Cape Nun was the most southerly headland to which many seafarers prepared to sail during their early voyages. But, there was a legend that nobody could return if they ventured beyond the cape, which is a deadly point in Nigeria.
Owing to this mysterious story, it got the name Cape Nun, as a corruption of ‘Cape None’. But Henry the Navigator’s sailors crossed the mysterious Cape Nun, and duly reached Cape Bojeador. Until Henry’s time, Cape Bojeador remained the most southerly point known to Europeans. Many superstitious seafarers believed that beyond Cape Bojeador there were sea monsters. In 1434, Gil Eanes, a Portuguese commander became the first European known to pass Cape Bojeador.
These explorations helped the Portuguese to establish themselves as a mighty naval power.
