As many as forty vessels have sailed from Lagos on Henry's behalf from 1444 to 1446, and the first private mercantile expeditions have begun.

Slaves and gold begin arriving in Portugal.

Nuno Tristão, Henry's favorite captain, set out on his fourth trip down the West African coast in 1446 (or perhaps 1445 or 1447, date uncertain), searching for the source of gold and other valuable commodities that have slowly been trickling up into Europe via land routes for the preceding half century.

Somewhere south of Cap Vert, Tristão comes across the mouth of a large river.

Tristão takes twenty-two sailors with him on a launch upriver, to search for a settlement to raid, but the launch is ambushed by thirteen native canoes with some eighty armed men.

Quickly surrounded, Nuno Tristão, along with most of his crew, is killed on the spot by poisoned arrows (two might have escaped).

The death of Nuno Tristão is the beginning of the end of this wave of Henry's expeditions.

Another set of ships will still go out the next year, but will also take significant casualties, and as a result, Portuguese expeditions will be temporarily suspended.

Henry will not dispatch another expedition to the West African coast again for several years.