The details about the nation facing the Atlantic and a native of the country having discovered the Cape of Good Hope, show that the merchant is from Portugal.
The first European to sail around the Cape of Good Hope was the Portuguese Sailor, Bartolomeu Dias.
This means that the merchant is from Portugal. To further assert this claim, other details in the passage support this. For instance, Portugal faces the Atlantic Ocean and is located in Western Europe.
Find out more on Bartolomeu Dias at https://brainly.com/question/783606.