Nuno Tristão

Nuno Tristão was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer and slave trader, active in the early 1440s, traditionally thought to be the first European to reach the region of Guinea.

Around Rio de Oro, Tristão met up with the ship of Antão Gonçalves, who had been sent on a separate mission by Henry that same year to hunt monk seals that basked on those shores.

Gonçalves returned to Portugal immediately after the slave raid, but Nuno Tristão continued south, reaching as far as Cape Blanc (Cabo Branco), before turning back.

Tristão's report of easy and profitable slave-raiding grounds in the Arguin banks prompted numerous Portuguese merchants and adventurers to apply to Henry for a slave-trading license.

As fishing settlements around the Arguin banks were quickly devastated by the Portuguese slave raiders, in 1445 (or possibly 1444), Nuno Tristão was sent by Henry to press further south and look for new slave-raiding grounds.

Tristão reached as far south as borderlands of Senegal, where the Sahara desert ends and forest begins, and the coastal population changed from 'tawny' Sanhaja Berbers to 'black' Wolofs.

[4] Tristão's caravel, reduced to a crew composed of clerk Aires Tinoco and four grumetes ('ship boys'), immediately set sail back to Portugal.

[7] If true, then Nuno Tristão's last journey was an enormous leap beyond the previous Portuguese milestone (Cabo dos Mastos, Cape Naze, Senegal).