“A further statement respecting the date of the discovery of the Cape appears in the Parecer, or ‘Opinion,’ of the Spanish astronomers and pilots already referred to. They say, ‘And beyond this [the Sierra Parda, where Cão died], Bartolomé Diaz, in the year 1488, discovered as far as the Cabo d’El-Rei, a distance of 350 leagues; and thence to the Cabo de boa Esperança, 250 leagues; and thence D. Vasco da Gama discovered 600 leagues.’”
This evidence does not seem to me to be by any means conclusive.
The marginal note supposed to have been made by Christopher Columbus I reject at once, as I cannot believe that the latitude named in it was given by Dias or recorded by Columbus.
As for the work of Duarte Pacheco, it cannot for a moment be placed in the scale against Barros. Its author was born in Lisbon about 1451, and is believed to have died in poverty some time between the years 1524 and 1553. It was he who was rescued at Prince’s Island and taken to Lisbon, so that he must have been acquainted with the correct date, but as his original manuscript has perished and the copy made from it was done carelessly and certainly contains transcriber’s errors, I do not think much dependence can be placed on his statements. There are two manuscript copies of his work in existence. The oldest, now in the library at Evora, is supposed from the style of the writing to have been made about the close of the sixteenth century, and the other, now in the National Library in Lisbon, is merely a transcript of the first made at a much later date. The work was published at Lisbon in 1892 in a foolscap folio volume of xxxv+125 pages, and is divided into four books. It is entitled Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, por Duarte Pacheco Pereira. Edição commemorativa da Descoberta da America por Christovão Colombo no seu quarto centenario, sob a direcção de Raphael Eduardo de Azevedo Basta, Conservador do Real Archivo da Torre do Tombo.
Historical Sketches.
I give here the two references to the voyage of Dias, from which the reader can see how little this work of Duarte Pacheco is to be depended upon. In a reference to the first voyage of Diogo Cam he states, as in the second of these, that the inscription on the cross was in three languages: Latin, Portuguese, and Arabic. That identical cross is still in existence, and there is no Arabic upon it. See also the confusion between the Penedo das Fontes and the Ilheo da Santa Cruz.
Terceyro Liuro, pagina 90.
Nom sem muita rasam se poz nome a este promontorio cabo da boa esperança por que Bartholomeu Dias que o descobrio por mandado delRey Dom Joham que Deos tem no anno de nosso senhor de mil quatrocentos & oitenta & oito annos veendo que esta costa & Ribeira do mar voltaua daly em diante ao norte & ao nordest....
Terceyro Liuro, pagina 94.
Item; sinco leguoas adiante dangra do Rico esta hum Ilheo pouco mais de mea leguoa de terra que se chama ho penedo das fontes o qual nome Ihe pos Bertholameu Dias que esta terra descobrio por mandado delRey Dom Joham que Deos tem por que achou aly duas fontes de muito boa augua doce & por outro nome se chama este penedo ho Ilheo da Cruz por que o mesmo Bertholameu Dias pos aly hum padram de pedra pouco mais alto que hum homem com huma cruz em sima & este padram tem tres letreyros.s. hum em latim & outro em harabiguo & outro em nossa lingua portugueza & todos tres dizem huma cousa.s. como elRey Dom Joham no anno de nosso senhor Jesus cristo de mil CCCC & oytenta & oyto annos & em tantos annos da creaçam do mundo mandou descobrir esta costa por Bertholameu Dias capitam de seus nauios; ...