ABSTRACT
The history of the first century of the Portuguese discovery and occupation of the West African coast may be conveniently divided into three periods: firstly, that of exploration up to 1480; secondly, the very prosperous period of trade and settlement from 1481 to 1530; and, thirdly, the period of gradual decline after 1530, a decline which resulted from the intrusion of interlopers and the consequent destruction of settlements and the interruption of trade. The history of the first period has always attracted close attention from scholars, the second some, and the third scarcely any attention, and one of the reasons for this is that contemporary records for the fifteenth century are, or have been made, more readily available for the general reader than those for the sixteenth century. The reader may obtain a more coherent and balanced account of the course of events from the documents printed below. These have been preceded by a review of what is known about the exploration of the Guinea coast between 1462 and 1480, and a description of West Africa under the Portuguese between 1481 and 1560.
