At length the consecutive efforts of the navigators employed by Prince Henry of Portugal - Gil Eannes, Diniz Diaz, Nuno Tristam, Alvaro Fernandez, Cadamosto, Usodimare and Diego Gomez - made known the coast as far as the Gambia, and by the end of the 15th century the whole region was familiar to Europeans.
Gil Gonzalez Davila penetrated from the Gulf of Nicoya to the western provinces and sent his lieutenant Cordova to circumnavigate the great lake.
On the other hand Portugal gave birth to no considerable dramatist from the time of Gil Vicente, in the 16th century, until that of Garrett in the 19th, and it has failed to develop a national drama.
But notwithstanding all its dependence on classical and foreign authors, Portuguese literature has a distinct individuality which appears in the romanceiro, in the songs named cantares de amigo of the cancioneiros, in the Chronicles of Fernao Lopes, in the Historia tragico-maritima, in the plays of Gil Vicente, in the bucolic verse and prose of the early 16th century, in the Letters of Marianna Alcoforado and, above all, in The Lusiads.
Bernardim Ribeiro, Christovam Falcao, Gil Vicente, and SA de Miranda, who represent the transition between the Spanish school of the i 5th and the Italian school of the 16th century, the members of which are called Os Quinhentistas.
