Gil Eanes

Gil Eanes (born in Lagos, Portugal) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer, squire of the Infante of Portugal Henry the Navigator whose biography remains little known and much discussed. He managed for the first time, in 1434, to reach further south of Cape Bojador, dispelling the legends and superstitious terror that this promontory inspired in Renaissance Europe, and thus beginning the era known as the "great discoveries."

Biography

Cape Bojador was known as the "Cape of Fear." Five kilometers off the Cape coast, the offshore depth is only two meters, probably due to sedimentation caused by thousands of years of dust storms blowing across the Sahara Desert. Very high waves and reefs with sharp crests are frequent in that region, making navigation very risky.

Between 1424 and 1433, Henry sent fifteen expeditions with the mission of overcoming the cursed cape. They all failed. Infante Enrique managed to encourage Gil Eanes to attempt the feat of passage.

In May 1434, Gil Eanes prepared a thirty-ton ship with a single mast and a single round one, also driven by oars and partially decked. With it, upon reaching the vicinity of Cape Fear, he decided to head west away from the coast of Africa. After a full day of sailing away from the coast, he came across a placid bay with light winds, and then turned southeast and soon realized that he had left the dangerous Cape Bojador behind.

By rounding the cape, he reinforced Portugal's role as a maritime nation. According to Gomes Eanes de Zurara, the infante knighted him as a reward and got him a rich marriage.

It is known that in 1446 he set out to explore the coast of present-day Mauritania and fought against the Muslims who tried to prevent the progress of Portuguese navigation through piracy, from where they obtained the largest number of slaves ever.. He returned halfway through the trip due to bad weather, with no further concrete biographical data since that date, although some historians claim that he continued his life in Lagos. This navigator allowed a great advance at the beginning of the age of discovery.