa, In Cameroon it is called chobi and especially used for a fish dish called mbongo chobi.

⁶⁰ Made between 1840 and 1850, see also Bouët-Willaumez, Edouard, Description nautique des côtes de l'Afrique occidentale comprises entre le Sénégal et l'Eqauteur (2d. ed.: Paris, 1849), 82–101.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Who were those Genoese trading here? It is a mystery, but we might expect some Genoese capitalists who had invested capital with Gomes. The Genoese connection with Portugal and Atlantic exploration went back as far as 1291, when Tedosio Doria invested in two ships taken to the Canaries by Ugolino and Guido Vivaldi, who apparently reached Allegrança (Lançarote). However, the immediate partner may have been Antoniotto da Noli, who made the second voyage with Ca' da Mosto in 1456, and discovered the eastern Cape Verde Islands, and Santiago. Diogo Gomes met him “two years later” near the Saloum and in returning to Portugal hit Santiago. Noli obtained the Capitanha de Santiago from the crown, despite Gomes' claim to have landed first, as well as later trade privileges on the Guinea coast. In this capacity, he might have had investment in Gomes' ships. Pacheco even asserts that the first to go on land here was a man from Genoa. The juxtaposition with resgate dos Portugues, makes it likely that both nations” or their shipowners tried to avoid competition by choosing different villages to trade with.

⁶² O roteiro de Valentim Fernandes (Lisbon, 1997), “Livro das rotas de Madeira até Mina,” ff. 294-307. Or BildNr. 643: “& daoutra banda do hoeste do resgate do genoes ao resgate do portugues ha hua legoa.” Note that the names are in the singular, as if these trading posts belonged to individuals rather than nations.

⁶³ “Slab Craus”: the Crao (Krao) are today the inhabitants of the Five Towns, all related by kinship ties, and the most populous group on the Kru Coast. It should not be surprising that Portuguese would have traded here “Crao Slave” cf. de Marees, The Golden Kingdom of Guinea.

⁶⁴ Called Jirao in close resemblance to Krao. See my various publications on the Kru, e.g., The Economic Anthropology of the Kru in West Africa (Wiesbaden, 1980)Google Scholar; “Kru” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History (2 vols.: New York, 2007) 2:306–09Google Scholar; and “Kru Traditional Political Systems” on my home page www.europafric.de

⁶⁵ The 1845 Map of Liberia, ACS (American Colonization Society), R. Coyle under the Sec. Rev. W. McLain, Baltimore: E. Weber & Co. shows “Baddoo or Four Ts.” just W of ‘R.Escreos’ (at least I decipher the third letter as “c”), also available online at Library of Congress memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl. An 1870 or 1871 ACS Map of Liberia, D. McClelland (Washington D.C.) shows “Baddoo or the Four Towns” Escreos now having turned into Escreos; a British Admiralty map of Liberia contained in Foreign Office, FO 47, Consuls General to Liberia, of 1915 shows “Baddoo or the Four Towns” just W of “R. Esereos.” “Baddoo consists of four towns which stand on the coast on the western side of the entrance of Esereoos river” in The African Pilot, or Sailing Directions for the Western Coast of Africa (London, 1856), 224.Google Scholar There is a strong argument for assuming here a corruption of the Portuguese original “Escravos” into “Esereoos.” The Liberia map of 1830, based on surveys by J. Ashmun and J.H. Young (Philadelphia, 1830), contains Baddoo, but no river names, memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl. The most precise nineteenth-century map of the Liberia coast is that drawn under the supervision of W.F. Lynch, commander, US Navy, drawn at Wm. Sides Office, Baltimore., published by US. Senate, (Washington D.C, 1853), is also prints “Esereos:” memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl.

⁶⁶ See Map 6, Reinel, carta de ca. 1540 in PMC 6: plate 15.

⁶⁷ da Mota, Avelino Teixeira, “Duarte Coelho, capitão-mor de Armadas no Atlàntico,” Revista de Ciencias do Homem 4(1971), 301–52.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ These are reproduced in PMC 1:15, 73, 79,93; 2:122, 188, 212, 232

⁶⁹ The landmarks mentioned by the roteiro and Pacheco Pereira between Cape Palmas and Mina were San Pedro (8 leagues), rio de San André (25 leguas), cabo da Praya, arrozeas, cabo Laguoa with red cliffs (Lahoe?), rio de Mayo, rio de Soeyro (Comoe), Santa Apolonia, Axem (Axim), Anda (Ahanta), and Cabo das Tres Pontas.

