Editing Senegal River (section)

=== European contact ===
Christian Europeans soon began attempting to find the sea route to the mouth of the Senegal.  The first known effort may have been by the [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] brothers [[Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi]], who set out down the coast in 1291 in a pair of ships (nothing more is heard of them). In 1346, the [[Majorcan]] sailor, [[Jaume Ferrer]] set out on a galley with the explicit objective of finding the "River of Gold" (''Riu de l'Or''), where he heard that most people along its shores were engaged in the collection of gold and that the river was wide and deep enough for the largest ships. Nothing more is heard of him either. In 1402, after establishing the first European colony on the [[Canary Islands]], the French Norman adventurers [[Jean de Béthencourt]] and [[Gadifer de la Salle]] set about immediately probing the African coast, looking for directions to the mouth of Senegal.

[[File:Bababé.jpg|thumb|Boat on Senegal River]]
The project of finding the Senegal was taken up in the 1420s by the [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portuguese]] Prince [[Henry the Navigator]], who invested heavily to reach it.  In 1434, one of Henry's captains, [[Gil Eanes]], finally surpassed Cape Bojador and returned to tell about it.  Henry immediately dispatched a follow-up mission in 1435, under Gil Eanes and [[Afonso Gonçalves Baldaia]].  Going down the coast, they turned around the [[Dakhla, Western Sahara|al-Dakhla]] peninsula in the [[Western Sahara]] and emerged into an inlet, which they excitedly believed to be the mouth of the Senegal River.  The name they mistakenly bestowed upon the inlet - "Rio do Ouro" - is a name it would [[Río de Oro|remain stuck with]] down to the 20th century.

Realizing the mistake, Henry kept pressing his captains further down the coast, and in 1445, the Portuguese captain [[Nuno Tristão]] finally reached the [[Langue de Barbarie]], where he noticed the desert end and the treeline begin, and the population change from 'tawny' [[Zenaga people|Sanhaja]] [[Berbers]] to 'black' [[Wolof people]]. Bad weather or lack of supplies prevented Tristão from actually reaching the mouth of the Senegal River, but he rushed back to Portugal to report he had finally found the "Land of the Blacks" (''Terra dos Negros''), and that the "Nile" was surely nearby.  Shortly after (possibly still within that same year) another captain, [[Dinis Dias]] (sometimes given as Dinis Fernandes) was the first known European since antiquity to finally reach the mouth of the Senegal River.  However, Dias did not sail upriver, but instead kept sailing down the [[Grande Côte]] to the bay of [[Dakar]].

The very next year, in 1446, the Portuguese [[slave]]-raiding fleet of [[Lançarote de Freitas]] arrived at the mouth of the Senegal.  One of its captains, [[Estêvão Afonso]], volunteered to take a [[launch (boat)|launch]] to explore upriver for settlements, thus becoming the first European to actually enter the Senegal river.  He didn't get very far.  Venturing ashore at one point along the river bank, Afonso tried to kidnap two Wolof children from a woodsman's hut.  But he ran into their father, who proceeded to chase the Portuguese back to their launch and gave them such a beating that the explorers gave up on going any further, and turned back to the waiting caravels.<ref>Zurara (p.178-83), Barros (p.110-12)</ref>
[[File:RiverSenegalNearKanel.jpg|thumb|Young boys swimming in the Senegal River]]

