Bartolomeu Dias
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Bartolomeu Dias was a Portuguese mariner and explorer. In February 1488, he became the first European navigator to round the southern tip of Africa and to demonstrate that the most effective southward
Statue of Dias at the High Commission of South Africa in London
Dias erecting a padrão at the Cape of Good Hope in 1488
An illustration of the two caravels used by Dias, São Cristóvão and São Pantaleão, to cross the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.
Dias perished in May 1500 when his ship was lost in a storm near the Cape of Good Hope (c. 1568 illustration).
Padrão
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A padrão is a stone pillar left by Portuguese maritime explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries to record significant landfalls and thereby establish primacy and possession. They were often placed on
Bartolomeu Dias
…who wrote about the voyage sixty years later. The small fleet left Lisbon in or around July 1487. Like his predecessor, Cão, Dias carried a set of padrões, carved stone pillars to mark his progress at significant landfalls. Also on board were six Africans who had been kidnapped by Cão and taught Portuguese…
Replica of a padrão placed by Diogo Cão on Cape Cross, Namibia.
Limestone cross on the Vasco da Gama Pillar in Malindi displaying the coat of arms of Portugal