The lançados were settlers of Portuguese origin in Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands. Many were Jews escaping persecution, and many had wives from the local African groups. Although never large in numbers, they were crucial intermediaries between Portuguese nationals and native tribes, and were the "half-caste traders" that were important in the economies of towns like Bissau and Cacheu.

They were the progenitors of the Crioulo language and culture.

Reference

• Peter Mark, "Portuguese" Style and Luso-African Identity: Precolonial Senegambia, Sixteenth-Nineteenth Centuries (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002)