c. 1446-after 1462

Portuguese explorer who became the first European to explore the coast of West Africa in the region of what is now Liberia and Sierra Leone. Operating under the aegis of the navigation "school" established by Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), Sintra voyaged to the West African coast in 1461. He named Cabo do Monte, a large rock promontory on the Liberian coast, and in 1462 named Sierra Leone, or "lion mountain."