Diaz de Novaes, Bartholomew (
c.1455–1500), also spelt
Dias, Portuguese explorer and discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope. He was first heard of in 1481 when he commanded a ship in an expedition to the Gold Coast. By 1487 he had achieved distinction as a
navigator and was placed in command of an expedition of three ships to extend Portuguese
exploration by sea along the African west coast. His mission was to sail beyond the 22° 10′ S., which had been reached by Diogo Cam (
fl. 1482–6).
Diaz sailed his ships as far south as the point in present-day Namibia which today bears his name (26° 38′ S.) where he erected a commemorative pillar. He was then swept southward for thirteen days by strong
gales. Steering east as soon as a moderation of the weather permitted, and finding no land after several days, he turned north and made a landfall in February 1488 at Mossel Bay on the south coast of Cape Colony. From there he sailed up the coast, reaching the mouth of the Great Fish River before his officers and men, alarmed by this venturing into the unknown, forced him to return. However, by this time the north-easterly trend of the coast made it clear that the southernmost point of Africa had been rounded.
On his return voyage, Diaz sighted a distinctive cape and named it the Cape of Storms (
Cabo Tormentoso), but either he or King John of Portugal later renamed it the Cape of Good Hope. Diaz received little or no reward for his discovery and was only second in command to Pedro Cabral (1467–1530) during the latter's voyage to India in 1500. It was during this voyage that Diaz's ship sank in a
storm off his own Cape of Storms.
