Editing Bartolomeu Dias (section)

==Voyage around Africa==
[[File:F. Benda-The planting of cross by Bartholomew Dias in 1488-0681 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Dias erecting a ''[[padrão]]'' at the [[Cape of Good Hope]] in 1488]]
In 1486 he seems to have been a cavalier of the king's household and superintendent of the royal warehouses; on 10 October in that year, he received an annuity of 6000 [[Portuguese real|reis]] from King [[John II of Portugal]] for "services to come"; and 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.<ref>Oakley 2003</ref><ref>Crowley 2015, pp. 17–19</ref>

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.<ref>Crowley 2015, pp. 17–19</ref>

[[File: Diaz on his voyage to the cape.jpg|thumb|An illustration of the two caravels used by Dias (''São Cristóvão'' and ''São Pantaleão)'' to cross the [[Cape of Good Hope]] in 1488.]]

The small fleet left Lisbon in or around July 1487. Like his predecessor, Cão, Dias carried a set of ''[[padrão|padrõe]]s'', 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.<ref>Crowley 2015, pp. 17–19</ref>

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, and 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 and, on 4 February 1488, after 30 days on the open ocean, they reached the continent's southern cape and entered what would later become known as [[Mossel Bay]].<ref>Ravenstein 1900, pp. 644–645</ref>

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 (Eastern Cape)|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.<ref>Ravenstein 1900, pp. 644–645</ref><ref>Crowley 2015, pp. 21–23</ref>

Dias erected the last of their ''padrões'' at the cape and then headed northward. They reached their supply ship in July, after nine months of absence, and found that six of that ship's nine crew members had died in skirmishes with the natives. The vessel had become rotten with worms, so they unloaded the supplies they needed and burnt it on the beach. A few details about the remainder of the voyage are known. The ships made stops at [[Príncipe]], the Rio do Resgate (in present-day Liberia), and the Portuguese trading post of São Jorge da Mina. Dias returned to Lisbon in December 1488 after an absence of 16 months.<ref>Ravenstein 1900, p. 648</ref><ref>Crowley 2015, pp. 21–23</ref>

The Dias expedition had explored a thousand more miles of the African coastline than previous expeditions had reached; it had rounded the southern tip of the continent, and it had demonstrated that the most effective southward ship route lay in the open ocean well to the west of the African coast-a route that generations of Portuguese sailors would follow. Despite these successes, Dias' reception at court was muted. There were no official proclamations, and, at the time, Dias received little in recognition of his accomplishments.<ref>Crowley 2015, p. 24</ref>

No record has yet been found of any adequate reward for Dias: on the contrary, when the great Indian expedition was being prepared (for [[Vasco da Gama]]'s future leadership), Bartolomeu only superintended the building and outfit of the ships; when the fleet sailed in 1497, he only accompanied da Gama to the [[Cape Verde]] Islands, and after this was ordered to São Jorge da Mina.