⁷⁰ Imago grandi auriferi regni Guine in de Marees, Pieter, Beschryvinghe ende historische Verhael vant Gout Koninckrijk van Guinea (Amsterdam, 1602 [The Hague, 1912]), 5.Google Scholar

⁷¹ As William Towerson put it: “so that this day we tooke not by estimation above one hundred weight of Graines, by means of their Captaine, who would suffer no man to sell anything but through his hands and at his price; he was so subtile, that for a bason [pewter] hee would not give 15 pound weight of Graines, and sometimes would offer us small dishfulls, whereas before we had baskets full, and when he saw that wee would not take them in contentment the Captaine departed, and caused all the rest of the boates to depart, thinking belike that wee would have followed them, and have given them their own askings.” Hakluyt, Richard, ed., The first voyage made by Master W. Towerson to the Coast of Guinea in the Yere 1555 (London, 1904), 184–85.Google Scholar

⁷² This map is in de Marees, Beschryvinghe, but not in the English edition cited below.

⁷³ de Marees, Pieter, Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea, ed. Van Dantzig, Albert and Jones, Adam (London, 1987), 14.Google Scholar Unfortunately, there is little evidence of sixteenth-century French activities, and the Levasseur map of 1601 is hardly evidence of any original knowledge of the coast, despite rumors that Dieppe had very early trade establishments at River Cestos and Grand Cestre;

⁷⁴ So named as explained by Dapper, because the inhabitants greeted the foreigners with the phrase quaqua quaqua. In my view, the Europeans slightly misunderstood the natives, who greeted them with akwaba, akwaba, i.e., “welcome, welcome.”

⁷⁵ For this see Brooks, George, The Kru Mariner (Boston, 1978).Google Scholar

⁷⁶ The inscriptions are in Latin, inspired by Portuguese, with the section between S. Leone and C. Palmas is hardly legible, but seems to contain C.S. Ana, arboretum, rio de Gallinas, C.de monte, C. mesurado, Sio S. Paulo, arboretum, Instile de palmas, ryo Vct.? escravos?, and C. s. Clementis.

⁷⁷ The maps after 1600 will be the subject of a separate paper, but maintain most features and names from the Portuguese maps until the nineteenth century The D'Anville collection (code GeDD 2987) of the BNF contains more relevant maps: 8177-79 Sierra Leone; 8180—8191 until Cape Palmas. In the Service Hydrographique (SH), Portefeuille 112, the following maps are relevant: div.2/7D Vigneaud, Cote des Graine et d'Ivoire 1702; 11D Bellin, 1746 (cited above), Coste de Guinee; 15 D Levant, eu Cap de Monte au cap Lagos, 1776; 17 Wadström, du rio Nuñez au cap Mesurado, 1795; Div.6 1D Gemozat, Riviere de Sestre, 1681; 2D Gemozat, Riviere et village de Sexter, 1687; 3 D Gemozat, Riviere de Sester, ?; 4 D, Baye de Mesurado, 1731; 5 D Plan du Cap de Mesurado; 6 Plan du port de Mesurado. Cf. Fonds d'archives de la Marine, Séries Anciennes 5 JJ and 6 JJ, as well as MARINE (after ZZ) at www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/chan/index.html.

⁷⁸ The Library of Congress has made available nineteenth-century Liberian maps at memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/Ubhtml/libhome.html

⁷⁹ Except for the map by John Wolfe (discussed in the accompanying paper on early São Tomé maps), I have not seen any early British maps of the coast. However, the National Archives signal charts and maps for the following offices: Admiralty (ADM 235, transferred to the National Maritime Museum Greenwich in 1985), ADM1, 7, 231; CO (Colonial Office) 700, 1047; WO (War Office) 78; FO (Foreign Office) 925 (399, 704-07, 934, 1094); and SP 112. See www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/rdleaflet.asp?sLafletID=45.

⁸⁰ From Mesurado till Cestos is 26 × 6=156 kilometers; from Cestos to Cape Palmas 44×6=264 kilometers. The total is 70 leagues or 420 kilometers. The distances measured by myself are 160+240=400 kilometers. 40 leagues would extend as far as praya dos Escravos. From Cape Palmas to Cabo S. Cremente (72 kilometers) we reach Suboo Point. Lagea (102 kilometers distant) would be at Nifu river; Praya dos Escravos (144 kilometers distant), would be at Settra Kru; rio s. Vicente (168 kilometers distant), would be at Sino, and Resgate dos Genoes (186 kilometers distant), at Tasu.

⁸¹ I am uncertain whether the author of the Roteiro was confused, or wanted to indicate a second “os Curraes” after Cabo de S. Clemente. It should not be counted, however, since the overall distance between C. S. Clemente and C. Palmas is given as 10 leagues.