South Africa Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Portuguese exploration === {{see also|Portuguese discoveries}} [[File:F. Benda-The planting of cross by Bartholomew Dias in 1488-0681 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Portuguese explorer [[Bartolomeu Dias]] planting the cross at [[Cape Point]] after being the first to successfully round the [[Cape of Good Hope]].]] In 1487, the Portuguese explorer [[Bartolomeu Dias]] led the first European voyage to land in southern Africa.<ref name="domville-25">{{cite book|last=Domville-Fife|first=C.W.|title=The encyclopedia of the British Empire the first encyclopedic record of the greatest empire in the history of the world ed|year=1900|publisher=Rankin|location=London|page=25|url=https://archive.org/stream/encyclopediaofbr01domvuoft#page/24/mode/2up}}</ref> On 4 December, he landed at Walfisch Bay (now known as [[Walvis Bay]] in present-day Namibia). This was south of the furthest point reached in 1485 by his predecessor, the Portuguese navigator [[Diogo Cão]] ([[Cape Cross]], north of the bay). Dias continued down the western coast of southern Africa. After 8 January 1488, prevented by storms from proceeding along the coast, he sailed out of sight of land and passed the southernmost point of Africa without seeing it. He reached as far up the eastern coast of Africa as, what he called, {{lang|pt|Rio do Infante}}, probably the present-day [[Groot River (Eastern Cape)|Groot River]], in May 1488. On his return he saw the cape, which he named {{lang|pt|Cabo das Tormentas}} ('Cape of Storms'). King [[John II of Portugal|John II]] renamed the point {{lang|pt|Cabo da Boa Esperança}}, or [[Cape of Good Hope]], as it led to the riches of the [[East Indies]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mackenzie|first1=W. Douglas|last2=Stead|first2=Alfred|title=South Africa: Its History, Heroes, and Wars|publisher=The Co-Operative Publishing Company|location=Chicago|year=1899}}</ref> Dias' feat of navigation was immortalised in [[Luís de Camões]]' 1572 epic poem ''[[Os Lusíadas]]''. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page