the Indian ocean.[390]

[Footnote 390: See Major's _India in the Fifteenth Century_,
pp. lxxxv.-xc.]

[Sidenote: Bartholomew Dias passes the Cape of Good Hope and enters the
Indian ocean.]

The daring captain, Bartholomew Dias, started in August, 1486, and after
passing nearly four hundred miles beyond the tropic of Capricorn, was
driven due south before heavy winds for thirteen days without seeing
land. At the end of this stress of weather he turned his prows eastward,
expecting soon to reach the coast. But as he had passed the southernmost
point of Africa and no land appeared before him, after a while he
steered northward and landed near the mouth of Gauritz river, more than
two hundred miles east of the Cape of Good Hope. Thence he pushed on
about four hundred miles farther eastward as far as the Great Fish river
(about 33 deg. 30' S., 27 deg. 10' E.), where the coast begins to have a steady
trend to the northeast. Dias was now fairly in the Indian ocean, and
could look out with wistful triumph upon that waste of waters, but his
worn-out crews refused to go any farther and he was compelled
reluctantly to turn back. On the way homeward the ships passed in full
sight of the famous headland which Dias called the Stormy Cape; but
after arriving at Lisbon, in December, 1487, when the report of this
noble voyage was laid before King John II., his majesty said, Nay, let
it rather be called the Cape of Good Hope, since there was now much
reason to believe that they had found the long-sought ocean route to the
Indies.[391] Though this opinion turned out to be correct, it is well
for us to remember that the proof was not yet complete. No one could
yet say with certainty that the African coast, if followed a few miles
east of Great Fish river, would not again trend southward and run all
the way to the pole. The completed proof was not obtained until Vasco da
Gama crossed the Indian ocean ten years later.

[Footnote 391: The greatest of Portuguese poets represents the
Genius of the Cape as appearing to the storm-tossed mariners in
cloud-like shape, like the Jinni that the fisherman of the
Arabian tale released from a casket. He expresses indignation
at their audacity in discovering his secret, hitherto hidden
from mankind:--

Eu sou aquelle occulto e grande Cabo,
A quem chamais vos outros Tormentorio,
Que nunca a Pto