Gonçalo de Sintra

Who is Gonçalo de Sintra?

Gonçalo de Sintra or de Cintra, was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer and slave raider.

According to chronicler Zurara, Gonçalo de Sintra was a young squire or stirrup boy in the household of Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, Duke of Viseu. Others have characterized Sintra as older, an illustrious knight, distinguished for his military service at Ceuta.

In late 1444, Henry dispatched Gonçalo de Sintra in command of a caravel on an exploratory expedition down the West African coast, with strict instructions to sail straight to the 'land of Guinea', and to not detract from that objective. .

Earlier that year, a Portuguese slave-raiding expedition under Lançarote de Freitas had raided the Bay of Arguin, an area clustered with Sanhaja Berber fishing settlements, and taken a few hundred Berber captives, which were sold as slaves in Lagos, Portugal at great profit. Desirous to make some quick profit of his own, Gonçalo de Sintra disobeyed Henry's instructions and decided to make a quick slave-raiding detour to the Arguin banks. But Lançarote's raid had driven much of the local population to evacuate the islands and coasts, with the result that Sintra found the fishing settlements deserted. Sintra managed to capture two Berber women who had lingered on Arguin island, but a Berber slave-boy Sintra had brought from Portugal to serve as translator escaped. This turn of events probably persuaded Sintra to make an effortful search for captives to 'make up' for the loss of the slave-boy rather than just call it quits and go on to Guinea.