Diogo Dias

Diogo Dias ( * before 1450; ? † after 1500), was a Portuguese navigator and explorer.

To Diogo Dias, brother of Bartolomeu Dias, there are few details. In addition, some historical references are not clearly understood. For example, it is unclear whether it is the 1465 is the Portuguese navigator and explorer in a letter to the Royal Chancery Alfonso V as an interpreter called Diogo Dias. Furthermore, the brother of Bartolomeu Dias ' in various scripts is also addressed as Pedro or Pêro slides or Diaz.

What is certain is that Diogo Dias expired as captain of the supply ship in the fleet with Bartolomeu Dias in August 1487 to the first -pass of the Cape of Good Hope. The pilot of the supply ship was João de Santiago, who had previously been accompanied Diogo Cão on his trip to the Congo River.

As a chronicler and writer on the flagship Diogo Dias was also involved in the discovery of the sea route from Portugal to India by Vasco da Gama. As head of the newly established Portuguese trading post in Calicut, he was jailed by the local ruler, but managed to escape.

After that he took part in the expedition of Pedro Álvares Cabral to India and was also involved in the April 1500 on its landing in Brazil today. In severe storm his ship on May 29, 1500 was separated at the Cape of Good Hope Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet of the. His ship then explored the waters of the Indian Ocean at the entrance of the Red Sea.

On southerly course Diogo Dias discovered afterwards from a European perspective, in July 1500, both the island of Mauritius and Reunion Island, both located east of Madagascar. Until its abandonment in 1575, the Portuguese took advantage of both islands as stations for fresh water and food for their ships on the way to Goa in India and Malacca in Malaysia today.

On August 10, 1500 he sighted the first European to Madagascar and named the island of São Lorenço. He then returned via Mozambique on the African east coast back to Portugal. In the Cape Verdi Islands, he met by chance on the remaining four ships of the former expedition of Pedro Álvares Cabral India, which have also been on the return journey.

The exact year and place of his death are not known.

• Seafarer
• Discoverer (16th century)
• Portuguese
• Born in the 15th century
• Died in the 16th century
• Man