Statue of Bartolomeu Dias at the High Commission of South Africa in London.

Voyage of Bartolomeu Dias (1487–88)

Bartolomeu Dias (Portuguese pronunciation: [baɾtuluˈmeu ˈdiɐʃ]; Anglicized: Bartholomew Diaz; c. 1451 – 24 May 1500 ^[1]), a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, possibly the first European known to have done so.

[edit] Purposes of the Dias expedition

Dias was a cavalier of the royal court, superintendent of the royal warehouses, and sailing-master of the man-of-war, São Cristóvão (Saint Christopher). King John II of Portugal appointed him, on 10 October 1486, to head an expedition to sail around the southern end of Africa in the hope of finding a trade route to India. Another purpose of the expedition was to try to revisit the countries reported by João Afonso de Aveiro (probably Ethiopia and Aden) with which the Portuguese desired friendly relations. Dias was also charged with searching for the lands described by Prester John, who was a fabled Christian priest and African prince.

[edit] The expedition

Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope at a considerable distance, Dias continued east as far as the mouth of the Great Fish River, in what is now the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Dias wanted to continue sailing to India, but he was forced to turn back when his crew refused to go further.^[2] It was only on the return voyage that he actually discovered the Cape of Good Hope, in May 1488. Dias returned to Lisbon in December of that year, after an absence of sixteen months.

The discovery of the passage around Africa was significant because, for the first time, Europeans could trade directly with India and the other parts of Asia, bypassing the overland route through the Middle East, with its expensive middlemen. The official report of the expedition has been lost.

Dias originally named the Cape of Good Hope the "Cape of Storms" (Cabo das Tormentas). It was later renamed by King John II of Portugal to the Cape of Good Hope (Cabo da Boa Esperança) because it represented the opening of a route to the east.

[edit] Follow-up voyages

After these early attempts, the Portuguese took a decade-long break from Indian Ocean exploration. During that hiatus, it is likely that they received valuable information from a secret agent, Pêro da Covilhã, who had been sent overland to India and returned with reports useful to their navigators.^[3]

Using his experience with explorative travel, Dias helped in the construction of the São Gabriel and its sister ship, the São Rafael that were used by Vasco da Gama to circumnavigate the Cape and continue the route to India. Dias participated only in the first leg of da Gama's voyage, until the Cape Verde Islands. He was then one of the captains of the second Indian expedition, headed by Pedro Alvares Cabral. This flotilla reached first the coast of Brasil, taking possession of it in 1500, and then continued eastwards to India. Dias perished near the Cape of Good Hope that he presciencely had named Cape of Storms. Four ships encountered a huge storm off the cape and where lost, including Dias's, on May 29, 1500. A shipwreck found in 2008 by the Namdeb Diamond Corporation off Namibia was at first thought to be possibly Dias's ship,^[4] however, recovered coins come from a later time.^[5]

[edit] Personal life

Dias was married and had two children:

• Simão Dias de Novais, who died unmarried and without issue
• António Dias de Novais, a Knight of the Order of Christ, married to (apparently his relative, since the surname de Novais was transmitted through her brother's offspring) Joana Fernandes, daughter of Fernão Pires and wife Guiomar Montês (and sister of Brites Fernandes and Fernão Pires, married to Inês Nogueira, daughter of Jorge Nogueira and wife, and had issue), and had issue.

Dias' grandson Paulo Dias de Novais was a Portuguese colonizer of Africa in the 16th century. Dias' granddaughter, Guiomar de Novais married twice, as his second wife to Dom Rodrigo de Castro, son of Dom Nuno de Castro and wife Joana da Silveira, by whom she had Dona Paula de Novais and Dona Violante de Castro, both died unmarried and without issue, and to Pedro Correia da Silva, natural son of Cristóvão Correia da Silva, without issue.

[edit] See also

• Dias Cross Memorial
• Kwaaihoek
• Padrão

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
• Catholic Encyclopedia