The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XVI, No. 6 [‎351v] (55/232)

(328 THE VOYAGES OF DIOGO CAO AND BARTHOLOMEU DIAS, 1482-88.
addition to the royal arms, an inscription recording in Portuguese, and
sometimes also in Latin, the date, the name of the king by whose order
the voyage was made, and the name of the commander. The four
padroes set up by Cao on his two voyages have been discovered in situ,
and the inscription upon two of them (one for each voyage) are still
legible, notwithstanding the lapse of four centuries, and have been
deciphered.
During the first voyage two padroes were set up—one at the Congo
mouth, the other on the Cabo do Lobo in lat. 13° 26' S., now known as
Cape St. Mary. The latter has been recovered intact. It consists of a
shaft 1-69 m. high and 0-73 m. in circumference, surmounted by a cube
0-47 m. in height and 0-33 m. in breadth. Shaft and cube are cut
out of a single block of lioz, a kind of limestone or coarse marble
common in the environs of Lisbon. The cross has disappeared, with the
exception of a stump, from which it is seen
that it also was of stone, and fixed by means
of lead.
The arms of Portugal carved upon the
face of the cube are those in use up to 1485,
in which year Joao II., being then at Beja,
caused the green cross of the Order of Avis,
which had been improperly introduced by
his grandfather, who had been master of
that order, to be withdrawn and the posi
tion of the quinas, or five escutcheons, to be
changed. *
The inscription covers the three other
sides of the cube. It is in Gothic letters
T and in Portuguese, and reads as follows:
t th ? T year 6081 ° f the World ’ and in that of 1482 since the birth of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the most serene, most excellent and potent prince
King D. Joao II. of Portugal did order (mandou) this land to be dis’
covered and these padroes to be set up by D" Cao, an esquire (escudeiro)
o his household. There is no inscription in Latin.
As the year 6681 of Eusebius begins on September 1,1481, we o-ather
rom this inscription that the order for the expedition was given between
January and August, 1482. Of course the departure may have been
agrbiipri, have been a iong one>ae
THE ARMS OP PORTUGAL
CP TO 1485.
de ST " ' ! L i 8b °”' 1792) ' * 64 - Garcia
nrade is act given, ah
informs me that there are no documents in his charge which would enable?- °f ^i 0 ’
colgiTnJnne 6 ~ ^ ^