Diogo Gomes
| Diogo Gomes | |
|---|---|
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| Born | c. 1420 Lagos, Kingdom of Portugal |
| Died | c. 1500 Kingdom of Portugal |
| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Occupation | Navigator, explorer, writer |
Diogo Gomes (c. 1420 – c. 1500) was a Portuguese navigator, explorer and writer. Diogo Gomes was a servant and explorer of Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator. His memoirs were dictated late in his life to Martin Behaim. They are an invaluable (if sometimes inconsistent) account of the Portuguese discoveries under Henry the Navigator, and one of the principal sources upon which historians of the era have drawn. He explored and ascended up the Gambia river and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands.
Probably a native of Lagos, Portugal, Diogo Gomes started out as page in the household of Prince Henry the Navigator, and subsequently rose to the rank of cavaleiro (knight) by 1440. Diogo Gomes participated in the 1445 slave raid led by Lançarote de Freitas of Lagos on the Arguin banks, and claims to have personally captured 22 Berber slaves singlehandedly. (Chronicler Zurara, who relates the raids in some detail, does not seem to make notice of Diogo Gomes, although he does mention a 'Picanço', which later João de Barros suggests was actually the ship and nickname of a "Gomes Pires", possibly a reference to Diogo Gomes).
He was named a royal clerk (escrivão da carreagem real) on 12 June 1451, and went on in the service of both Prince Henry and the Portuguese crown.
In 1456 (give or take a year - his account does not give a precise date), Diogo Gomes was sent out by Prince Henry in command of three vessels down the West African coast. Gomes claims he was accompanied by a certain Jacob, an "Indian" interpreter, which some early historians have taken as a rare indication that Henry envisaged reaching India at this early stage (but modern historians find this improbable; Russell notes that, at the time, 'Indian' was commonly used as a moniker for an Ethiopian, and the furthest hope that Henry nurtured was of reaching the lands of Prester John.)
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