Everything about Bartolomeu Dias totally explained
Bartolomeu Dias (; Anglicized:
Bartholomew Diaz) (c. 1450 –
May 29,
1500), a Nobleman of the
Royal Household, was a
Portuguese explorer who sailed around the western tip of
Africa in 1488, the first
European known to have done so.
Travels
In 1481 Dias accompanied
Diogo de Azambuja on an expedition to the
Gold Coast. 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 had appointed him on
10 October 1486 as the head of an expedition that was to endeavor to sail around the southern end of Africa in the hope of finding a trade route leading to
Asia. Another important purpose of the expedition was to try to find the country of which recent reports had arrived through
João Afonso de Aveiro and with which the Portuguese wished to enter into friendly relations.
Dias sailed, at first, towards the mouth of the
Congo River, discovered the year before by
Diogo Cão and
Martin Behaim, then, following the African coast, he entered
Walvis Bay. From 29° south
latitude (
Port Nolloth), he lost sight of the coast and was sailing south in a violent storm, which had lasted thirteen days. He didn't know that he'd sailed well beyond the tip of the continent. When calm weather returned he sailed in an easterly direction and, when no land appeared, turned northward, landing at the "Baía dos Vaqueiros" (
Mossel Bay) on
12 March 1488. Dias had rounded both the Cape of Good Hope and
Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of Africa without ever having been to them before.
Continuing east, he sailed as far as the
Great Fish River. Once it had become clear that
India could be reached by sailing north up the coast, he turned back. It was only on the return voyage that he discovered the Cape of Good Hope in May 1488. Dias returned to Lisbon in December 1488 after an absence of sixteen months and seventeen days. He had explored a total of about 2,030 km of unknown African coast.
He originally named the
Cape of Good Hope the "Cape of Storms" (
Cabo das Tormentas). It was later renamed by King
John II of Portugal as the Cape of Good Hope (
Cabo da Boa Esperança) because of the opening of a route to the east. 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 of the Middle East, with its expensive middle men. The official report of the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope has been lost.
It appears that the Portuguese took a decade long break from Indian Ocean exploration after Dias' return. In that hiatus, it's likely that they got valuable information from a secret agent,
Pêro da Covilhã, who had been sent overland to India and provided valuable information useful to their ocean navigators.
In 1497 Dias was posted in
São Jorge da Mina Castle and accompanied
Vasco da Gama's expedition to India. He followed Gama with one ship to
Cape Verde. He also accompanied
Pedro Álvares Cabral on the voyage that resulted in the discovery of
Brazil in 1500. He died off the shore at the Cape of Good Hope when his vessel was wrecked in a storm.
In early 2008
Namdeb discovered a early 16th century wreck off the coast of
Namibia. It was originally speculated that this might be the wreck of Dias' ship,
but the gold coins were identified as "Português" (also known as "Portugaloser") which were minted after 1525
. This exludes the possibility of being Dias' ship.
Personal life
Married, he'd two children:
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'd 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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Bartolomeu Dias'.
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