In 1472, in an attempt to find a new route to India, the Portuguese navigator Fernão do Pó,  encountered the island of Bioko, which he called ''Formosa''. Later, the island was named after its discoverer, Fernando Pó. At the beginning of the 16th century, specifically in 1507, the Portuguese Ramos de Esquivel made a first attempt at colonization on the island of Fernando Pó. He established a factory in ''Concepción'' (now Riaba) and developed plantations of sugarcane.