Bartolomeu Dias Rounds the Cape (1487–1488)

Voyage around Africa

In 1486 he seems to have been a cavalier of the king's household and superintendent of the royal warehouses. On 10 October 1486, he received an annuity of 6,000 reis from King John II of Portugal for "services to come". Sometime after this, probably about July or August 1487, rather than July 1486, the traditional date, he left Lisbon with three ships to carry on the work of African exploration so significantly advanced by Diogo Cão.

Dias was also charged with searching for Prester John, a legendary figure believed to be the powerful Christian ruler of a realm somewhere beyond Europe, possibly in the African interior. Dias was provided with two caravels of about 50 tons each, São Cristóvão and São Pantaleão, and a square-rigged supply ship captained by his brother Diogo. He recruited some of the leading pilots of the day, including Pero de Alenquer and João de Santiago, who had previously sailed with Cão.

No contemporary documents detailing this historic voyage have been found, as almost all maritime records were destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Much of the available information comes from the sixteenth-century historian João de Barros, who wrote about the voyage sixty years later.

The small fleet left Lisbon in or around July 1487. Like his predecessor, Cão, Dias carried a set of padrões, carved stone pillars to mark his progress at significant landfalls. Also on board were six Africans who had been kidnapped by Cão and taught Portuguese. Dias planned to drop them off at various points along the African coast so that they could testify to the grandeur of the Portuguese kingdom and make inquiries into the possible whereabouts of Prester John.

The expedition sailed directly to the Congo and proceeded more carefully down the African coast, often naming notable geographic features after saints honored on the Catholic Church's calendar. When they weighed anchor at what today is Porto Alexandre, Angola, Dias left the supply ship behind so that it could re-provision them later on their return voyage. By December, Dias had passed the farthest point reached by Cão. On 8 December 1487, he arrived at the Golfo da Conceição, modern-day Walvis Bay, Namibia. After slowly progressing along the Namibian coast, the two ships turned southwest, away from land.

Historians have debated whether this happened because they were driven offshore by a storm, or because they were deliberately trying to find more favorable winds. Whatever its cause, the change of course brought them success: the ships traced a broad arc around the tip of Africa. On 4 February 1488, after 30 days on the open ocean, they reached Africa's southern cape and entered what would later become known as Mossel Bay.

The ships continued east for a time and confirmed that the coast gradually trended to the northeast. Dias realized they had accomplished Portugal's long-sought goal: rounding the southern cape of Africa. Dias's expedition reached its furthest point on 12 March 1488, when it anchored at Kwaaihoek, near the mouth of the Boesmans River—where they erected the Padrão de São Gregório. By then, the crew had become restless, urging Dias to turn around. Supplies were low, and the ships were battered.

Although Dias wanted to continue, the rest of the officers unanimously favored returning to Portugal, so he agreed to turn back. On their return voyage, they sailed close enough to Africa's southwestern coast to encounter the Cape of Good Hope for the first time in May 1488. Tradition has it that Dias originally named it the Cape of Storms (Cabo das Tormentas) and that King John II later renamed it the Cape of Good Hope (Cabo da Boa Esperança) because it symbolized the opening of a sea route from west to east.

Dias erected the last of their padrões at the cape and then headed northward.