Sometime between 1448 and 1455, the Portuguese captain [[Lourenço Dias]] opened regular trade contact on the Senegal River, with the [[Wolof people|Wolof]] statelets of [[Waalo]] (near the mouth of the Senegal River) and [[Cayor]] (a little below that), drumming up a profitable business exchanging Mediterranean goods (notably, horses) for gold and slaves.<ref>Cadamosto suggest this was begun in 1450: "Five years before I went on this voyage, this river was discovered by three caravels belonging to Don Henry, which entered it, and their commanders settled peace and trade with the Moors; since which time ships have been sent to this place every year to trade with the natives." Cadamosto (Engl. 1811 trans., [https://books.google.com/books?id=YVjm2VmuOlgC&pg=PA220 p. 220]) The identification of Lourenço Dias as the opener of Portuguese trade on the Senegal River is suggested in a 1489 document. See Russell (2000:p.97n14).</ref> Chronicler [[Gomes Eanes de Zurara]], writing in 1453, still called it the "Nile River", but [[Alvise Cadamosto]], writing in the 1460s, was already calling it the "Senega" {{sic}}, and it is denoted as ''Rio do Çanagà'' on most subsequent Portuguese maps of the age.<ref>Cadamosto (Engl. 1811 trans., ([https://books.google.com/books?id=YVjm2VmuOlgC&pg=PA213 p. 213]). [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio]], publisher of the 1550 Italian edition of Cadamosto's memoir, refers to the gold from the Senegal as ''oro tiber'' ([https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ5TZHXOnYcC&pg=RA2-PA107 p. 107]), thus leading some to imagine it was also customary to call the Senegal the [[Tiber River]]!  In all likelihood, "Tiber Gold" was just a generic Italian reference to river-dug gold.</ref> Cadamosto relates the legend that both the Senegal and the Egyptian Nile were branches of the Biblical [[Gihon]] River that stems from the [[Garden of Eden]] and flows through [[Ethiopia]].<ref>Cadamosto ([https://books.google.com/books?id=YVjm2VmuOlgC&pg=PA220 p. 220]; Ital: [https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ5TZHXOnYcC&pg=RA2-PA111 p. 111]).</ref> He also notes that the Senegal was called "the Niger" by the ancients - probably a reference to [[Ptolemy]]'s legendary 'Nigir' (Νιγειρ)<ref>Geographia, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4ksBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA222 Book IV, Chapter 6, Section 14].</ref> (below the Gir), which would be later identified by [[Leo Africanus]] with the modern [[Niger River]].<ref>By confounding the Ptolemy's Greek 'Nigir' with the Latin word for "black", Leo Africanus assumed the "Nile of the Blacks" (i.e. Senegal-Niger of the Arab traders) must be the Nigir of the ancients. See Leo Africanus, (Ital: [https://books.google.com/books?id=iZ5TZHXOnYcC&pg=PA7 p. 7], Eng: [https://books.google.com/books?id=rmcMAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22Leo%20Africanus%22%20Niger&pg=PA124 p. 124]</ref> Much the same story is repeated by [[Luis del Marmol Carvajal|Marmol]] in 1573, with the additional note that both the Senegal River and [[Gambia River]] were tributaries of the [[Niger River]].<ref>[[Luis del Marmol Carvajal]] (1573) ([https://books.google.com/books?id=1WVevz1cDnwC&q=Zenega&pg=PT23 ch. 17])</ref> However, the contemporary African atlas of [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] cartographer [[Livio Sanuto]], published in 1588, sketches the Senegal, the Niger and the Gambia as three separate, parallel rivers.

[[File:Guillaume Delisle Senegambia 1707.jpg| thumb | [[Senegambia]] region, detail from the map of Guillaume Delisle (1707), which still assumes the Senegal connected to the Niger; this would be corrected in subsequent edititions of Delisle's map (1722, 1727), where it was shown ending at a lake, south of the Niger.]]
Portuguese chronicler [[João de Barros]] (writing in 1552) says the river's original local [[Wolof language|Wolof]] name was ''Ovedech'' (which according to one source, comes from "vi-dekh", Wolof for "this river").<ref>Barros, ''Décadas da Ásia'' ([https://books.google.com/books?id=Epo2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA109 p. 109]).  See also Bailot (1853: p.199).</ref> His contemporary, [[Damião de Góis]] (1567) records it as ''Sonedech'' (from "sunu dekh", Wolof for "our river").<ref>See also A.M. de Castilho (1866) ''Descripção e roteiro da costa occidental de Africa'', vol. 1, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8ikiSWPVYDUC&dq=editions%3ASTANFORD36105015335362&pg=PA92 p. 92].</ref> Writing in 1573, the Spanish geographer [[Luis del Marmol Carvajal]] asserts that the [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] called it ''Zenega'', the 'Zeneges' (Berber [[Zenaga people|Zenaga]]) called it the ''Zenedec'', the 'Gelofes' ([[Wolof people|Wolofs]]) call it ''Dengueh'', the 'Tucorones' ([[Toucouleur people|Fula Toucouleur]]) called it ''Mayo'', the 'Çaragoles' ([[Soninke people|Soninke Sarakole]] of [[Ngalam]]) called it ''Colle'' and further along (again, Marmol assuming Senegal was connected to the Niger), the people of Bagamo' ([[Bambara people|Bambara]] of [[Bamako]]?) called it ''Zimbala'' (Jimbala?) and the people of [[Timbuktu]] called it the ''Yça''.<ref>[[Luis del Marmol Carvajal|Marmol]] (1573), Lib. VIII, [https://books.google.com/books?id=hwtxRhuIkIoC&pg=PA3 ch.3].  See also Phérotée de La Croix (1688: Ch. 2 [https://books.google.com/books?id=JaUBAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA406 p. 406]) and Cooley (1841: [https://books.google.com/books?id=380NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA38 p. 38])</ref>