Gil Eanes

Gil Eanes or Gil Eannes was a navigator and exploring Portuguese of XVe century. Its biography is very known little about, and very discussed. The majority of information on its life come from the Chronique of Guinea of Gums Eannes de Zurara.

Eanes was a rider with the service of the Portuguese prince Henri the Navigator. Since its base of Lagos (Portugal), it carried out an unspecified number of voyages along the African coast. During a forwarding in 1433, it reaches the Canary islands. He was the first European to be arrived until the Cape Bojador (today course Juby, with the the Western Sahara), in 1434, not to confuse with the course Boujdour. The discovery of a possible sea route beyond the course Bojador marked the beginning of Portuguese explorations of the Africa. Before this forwarding, there was a legend on a Mer of Darkness extending after the course Bojador, which until there was supposed to be unattainable by Europeans. Gil Eanes carried out another way, with Alfonso Goncalves Baldaya, in 1435. They sailed with approximately 200 kilometers in the south of the course Bojador, along the African coasts. In 1444, Gil Eanes will take part in a hunting for the slaves in the low ones of Arguin. Then, his trace will be lost.

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