Prince Henry Begins Organizing African Exploration

1416

A year after Portugal's capture of the Moroccan port of Ceuta, Prince Henry began organizing systematic exploration of the West African coast from his base at Lagos in the Algarve. He dispatched caravels into waters no European had charted, seeking gold, slaves, and a sea route past the Muslim world. The prince who would never sail himself became the organizational genius behind a full century of Portuguese maritime expansion southward.