14 Facts About Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias's discoveries were later used by Vasco da Gama to establish a sea route between Europe and Asia.

Bartolomeu Dias was born around 1450 in the Faro District of Portugal.

Bartolomeu Dias's family had a maritime background, and one of his ancestors, Dinis Dias, explored the African coast in the 1440s and discovered the Cap-Vert peninsula in today's Senegal in 1445.

In 1481, Dias accompanied an expedition, led by Diogo de Azambuja, to construct a fortress and trading post called Sao Jorge da Mina in the Gulf of Guinea.

Bartolomeu Dias was charged with searching for Prester John, a legendary figure believed to be the powerful Christian ruler of a realm somewhere beyond Europe, possibly in the African interior.

Bartolomeu Dias was provided with two caravels of about 50 tons each and a square-rigged supply ship captained by his brother Diogo.

Bartolomeu Dias recruited some of the leading pilots of the day, including Pero de Alenquer and Joao de Santiago, who had previously sailed with Cao.

Bartolomeu Dias planned to drop them off at various points along the African coast so that they could testify to the grandeur of the Portuguese kingdom and make inquiries into the possible whereabouts of Prester John.

Bartolomeu Dias realized they had accomplished Portugal's long-sought goal: rounding the southern cape of Africa.

Tradition has it that Bartolomeu Dias originally named it the Cape of Storms and that King John II later renamed it the Cape of Good Hope because it symbolized the opening of a sea route from west to east.

Bartolomeu Dias erected the last of their padroes at the cape and then headed northward.

The Bartolomeu Dias expedition had explored a thousand more miles of the African coastline than previous expeditions had reached; it had rounded the southern tip of the continent, and it had demonstrated that the most effective southward ship route lay in the open ocean well to the west of the African coast-a route that generations of Portuguese sailors would follow.

Bartolomeu Dias served as superintendent of the royal warehouses from 1494 to 1497.

Bartolomeu Dias participated in the first half of da Gama's voyage but stayed behind after reaching the Cape Verde Islands.