Alvise Ca' da Mosto Venetian explorer
by Pierangelo
Alvise Ca' da Mosto born 1432, Venicedied July 18, 1488, VeniceCa' da Mosto also spelled Cadamosto Venetian explorer and trader who wrote one of the earliest known accounts of western Africa and Mauritania. Retained by Prince Henry the Navigator, he set sail on March 22, 1455, visited Madeira and the Canary Islands, and coasted along Africa past the mouth of the Senegal River.Cadamosto's narrative, which was first published in 1507, gave valuable information about the caravan routes of the interior, from Mali via Ouadane to Morocco, from Mali via Timbuktu to Gao eastward, and from Timbuktu via Taghaza to Morocco and Tunis, and also described the trade, especially in gold and salt. G. R. Crone (1937) commented that Cadamosto's "is the first original account to have survived of a voyage into the regions opened up by European enterprise at the dawn of modern overseas expansion, and...