them under Henry’s sponsorship, were also docking on the African mainland, advancing a little farther south every sailing season so that by mid-century the Gulf of Guinea (the coastlines of modern-day Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin) was in reach. The business relationships the Portuguese struck with traders in west Africa’s coastal cities were often fruitful, although many of them would strike us today as morally abhorrent. One of Africa’s longest-standing trades was in enslaved people, and the Portuguese had few qualms about joining in.
