The log

Bartolomeu Dias Rounds the Cape (1487-1488)

Bartolomeu Dias · 1487–1488 · two caravels and a storeship, the first ever sent south with supplies

The voyage that proved the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean were one sea. South past the last padrao of Cao, then a fortnight blown out of sight of land by a southerly gale — and when Dias turned east he found no coast, because he had passed the continent's end without seeing it. He came back north to a coastline running east, followed it as far as the Great Fish River, and was made to turn home by a crew who had had enough. He named the headland the Cape of Storms; the king renamed it the Cape of Good Hope.

Later chronicle

Nothing written during the voyage survives. The route below is preserved by a chronicler working afterwards, from records that no longer exist — so the dates and landfalls are as good as that chronicler's sources, and no better.

Everything Dias wrote. The Casa da India held the logs, the charts and the sailing directions of the Portuguese discoveries, and the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 destroyed the archive along with a third of the city. No journal of this voyage survives, no chart drawn on it, and no word from any of the men aboard. What we have is Joao de Barros, writing his Decadas da Asia around 1552 from papers that burned two centuries later — so even the chronicle cannot now be checked against what it read. The dates below are his, the landfalls are his, and where he was vague this atlas is vague too.

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The itinerary

10 stages. Journal excerpts are verbatim from public-domain sources, each with its citation; where no verified quote exists, the entry says so rather than inventing one.

1. Lisbon
Today: Lisbon, Portugal · Arrived 1 August 1487 · August 1487; Barros gives no day · position approximate
Two caravels and a storeship leave the Tagus. The storeship is the innovation: no Portuguese expedition had been provisioned to go this far.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
Also called at by Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Vasco da Gama. Identified as Lisbon
2. Sao Jorge da Mina
Today: Elmina, Ghana · Arrived 1 January 1487 · autumn 1487, on the outward run · position reconstructed
The Portuguese fort on the Gold Coast, the last certain landfall before the unknown coast.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
3. Cape Cross
Today: Cape Cross, Namibia · Arrived 1 December 1487 · December 1487 · position approximate
Diogo Cao's furthest padrao, and the end of the known world. Everything south of here is new.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
4. Angra Pequena
Today: Luderitz, Namibia · Arrived 1 December 1487 · December 1487 · position approximate
A padrao raised. The storeship is left here with nine men; when Dias returns, three are alive.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
5. Driven south by the gale
Today: open ocean, south-west of the Cape · Arrived 1 January 1488 · about thirteen days, January 1488; position unknown · position reconstructed
A southerly gale takes them out of sight of land for a fortnight. This is the stage nobody can place: the position here is an inference from how long they ran and how fast, and it is drawn as one.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
6. Sao Bras
Today: Mossel Bay, South Africa · Arrived 3 February 1488 · 3 February 1488, the date Barros gives · position approximate
Turning east they find no coast, so they turn north — and strike land running east, not south. They have passed the end of Africa without seeing it.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
Also called at by Vasco da Gama — who called it “bay (angra) of Sam Brás”. Identified as Mossel Bay
7. Algoa Bay
Today: Algoa Bay, South Africa · Arrived 1 March 1488 · March 1488 · position approximate
A padrao raised on an island in the bay. The coast keeps running east: the way to India is open.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
8. Rio do Infante
Today: Great Fish River, South Africa · Arrived 1 March 1488 · March 1488; the furthest point reached · position approximate
The crew refuse to go further. Dias turns back here, within reach of the thing he had come to prove and unable to prove it.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
Also called at by Vasco da Gama. Identified as Great Fish River
9. Cabo das Tormentas
Today: Cape of Good Hope, South Africa · Arrived 1 May 1488 · May 1488, on the return
Only on the way home does he see the headland he had passed in the storm. He calls it the Cape of Storms; the king, hearing what it means, renames it the Cape of Good Hope.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
Also called at by Francis Drake — who called it “Cape Hope”, Vasco da Gama — who called it “Cape of Good Hope”, Vasco da Gama — who called it “Cape of Good Hope”, Ferdinand Magellan — who called it “Cape of Good Hope”. Identified as Cape of Good Hope
10. Lisbon
Today: Lisbon, Portugal · Arrived 1 December 1488 · December 1488, after sixteen months · position approximate
Home. Ten years later Vasco da Gama sails the road Dias opened, and Dias goes with him as far as the Cape Verde islands before turning back.
No contemporary record of this stage survives; the chronicle passes over it.
Also called at by Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Vasco da Gama. Identified as Lisbon

Published under CC BY-SA 4.0. Sources keep their own open licences. See the Magna Carta of the Seas for how this was verified.

Bartolomeu Dias Rounds the Cape (1487-1488)

The itinerary

1. Lisbon

2. Sao Jorge da Mina

3. Cape Cross

4. Angra Pequena

5. Driven south by the gale

6. Sao Bras

7. Algoa Bay

8. Rio do Infante

9. Cabo das Tormentas

10. Lisbon