Bartholomeu+Dias


 * __[[image:2663431.jpg width="309" height="444" align="right"]]Dias Bartholomeu__**

Bartolomeu Dias was a famous Christian Portugese circumnavigator who sailed along the western coast of Africa and the southern tip of Africa which is called Cape of Good Hope. He was born in 1450 in Tagus and died in 1500 near Brazil in a cyclone which sucked his ship. He wanted to be an explorer from childhood. Since there were no GPS systems back then he used the sun and the starsfor his navigation.

Bartolomeu Dias went on his first voyage in 1488 under the instructions of the King, to find a new sea trade route to India around Africa. During this time, the European traders used the middlemen in the Middle East for carrying out trade with India. The King wanted to cut down heavy sums of money being paid to these middle men to carry goods over their land.

During this voyage, he sailed along the western coast of Africa. When he reached the southern tip he knew if he sailed north east he concluded he would reach India. On this discovery he sailed back to Portugal.Then after 10 yrs, after all preparations and getting valuable information, he became a special crew member in Vasco Da Gama's successful expedition to India.

Dias was the very first European to discover Brazil. Since people knew about this he was known as the greatest circumnavigator in all of Portugal. There was lot of concerns when he got lost. There was very little food left to eat. There was also very bad weather. However there were other dangers besides bad weather and food running out, like the ship could sink, getting fatal diseases that no one knew about back then, or even dying from thirst. But he risked it all because he thoughtlong that he would find tons of goods that he could sell and become a merchant. Unfortunately he didn’t survive as his ship sank when he got lost from the rest of the crew and couldn’t find his way back. He wanted to go Italy but by mistake sailed to Africa. Italy was growing rich from trade with India and he wanted to be part of that trade. He was a well educated sailing master and a risk taker. But he did not explore just for adventure, as he thought exploration to be a voyage to tons and tons of goods that he could sell and become rich. as he was the first European to reach Brazil at that time.