Diogo Gomes

Timeline

1. c. 1440–1451Sagres · Southern tip of PortugalVery little is recorded of Gomes's early life; he is believed to have been born in Portugal between roughly 1415 and 1425. Around the 1440s he joined Henry the Navigator's exploration enterprise, taking part as a royal captain in early voyages of reconnaissance along the West African coast. During this period he gained sailing experience in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea and gradually acquired knowledge of local currents, monsoons, and coastal geography.
2. 1451–1460Gambia River basin · SenegambiaIn the 1450s Gomes undertook at least two major expeditions. Between roughly 1456 and 1458 he penetrated the upper Gambia River, becoming one of the earliest Europeans to record the region, and made initial contact with local Mandinka chiefs. His voyages also extended to the coast near present-day Sierra Leone. Some sources state that he took part in the very first voyages to reach the Cape Verde islands, though his precise contribution relative to the contemporaneous Cadamosto remains debated by scholars. By the time Henry the Navigator died in 1460, Gomes had pushed the West African coast several hundred nautical miles further south, and his charts and sailing reports provided valuable reference for Portugal's further penetration of the Gulf of Guinea.
3. c. 1460–1485Sintra · PortugalAfter Henry's death, Gomes gradually withdrew from frontline exploration. In his later years he dictated his sailing accounts to the German geographer Martin Behaim, producing the valuable historical text De Prima Inventione Guineae, an indispensable primary source for the study of early Portuguese exploration of Africa. Neither Gomes's year of death nor his place of residence in later life is known; he died sometime between roughly 1480 and 1502.