Bartolomeu Dias, a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer.
He sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have
done so.
Purposes of the Dias expedition Bartolomeu Dias was a Knight of the royal
court, superintendent of the royal warehouses, and sailing-master of the man-of-war, São
Cristóvão. King John II of Portugal appointed him, on 10 October 1487, to head an expedition
to sail around the southern tip of Africa in the hope of finding a trade route to India.
Dias was also charged with searching for the lands ruled by Prester John, who was a fabled
Christian priest and ruler. The expedition
Dias' ship São Cristóvão was piloted by Pêro de Alenquer. A second caravel, the São
Pantaleão, was commanded by João Infante and piloted by Álvaro Martins. Dias' brother
Pêro Dias was the captain of the square-rigged support ship with João de Santiago as pilot.
The expedition sailed south along the West coast of Africa. Extra provisions were picked
up on the way at the Portuguese fortress of São Jorge de Mina on the Gold Coast. After
having sailed past Angola, Dias reached the Golfo da Conceicão by December. Having rounded
the Cape of Good Hope at a considerable distance, Dias continued east and entered what he named
Aguada de São Brás—later renamed Mossel Bay—on 4 February 1488. Dias's expedition
reached its furthest point on 12 March 1488 when they anchored at Kwaaihoek, near the
mouth of the Bushman's River, where a padrão—the Padrão de São Gregório—was erected before
turning back. Dias wanted to continue sailing to India, but he was forced to turn back when
his crew refused to go further. 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 southern
Africa was significant because, for the first time, Europeans realized they 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. Bartolomeu Dias originally named the Cape
of Good Hope the "Cape of Storms". It was later renamed the Cape of Good Hope because
it represented the opening of a route to the east.
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.
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 of Good Hope and continue the route to India. Dias only participated in the first
leg of Gama's voyage, until the Cape Verde Islands. He was then one of the captains of
the second Indian expedition, headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral. This flotilla first reached
the coast of Brazil, landing there in 1500, and then continued eastwards to India. Dias
perished near the Cape of Good Hope that he presciently had named Cape of Storms. Four
ships encountered a huge storm off the cape and were lost, including Dias', on 29 May
1500. A shipwreck found in 2008 by the Namdeb Diamond Corporation off Namibia was at first
thought to be Dias' ship; however, recovered coins come from a later time.
Personal life Bartolomeu 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 Joana Fernandes, daughter
of Fernão Pires and wife Guiomar Montês. 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. See also
Diogo Cão Diogo Dias
Dias Cross Memorial References
Further reading Bartolomeu Dias [2010]
External links This article incorporates text from a publication
now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.. "Bartolomeu Dias". Catholic Encyclopedia.
Robert Appleton Company. Catholic Encyclopedia