Note 9 — I. Exploration by the Portuguese of the Western Coast of Africa and Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, including a short Sketch of the early History of Portugal.

The probabilities are that they did not, otherwise the information they carried back would have been regarded as much more important than it was considered to be by the king and by all the writers of the time. Ptolemy’s map, on which Africa was made to turn like a horn and project so far to the eastward as to enclose the Indian ocean, was still treated with respect, and the discoveries of Dias seemed at the time as if they tended rather to confirm than to refute this geographical feature. According to the view of those who regarded Ptolemy and Edrisi as safe guides, Dias had sailed along the southern side of the horn, without finding its end, and therefore had not done much more than Diogo Cam and other previous explorers. To-day, with our knowledge, his feat is regarded very differently, but neither the king nor the people considered at the time that it entitled him to any special reward or mark of favour.