Bartholomew Dias

Bartholomeu dias

Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias led the first European expedition round the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.

Synopsis

Born in 1450, Bartolomeu Dias was sent by Portuguese King John II to explore the coast of Africa and find a way to the Indian Ocean. Dias departed circa August 1487, rounding the southernmost tip of Africa in January, 1488. The Portuguese (possibly Dias himself) named this point of land the Cape of Good Hope. Dias was lost at sea during another expedition around the Cape in 1500.

In his childhod, Bartolomeu recived classes of mathematics and astronomy in the university of Lisbon. He had navigational skills to determine a place's coordinates and to face strong storms.

In 1481 Diaz traveled with the navigator Diego de Azambuja in an expedition to the Gold Coast (Western Coast of Africa, current Ghana). After this voyage, he was named superintendent of the royal warehouses.

Bartolomeu Diaz´s first exploration

In 1486, the king João II (also Juan or John) gave Bartolomeu Diaz the command of a small fleet to surround Africa in the south, with the public intention of finding out more about the mythical Christian kingdom of Prestor John, with whom the king wanted to start a friendship. The undeclared intention of the expedition was investigating a sea route to India.

By:Sebastian