[4] For information on the discoveries mentioned here I am indebted chiefly to the Indice Chronologico das Navegações, Viagens, Descobrimentos, e Conquistas dos Portuguezes nos Paizes Ultramarinos desde o Principio do Seculo XV, the great history Da Asia of João de Barros, Major’s Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator and their Results, and Beazley’s Prince Henry the Navigator, the Hero of Portugal and of Modern Discovery.
[5] These islands and even the Canaries had been visited by Genoese ships before they were rediscovered by the Portuguese. But as no use was made of them by the first visitors, and as knowledge concering them was not communicated to the world in general, the Portuguese have a fair claim to be regarded as the real discoverers. In the same way Columbus is rightly credited with the discovery of America, though the Northmen visited its north-eastern coast long before his time.
[6] It would be interesting to know the exact day on which Dias sailed, but I have not found it possible to ascertain it. As already observed, before the entrance of Vasco da Gama into the Indian sea the dates of the various discoveries given by Portuguese historians are not implicitly to be relied upon, and as no original journals or logbooks of the early voyages are now in existence, there are no means of verifying them. João de Barros is the only historian known to me who has placed on record the month and year of sailing and of the return of Dias in this voyage, and he does not state the day of departure from the Tagus. His words are: (ElRei Dom João) “determinou de enviar logo neste anno de quatrocentos e oitenta e seis dobrados navios per mar, e homens per terra, pera ver o fim destas cousas.” ... “partiram no fim de Agosto do dito anno.” ... “onde chegáram em Dezembro do anno de quatrocentos e oitenta e sete, havendo dezeseis mezes, e dezesete dias que eram partidos delle.” Barros is the most reliable of all the Portuguese historians of that time, and he was in a position to obtain the particulars of this voyage, which unfortunately he gives so scantily. Neither Damião de Goes in his Chronica do Felicissimo Rei Dom Emanuel da Gloriosa Memoria nor Fernão Lopes de Castanheda in his Descobrimento e Conquista da India pelos Portuguezes mentions the date of the voyage, but both relate other particulars which tend to confirm the opinion that it took place at the time stated by Barros. For instance, Castanheda states that Affonso de Paiva and João Pires de Covilhão commenced their journey from Portugal after the departure of Dias, and he agrees with Barros in giving the 7th of May 1487 as the date on which they left Santarem. The exact dates of Dias passing the Cape of Good Hope eastward, of his reaching the mouth of the Infante river, and of the erection of the landmark São Philippe cannot be ascertained, but these events in all probability occurred in 1487, as making allowance for his detentions when leaving the storeship, at Angra dos Ilheos, and afterwards, Dias can hardly have reached the latitude of the Cape before the beginning of that year. See appendix.
[7] See the numerous statements concerning this mythical monarch made by the early Portuguese writers, copied by me and printed, together with English translations, in volumes i, iii, v, vi, and vii of the Records of South-Eastern Africa. Ultimately the name was applied to the ruler of Abyssinia. Index, Prester John, in Vol. ix, page 474.
[8] “On the 21st of November (1825) a heavy south-east gale set in, before which we were carried with great velocity, and in the afternoon saw the remains of the cross erected by Bartholomeu Dias at the southern extremity of Angra Pequena. Passing by it we (H.M.S. Barracouta) anchored in the bay, where, although the wind was directly off shore, yet such was its violence that the whole surface of the water was one vast sheet of foam. Some officers landed with Captain Vidal, for the purpose of examining the cross, and obtaining the latitude and longitude of the point. They found the sand very painful to the eyes, being swept from the surface of the rocks, and almost blinding them as they proceeded to the summit of the small granite eminence on which Bartholomeu Dias erected his cross, as a memento of his discovery of the place. This is said to have been standing complete forty years back, but we found that it had been cast down, evidently by design, as the part of the shaft that had originally been buried in the rock remained unbroken, which never could have been the case had it been overturned in any other way than by lifting it from the foundation. The inducement to this disgraceful act was probably to search for such coins as might have been buried beneath the cross; and it is probable that the destroyers, in order to make some little amende for their desolation, re-erected a portion of the fragments, as we found a piece of the shaft, including the part originally placed in the ground, altogether about six feet in length, propped up by means of large stones, crossed at the top by a broken fragment, which had originally formed the whole length of the shaft. This was six feet above ground, and twenty-one inches beneath, composed of marble rounded on one side, but left square on the other, evidently for the inscription, which, however, the unsparing hand of Time, in a lapse of nearly three centuries and a half, had rendered illegible. In descending by a different and more craggy path, the party suddenly came upon the cross; this was sixteen inches square, of the same breadth and thickness as the shaft, and had on the centre an inscription, but, like the other, almost obliterated.”—Narrative of Voyages to explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar, performed in H.M. Ships Leven and Barracouta under the direction of Captain W. F. W. Owen, R.N. Two demi octavo volumes, published in London in 1833. The extract given above is to be found in Vol. II, pages 269 and 270. Two fragments of the pillar are now in the museum in Lisbon, and one is in the South African museum in Capetown.
[9] The probabilities are that they did not, otherwise the information they carried back would have been regarded as much more important than it was considered to be by the king and by all the writers of the time. Ptolemy’s map, on which Africa was made to turn like a horn and project so far to the eastward as to enclose the Indian ocean, was still treated with respect, and the discoveries of Dias seemed at the time as if they tended rather to confirm than to refute this geographical feature. According to the view of those who regarded Ptolemy and Edrisi as safe guides, Dias had sailed along the southern side of the horn, without finding its end, and therefore had not done much more than Diogo Cam and other previous explorers. To-day, with our knowledge, his feat is regarded very differently, but neither the king nor the people considered at the time that it entitled him to any special reward or mark of favour.
[10] The factory of São Jorge da Mina was established in January 1482 by Diogo d’Azambuja, and was the first permanent Portuguese settlement on the western coast of Africa, and the centre of the trade in gold. It was wrested from the Portuguese by the Dutch in 1637, and was held by them until April 1872, when it was transferred to England in exchange for some other territory on the coast. It is now known as Elmina.
[11] Called João Pires, of Covilhão, by Damião de Goes, Pedro de Covilhão by Castanheda and Barros. Modern Portuguese writers follow De Goes in the name. See the Indice Chronologico das Navegações, Viagens, Descobrimentos, e Conquistas dos Portuguezes nos Paizes Ultramarinos desde o Principio do Seculo XV. Lisboa, 1841. João Pires on page 69. Barros says of him: “The king, seeing how necessary an acquaintance with the Arabic tongue was for this journey, sent upon this business one Pedro de Covilhão, a gentleman of his household who was well acquainted with it, and in his company another named Affonso de Paiva, and they were sent from Santarem on the 7th of May of the year 1487.”
[12] Probably a misprint.
[13] The German Emperor has since caused an exact copy of it to be erected, substituting granite for marble.