JB

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Bartholomeu Dias ====I would like to introduce Bartholomeu Dias. He was born in 1457 in Portugal, although nobody knows exactly where in Portugal he was born. He came from a noble family and was well educated. His relatives were really good navigators. Bartholomeu Dias is best known for rounding the southern tip of Africa called the Cape of Good Hope.==== ====Bartholomeu Dias led the first European fleet around the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 on his ship the Saint Christopher. King John II of Portugal sponsored this trip. This trip was important because people could then go around to Asia with no fear and they could trade. Before the southern tip of Africa was called the Cape of Good Hope, Bartholomeu might have called it the Cape of Storms because this area was known for its rough seas and wether. No one knows for a fact if he did call it that. He made the navigational charts and later on more famous explorers like Christopher Columbus and Vasco De Gama used them. He returned to Portugal in 1488.====

Dias left on another voyage in 1497. This time he went along with another explorer Vasco da Gama. The expedition was headed to India - Cape Verde Islands. While on the trip they did some trading along the Gold Coast. ====On Bartholomeu’s last voyage in 1500, he was one of the first European’s to see land in Brazil along with another explorer Pedro Alvares Cabral. The voyage lasted about 16 months. He thought it was an island not a whole country or continent. The place in Brazil he discovered was called Espirito Santo. Many of the people that come from Brazil to Martha’s Vineyard are from Espirito Santo.Unfortunately while on this trip Bartholomeu Dias was lost at sea near the southern tip of Africa. He was never heard from again.==== ====Bartholomeu Dias was an interesting explorer to study. His accomplishment of sailing around the southern tip of Africa made it easy for future trading and exploration. I think that he was very brave and a good sailor to have accomplished this.====

By, JB