DIAS, BARTOLOMEU

born c. 1450 died May 29, 1500, at sea, near Cape of Good Hope Dias also spelled Diaz Portuguese navigator and explorer who led the first European expedition to round the Cape of Good Hope (1488), opening the sea route to Asia via the Atlantic and Indian oceans. He is usually considered to be the greatest of the Portuguese pioneers who explored the Atlantic during the 15th century. Almost nothing is known of Dias' early life. His supposed descent from one of Prince Henry the Navigator's pilots is unproved, and his rank was the comparatively modest one of squire of the royal household. The name Dias de Novais does not appear in contemporary documents but only in the deed of appointment of his grandson as governor of Angola in 1571. In 1474, King Afonso V entrusted his son, Prince John (later John II), with the supervision of Portugal's trade with Guinea and the exploration of the western coast of Africa. John sought to close the area to foreign shipping and after his accession in 1481 ordered new voyages of discovery to ascertain the southern limit of the African continent. The navigators were given stone pillars ( padres) to stake the claims of the Portuguese crown. Thus one of them, Diogo Co, reached the Congo and sailed down the coast of Angola to Cape Santa Maria at 1326 S, where he planted one of John's markers, supposing that he had attained the southernmost tip of Africa. Co was ennobled and rewarded and sailed again: this time he left a marker at 1540 and another at Cape Cross, continuing to 2210 S. Royal hopes that he would reach the Indian Ocean were disappointed, and nothing more is heard of Co. John II entrusted command of a new expedition to Dias. In 1486 rumour arose of a great ruler, the Ogan, far to the east, who was identified with the legendary Christian ruler Prester John. John II then sent Pro da Covilh (q.v.) and one Afonso Paiva overland to locate India and Abyssinia and ordered Dias to find the southern limit of Africa. Dias' fleet consisted of three ships, his own So Cristvo, the So Pantaleo under his associate Joo Infante, and a supply ship under Dias' brother, whose name is variously given as Pro or Diogo. The company included some of the leading pilots of the day, among them Pro de Alenquer and Joo de Santiago, who earlier had sailed with Co. A 16th-century historian, Joo de Barros, places Dias' departure in August 1486 and says that he was away 16 months and 17 days, but since two other contemporaries, Duarte Pacheco and Christopher Columbus, put his return in December 1488, it is now usually supposed that he left in August 1487. Dias passed Co's marker, reaching the Land of St. Barbara on December 4, Walvis Bay on December 8, and the Gulf of St. Stephen (Elizabeth Bay) on December 26. After Jan. 6, 1488, he was prevented by storms from proceeding along the coast and sailed south out of sight of land for several days. When he again turned to port, no land appeared, and it was only on sailing north that he sighted land on February 3. He had thus rounded the Cape without having seen it. He called the spot Angra de So Brs (Bay of St. Blaise, whose feast day it was) or the Bay of Cowherds, from the people he found there. Dias' Negro companions were unable to understand these people, who fled but later returned to attack the Portuguese. The expedition went on to Angra da Roca (present-day Algoa Bay). The crew was unwilling to continue, and Dias recorded the opinions of all his officers, who were unanimously in favour of returning. They agreed to go on for a few days, reaching Rio do Infante, named after the pilot of So Pantaleo; this is almost certainly the present Great Fish (Groot-Vis) River. It was now clear that India could be reached by the Cape route, and Dias turned back. He sighted the Cape itself in May. Barros says that he named it Cape of Storms and that John II renamed it Cape of Good Hope. Duarte Pacheco, however, attributes the present name to Dias himself, and this is likely since Pacheco joined Dias at the island of Prncipe. Little is known of the return journey, except that Dias touched at Prncipe, the Rio do Resgate (in the present Liberia), and the fortified trading post of Mina. One of Dias' markers, at Padro de So Gregrio, was retrieved from False Island, about 30 miles short of the Great Fish River, in 1938. Another marker once stood at the western end of the Gulf of St. Christopher, since renamed Dias Point. Nothing is known of Dias' reception by John II. Although plans are said to have been made for a voyage to India, none was attempted for nine years, perhaps pending news of Pro da Covilh. John's successor, Manuel I, authorized Vasco da Gama's celebrated voyage of 1497. Bartolomeu Dias accompanied that expedition as far as Mina. On da Gama's return to Portugal, after successfully making contact with the seaports of western India, a further fleet was at once organized; it consisted of a dozen ships and was intended to impress the Indians and to open commerce on a large scale. The fleet was under the command of Pedro lvares Cabral, and Dias was given one of the smaller ships. The fleet sailed far into the western Atlantic on its way to the Cape and sighted land at Esprito Santo in Brazil. Thought to be an island, it was named the Land of the True Cross. Dias thus participated in the discovery of Brazil. He was lost at sea when they reached the Cape, thus perishing in the very waters he had been the first to navigate. No portrait of Dias is known. He had a son, Antnio, and his grandson, Paulo Dias de Novais, governed Angola and became the founder of the first European city in southern Africa, So Paulo de Luanda, in 1576. Harold V. Livermore Additional reading Sources for Dias are the 16th-century historians: Joo de Barros, Galvo, and Duarte Pacheco Pereira. See also Eric Axelson, South-East Africa, 14881530 (1940).