The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XVI, No. 6 [‎361r] (74/232)

THE VOYAGES OF DIOGO CAO AND BARTHOLOMEU DIAS, 1482-88. 647
Gregory’s day (March 12), though as a rule these dedications seem to
have been made at home.
It was probably about this time, when the coast was actually seen to
stretch away towards the north-east, in the desired direction, that the
ship’s companies began to murmur about the hardships to which they
were being exposed. Dias, whose Ttecjimento, or instructions, directed him
to consult his officers on all occasions of importance, therefore invited
them to land with him, together with a few leading seamen. The
result of this council was a decision in favour of a return, and a docu
ment to that effect was signed by all present. Dias, however, persuaded
his followers to go on eastward for two or three days longer, and promised
that, unless something happened within that period to induce them to
change their minds, he would accede to their wishes.
He was thus able to pass the remarkable rock identified by Perestrello
with the Penedo das Pontes, where the dammed-up waters of a small
stream soak through the beach ridge. This, I have no doubt, is Ship
rock.* The Eio do Infante (Great Fish river) lies only about 16 miles
beyond.j It was thus named because the captain of the Pantaledo was
the first to land at its mouth. Here Dias turned back; Galvao J says
that he saw “the land of India, but, like Moses and the promised land,
he did not enter it.”
On passing his padrao, “ he took leave of it as from a beloved son
whom he never expected to see again.” His forebodings proved true, for
twelve years afterwards, when on a voyage to India in Cabral s armada,
he perished almost within its sight.
During his homeward voyage Dias was favoured by winds and
currents. It is almost certain that he named the Cabo do Infante, and
probably that he dedicated the southernmost cape of all Africa to St.
Brandan, an apocryphal Irishman, whose day is May 16.§
It was soon after this that he beheld, for the first time, and coming
from the east, the remarkable group of mountains broken land, or
“ terra fragosa,” as the ancient maps have it—which fill Cape Peninsula,
* See ‘Africa Pilot,’ pt. ii. (1889), p. 126.
t Perestrello says 5 legoas, that is, 17 miles.
J ‘ The Discoveries of the World,’ 1555 (Hakluyt Soc.), p. 77.
i § The Cabo (or rather Golfo) das Agulhas first appears on Cantino’s chart. On
all our ancient charts (2, 4, 5, 6 , 7) the Cape of Good Hope is indicated as the southern
most point of Africa. Pacheco, in his ‘ Esmeraldo ’ (pp. 90, 92), places the Cape ot
Good Hope and St. Brandan’s point in the same latitude, viz. 34° 30', and makes no
mention of a Cabo das Agulhas, but in his ‘ Table of Latitudes ’ (p. 15), the latter is
placed in 35° S., or 30' further south than the Cape, whilst St. Brandan s point is
omitted. This almost looks as if the two names referred to the same locality.
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