The Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume XVI, No. 6 [‎356v] (65/232)

638 THE VOYAGES OF DIOGO CaO AND BARTHOLOMEU DIAS, 1482-88.
must have been back before August, 1487, in which month Dias started
on his voyage, taking with him the people whom Cao had kidnapped.
Nay, in all probability Gao’s ships came home even earlier, say in
September, 1486, for on October 10 of that year Dias seems already to
have been appointed to the command of the expedition which was to
make him famous for all time.'"'
Indeed, we are inclined to think that after Gao’s death, his vessels
returned straight home, and if they did so, and the Eusebian era is
stated quite correctly on the padrao of Cape Cross, they can have been
away at the outside for thirteen months, that is, from September, 1485,
to September, 1486—not along period, but amply sufficient for a voyage
to Cape Cross and back, and a stay of several months on the Congo
river.f
The Voyage of Bartholomeu Dias, 1487-88.
No sooner had Cao’s vessels returned to the Tagus than King John,
whose curiosity had been excited by the reports about the supposed
Prester John, brought home by d’Aveiro,J determined to fit out another
expedition to go in quest of him by doubling Africa, Friar Antonio of
Lisbon and Pero of Montaroyo having already been despatched on the
same errand by way of Jerusalem and Egypt. The command of this
expedition was conferred upon Bartholomeu Dias de Novaes, a cavalier
of the king’s household, who, if we may trust Fernao Lopez de Castan-
heda (‘Historia,’ liv. i. c. 1), held at the time the appointment of
superintendent of the royal warehouses (almoxarife dos amazens).
Portuguese historians speak of this Dias as a kinsman or descendant
of Joao Dias, who was associated with Gil Eannes in doubling Cape
Bojador in 1434, and of Diniz Dias, a cavalier of King John L, whom
Azurara credits with the discovery of Cape Verde in 1445, but I am
not aware of any documentary evidence in favour of these assumptions.
1 here can be no doubt, however, that Dias was a seaman of considerable
experience. It may have been our Bartholomew whom King John, in
1478, when still crown-prince, in consideration of 12,000 reis expended
m the purchase of a slave, exonerated from payment of the usual royalty
on the ivory bought on the Guinea coasts.§ It certainly was our
Bartholomew who commanded one of the vessels despatched in 1481
with Diogo d’Azambuja to the Gold Coast.
The appointment seems to have been made in October, 1486, for on * * * §
* See below.
f The embassy of 1490 reached the Congo river in one hundred days. A journey
up to the capital and back need at most take forty days
\ Jo f° Affo “o d’Aveiro in 1486 brought the first pepper from Benin to Portugal,
as also information of a king Ogane in the interior, who was rashly identified with
Prestor John, though in truth the ruler of Ghana or of the Mosi.
§ Sousa Viterbo, ‘ 1 rabalhos Xauticos dos Portugneses,’ 1898, p 81