Bartholomew Diaz sailed in August, 1486, with two ships, first to search
for the Prester, and then to explore as much new land and sea as he
could find within his reach. Two envoys, Covilham and Payva, were sent
on the same errand, by way of Jerusalem, Arabia, and Egypt; another
expedition was sent to ascend the Senegal to its junction with the Nile;
a fourth party started to find the way to Cathay by the North-east
passage.
Camoens has sung of the travels of Covilham, who first saw cloves and
cinnamon, pepper and ginger, and who pined away in a state of
confinement at the Prester's Abyssinian Court, but the voyage of Diaz
hardly finds a place in the _Lusiads_ and the very name of the
discoverer is generally forgotten. Vasco da Gama has robbed him only too
successfully.
John Diaz had been the second captain to double Bojador; Diniz Diaz, in
1445, had been the discoverer of Senegal and of Cape Verde; now, forty
years later, Bartholomew Diaz achieved the greatest feat of discovery in
all history, before Columbus; for the Northmen's finding America was an
unknown and transitory good fortune, while the voyage of 1486 changed
directly or indirectly the knowledge, the trade, the whole face of the
world at once and forever.
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