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400 years ago, a trio of tiny kingdoms were perched on some damp islands off the coast of Europe.

Within three short centuries, these islands would become the centre of an empire which ruled a quarter of the globe and on which the sun never set.

I'm Samuel Hume, a historian of the British Empire, and my podcast Pax Britannica follows the people and events that built that empire into a global superpower.

Learn the history of the British Empire by listening to Pax Britannica every way you find your podcasts or go to pod.linkslashpax.

If you like this podcast, can we recommend another one? It's called Big Picture Science. You can hear it wherever you get your podcast and its name tells part of the story.

The big picture questions and the most interesting research in science.

Seth and I are the hosts. Seth is a scientist. I am Molly and I'm a science journalist and we talk to people smarter than us and we have fun along the way.

The show is called Big Picture Science and as Seth said, you can hear it wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello and welcome to the Explorers Podcast. Today we are going to tell the story of Venetian Explorer Alvise Ketamosto.

Ketamosto is not a well-known explorer but he made two voyages for Prince Henry the Navigator in the 1450s to West Africa and is credited as one of the discoverers of the Cape Verde Islands.

I'm doing this episode about Ketamosto right after the series on Henry the Navigator because it is a nice representation of many voyages of discovery conducted under the ages of the Portuguese Prince at this time.

I have selected Ketamosto because unlike many of the captains sailing under Henry we have a record of his voyage written by the man.

It is one of the few published works that have survived the era of Prince Henry and it is considered one of the most reliable.

All of this makes this episode sort of an addendum to the Henry the Navigator series. I hope you enjoy it.

Now before we start a couple of notes.

First I want to thank everyone for their support of the show. Some of you help out financially which is awesome.

But a great way to support the podcast is to simply tell others about it. Share it on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or wherever.

No advertising is more powerful or appreciated than you recommending the show to family and friends.

So take our web address Explorers Podcast.com and share it letting your history nerd friends know how amazingly awesome the show is. They will thank you later.

Second note today's episode is derived from a very old text and the accuracy is probably not that great.

But as mentioned before Ketamosto's book is considered pretty reliable.

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