GOMEZ, DIOGO (f. 1440-1482), Portuguese explorer and writer, is known to have been receiver of the royal customs in 1440. Sixteen years later, Prince Henry the Navigator sent him in command of three vessels along the west African coast with the commission to explore and to reach the Indies. Strong currents beyond the Rio Grande obliged Gomez to put back to the Gambia, which he ascended to the negro town of "Cantor," where he established profitable commercial relations with negro chiefs. In 1462 another African voyage resulted in a fresh discovery of the Cape Verde islands, already found by Cadamosto (q.v.). Four years later Gomez was appointed judge at Cintra.
His chronicle, which deals with the life and exploring ventures of Prince Henry and gives an elaborate account of negro life and trade along the Gambia, exists only in one ms., viz., Cod. Hisp. 27 in the Staats-Bibliothek, Munich. The original Latin text was printed by Schmeller, "tuber Valentim Fernandez Alemao," in the Abhandlungen der philosoph.-philolog. Kl. der bayerisch. Akademie der Wissen schaften, vol. iv. (Munich, 1847) : see also J. Mees, Histoire de la decouverte des Iles Acores (Ghent, 19o1) ; R. H. Major, Life of Prince Henry the Navigator (1868) ; C. R. Beazley, Prince Henry the Navi gator (1895) and Introduction to Azurara's Discovery and Conquest of Guinea (1899).