KAKLV I'OkmiCM-ISI': DlSrOVERIKS IX AFRICA. 71 



and their work may justly be said to be immortal, as subsequent 

 navigators were no longer compelled to follow the coast line, 

 and were able to risk taking their ships into the high seas, their 

 course then being shorter and less dangerous. 



The King's orders to Dias were tliat he should continue 

 the exploration of the coast of Africa as far south as he could, 

 and ascertain whether or no the African seas ofifered the mucn 

 coveted unbroken ocean route to India. This Dias unknowingly 

 did, for he doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and landed un an 

 uninhabited island in Algoa Bay. He and his officers had a 







--«4.. 



The Belem Tower, at the Mouth of the Tagu : 



suspicion that the great problem was solved, for as far as the' 

 eye could reach, the shore stretched east and west and, unless 

 they were in a deep bay, an open sea must necessarily lie before 

 them. Fate, however, would -not give Dias the glorv of the 

 great feat which was in store for another. His men complained 

 that their supply of food was running short, and they insisted 

 on returning, whereupon Dias asked them to sign a document to 

 that effect. He obtained from them consent to sail two or three 

 days further east, and so they reached the mouth of a river, 

 which they named the Infante, after the second officer in com- 

 mand ; this river is probably what we know to-day as the Kowie. 

 The expedition then turned back, and then the great headland 

 was discovered and named the vStormy Cape because of the 

 heavy weather encountered. 



Dias reached Lisbon in December, 1487, after an absence of 

 nearly seventeen months. He was well received bv the Kine. 



