Afonso de Paiva (c. 1443 – c. 1490) was a
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
diplomat and
explorer
Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians.
Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
of
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
and the
Barbary Coast together with
Pêro da Covilhã
Pedro, or Pêro da Covilhã or (; c. 1460 – after 1526), sometimes written: Pero de Covilhăo, was a Portuguese diplomat and explorer.
He was a native of Covilhã in Beira. In his early life he had gone to Castile and entered the servi ...
.
According to
James Bruce
James Bruce of Kinnaird (14 December 1730 – 27 April 1794) was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who confirmed the source of the Blue Nile. He spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia and in 1770 became the first Eur ...
, Afonso left Pêro da Covilhã at
Aden, and proceeded to
Suakin
Suakin or Sawakin ( ar, سواكن, Sawákin, Beja: ''Oosook'') is a port city in northeastern Sudan, on the west coast of the Red Sea. It was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan, about north.
Suakin used to b ...
where he hoped to join a caravan to his destination. The further details of his life are not recorded. Bruce writes, "only that De Paiva, attempting his journey this way, lost his life, and was never more heard of."
[James Bruce, ''Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile'' (1805 edition), vol. 3, p. 185]
References
Paiva, Afonso de
Paiva, Afonso de
Portuguese diplomats
1460s births
Year of death unknown
1490s deaths
15th-century Portuguese people
People from Castelo Branco, Portugal
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