Portuguese crown grants four-year lease of Benin trade to Antonio Carneiro

In August 1513 the captain of São Jorge da Mina wrote to King Manuel explaining that he lacked goods to buy gold and was entirely dependent on the slave rivers for his supply. King Manuel decided in 1514 to grant a four-year lease of the Benin trade to Antonio Carneiro, lord of Príncipe, with the provision that Carneiro should supply all the slaves needed for the gold trade. Príncipe thus became for a few years the principal base for Portuguese trade with Benin; Carneiro's factor employed three ships in regular voyages to the Benin and Forcados Rivers.