In 1441, Tristão and Antão Gonçalves were sent by Henry the Navigator to explore the West African coast. With one of Henry's Moorish servants to act as an interpreter, Tristão, the expedition's leader, sailed to Cabo Blanco, the furthest any European had been at that time beyond the Río de Oro. During the next two years, he explored the coast down to Arguim, where he took 28 slaves. In 1445 he sailed further south to Guinea, "where there were many palms and other trees, and all the fields looked to be fertile". In 1446 Tristão landed near what is today the city of Bissau.
He was killed during a slave raid approximately 320 kilometres south of Cape Verde at an unknown date, probably in 1446.
