São Tomé settlers granted fresh trading privileges in the slave rivers

Settlers who occupied the island of São Tomé in 1493 received a new privilege permitting them to trade in the "slave rivers" of the Niger Delta. By 1494 they had begun to send ships to the rivers in search of slaves, using the three vessels of about thirty tons belonging to Alvaro de Caminha, the first captain of the island. This inaugurated a commerce between São Tomé and the Benin-area rivers that continued with little interruption until well into the nineteenth century.