JOHN

See also:

• FERNANDEZ, ALVARO
• FERNANDEZ, DIEGO
• JOHN FERNANDEZ (Joao, Joam)
• FERNANDEZ, JUAN (fl. c. 1570)
• FERNANDEZ, LUCAS

FERNANDEZ (Joao, Joam)  , Portuguese traveller of the 5th century . He was perhaps the earliest of modern explorers in the upland of West Africa, and a pioneer of the European slave- and gold-trade of Guinea . We first hear of him (before 1445) as a captive of the Barbary Moors in the western Mediterranean; while among these he- acquired a knowledge of Arabic, and probably conceived the design of exploration in the interior of the continent whose coasts the Portuguese were now unveiling . In 1445 he volunteered to stay in Guinea and gather what information he could for Prince Henry the Navigator; with this object he accompanied An tam Gon9alvez to the " River of Gold " (Rio d'Ouro, Rio de Oro) in 23° 40' N., where he landed and went inland with some native shepherds . He stayed seven months in the country, which lay just within Moslem Africa, slightly north of Pagan Negroland (W . Sudan); he was taken off again by Antam Gon9alvez at a point farther down the coast, near the " Cape of Ransom " (Cape Mirik), in 190 22' 14"; and his account of his experiences proved of great interest and value, not only as to the natural features, climate, fauna and flora of the south-western Sahara, but also as to the racial affinities, language, script, religion, nomad habits, and trade of its inhabitants . These people—though Mahommedans, maintaining a certain trade in slaves, gold, &c., with the Barbary coast (especially with Tunis), and classed as " Arabs," " Berbers," and " Tawny Moors "—did not then write or speak Arabic . In 1446 and 1447 John Fernandez accompanied other expeditions to the Rio d'Ouro and other parts of West Africa in the service of Prince Henry . He was personally known to Gomes Eannes de Azurara, the historian of this early period of Portuguese expansion; and from Azurara's language it is clear that Fernandez' revelation of unknown lands and races was fully appreciated at home . See Azurara, Chronica de . . . Guine, chs. xxix., xxxii., xxxiv., xxxv., lxxvii., lxxxiii., xc., xci., xciii .