Cape Verde Islands Sighted by Portuguese

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Dinis Dias reached the westernmost point of Africa at Cap-Vert near modern Dakar, and within two years Portuguese sailors would sight the uninhabited Cape Verde archipelago lying far out in the Atlantic. The islands would become a crucial waystation for the Atlantic slave trade and for ships bound south toward Brazil and the Indian Ocean passage. Portugal's maritime network was steadily acquiring its oceanic skeleton, island by island and headland by headland.