João Fernandes

João Fernandes (flourished 15th century) was a Portuguese traveler to West Africa whose seven-month stay among the nomads of Río de Oro (later in the Spanish Sahara) supplied Prince Henry the Navigator with intelligence for advancing the Portuguese slave trade.

In 1445 Fernandes went with a Portuguese trading ship to the Río de Oro. When a Moorish trader wished to return with the ship to Portugal, Fernandes volunteered to remain as a hostage with his family. He was welcomed by the nomad sheepherders of the region. Taken south across the desert to visit an old patriarch, Fernandes found that the nomads obtained their slaves from African kings who raided other tribes. On his return to Portugal, he furnished Prince Henry with detailed information of the western Sahara and the trade with the Guinea Coast, from about 15° N to 15° S. As a result, the Portuguese ceased the hazardous raiding of the African coast for slaves and from 1448 made profitable slave-trading agreements with Moorish and African chiefs. In 1446 and 1447 Fernandes again visited Río de Oro to make trade arrangements.