Fernão Gomes

Fernão Gomes (15th century) was a Portuguese merchant and explorer from Lisbon, possibly the son of Tristão Gomes de Brito.

In 1469, King

guinea pepper for another yearly payment of 100,000 reais^[1]

(then called "

malagueta", it was a popular substitute for black pepper

).

Gomes employed explorers

Lopo Gonçalves, Fernão do Pó and Pedro de Sintra

, He exceeded the requirements of his grant: his expeditions reached the Cape of Santa Catarina, already in the Southern Hemisphere, and also the islands of the Gulf of Guinea.

In 1471 they reached

alluvial gold trade. With the substantial revenues he got, especially the trade of his warehouse in Mina, he became known as "Fernão Gomes da Mina" in 1474.^[3]

With his profits from African trade, Fernão Gomes assisted the Portuguese king in the conquests of

Alcácer Ceguer, and Tangier

in Morocco, where he was knighted. Later, in 1478, gathering honors and with an enormous influence on the economy of the kingdom, he was appointed to the royal council.

Given the large profits, in 1482 new King John II of Portugal ordered a factory to be built in Elmina, to manage the local gold industry: Elmina Castle.^[4]

Gomes married Catarina Leme, an illegitimate child of the Flemish-Portuguese merchant Martim Leme. Martin Leme was the son of Martin Lems and his noble Portuguese wife Joana Barroso.^[5] They had two children. Catarina Leme married João Rodrigues Pais. Nuno Fernandes da Mina married Isabel Queimado and Violante de Brito.^[6]

References

^ ^a ^b Thorn, Rob. "Descobrimentos após o Príncipe Henrique". Retrieved 2006-12-24.
^ Semedo, J, de Matos. "O Contrato de Fernão Gomes" (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved 2006-12-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Wilks,Ivor. Wangara, Akan, and Portuguese in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries (1997). Bakewell, Peter (ed.). Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas. Aldershot: Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Limited. pp. 1–39.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "Elmina Castle". Government of Ghana. Archived from the original on 2006-10-09. Retrieved 2006-12-24.
^ Luiz Gonzaga da Silva Leme, Genealogia Paulistana, Volume II, p. 179
^ http://www.geneall.net/P/per_page.php?id=130326 Fernão Gomes in a Portuguese Genealogical site

References

Further reading