Diaz, Bartholomew

, a distinguished Portuguese navigator, is celebrated as the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope. He was employed by king John II. of Portugal, on a voyage of discovery on the coast of Africa, and in 1486 he had traced nearly a thousand miles of new country, and after encountering violent tempests, and losing the company of the victualling vessel which attended him, he came in sight of the cape that terminates Africa; but the state of his ship, and the untoward disposition of his crew, obliged him to return without going round it. He named it, on account of the troubles which he had undergone in the voyage, “Cabo Tormentoso,” or the “Stormy Cape.” He returned to Lisbon in December 1487, and from his report the sovereign foresaw that the course to the Indies was now certainly pointed out, and he denominated the newly-discovered point “Cabo del Bueno Esperanza,” or the “Cape of Good Hope.” ²