Some time previous to this event, Alphonso de Aviero carried an ambassador from the king of Benin to the king of Portugal, requesting that some missionaries might be sent for the conversion of his subjects; and, although the artful conduct of that African prince threw many difficulties in the way of this mission, many of the Negroes of that country were converted. From the ambassador of Benin, the king of Portugal received information of a powerful monarch, named Organe, whose territories lay at the distance of 250 leagues beyond the kingdom of Benin, and who possessed a supremacy over all the adjacent states. Assuming Cape Lopo Gonзalves, in lat. 1° S. as the southern boundary of the kingdom of Benin, 250 Portuguese leagues would bring us to the kingdom of Benguela, or that of Jaa Caconda, about lat. 14° or 15° S. Yet some persons have strangely supposed that this king Organe or Oganй was a corruption of Jan or Janhoi, the title given by the Christians of the east to the king of Abyssinia. "But it is very difficult to account for this knowledge of Abyssinia in the kingdom of Benin, not only on account of the distance, but likewise because several of the most savage nations in the world, the Galla and Shangalla, occupy the intervening space. The court of Abyssinia did indeed then reside in Shoa, the south-east extremity of the kingdom; and, by its power and influence, might have pushed its dominion through these barbarians to the neighbourhood of Benin on the western ocean. But all this I must confess to be a mere conjecture of mine, of which, in the country itself, I never found the smallest confirmation369." To these observations of the celebrated Abyssinian traveller, it may be added, that the distance from Benin to Shoa exceeds six hundred Portuguese leagues.

While the king of Portugal continued to encourage his navigators to proceed to the southwards in discovering the African coast, he became anxious lest some unexpected rival might interpose to deprive him of the expected fruits of these discoveries, which had occupied the unremitting attentions of his predecessors and himself for so many years. Learning that John Tintam and William Fabian, Englishmen, were preparing, at the instigation of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, in 1481, to proceed on a voyage to Guinea, he sent Ruy de Sousa as his ambassador, to Edward IV. of England, to explain the title which he held from the pope as lord of that country, and to induce him to forbid his subjects from navigating to the coast of Africa, in which negotiation he was completely successful. He likewise used every exertion to conceal the progress of his own navigators on the western coast of Africa, and to magnify the dangers of the voyage; representing that the coast was quite inhospitable, surrounded by most tremendous rocks, and inhabited by savage cannibals, and that no vessels could possibly live in those tempestuous seas, in which every quarter of the moon produced a furious storm, except those of a peculiar construction, which had been invented by the Portuguese ship– builders.

A Portuguese pilot, who had often made the voyage to Guinea, had the temerity to assert, that any kind of ship could make this redoubted voyage, as safely as the royal caravels, and was sent for to court by the king, who gave him a public reprimand for his ignorance and presumption. Some months afterwards, the same pilot appeared again at court, and told the king, "That being of an obstinate disposition, he had attempted the voyage to Guinea in a different kind of vessel from those usually employed, and found it to be impossible." The king could not repress a smile at this solemn nonsense; yet honoured the politic pilot with a private audience, and gave him money to encourage him to propagate the deception. About this period, likewise, hearing that three Portuguese seamen, who were conversant in the navigation of the coast of Africa, had set out for Spain, intending to offer their services in that country, John immediately ordered them to be pursued as traitors. Two of them were killed, and the third was brought a prisoner to Evora, where he was broke on the wheel. Hearing that the Portuguese seamen murmured at the severity of this punishment, the king exclaimed, "Let every man abide by his own element, I love not travelling seamen."

Encouraged by the successful progress of Diego Cam in 1484 and 1485, King John became sanguine in his hopes of completing the discovery of a maritime route to India, around the continent of Africa, and determined upon using every exertion for this purpose. His first views were to endeavour to procure some information respecting India, by means of a journey overland; and with this object, Antonio de Lisboa, a Franciscan friar, together with a nameless lay companion, were dispatched to make the attempt of penetrating into India, through Palestine and Egypt. But, being ignorant of the Arabic language, these men were unable to penetrate beyond Jerusalem, whence they returned into Portugal. Though disappointed in this attempt, by the ignorance or want of enterprise of his agents, his resolution was not to be repressed by difficulties, and he resolved upon employing fresh exertions both by sea and land, for the accomplishment of his enterprise. He accordingly fitted out a small squadron under Bartholomew Diaz, a knight of the royal household, to attempt the passage by sea.

For this important enterprise, Bartholomew Diaz was only supplied with two small caravels of fifty ton each, accompanied by a still smaller vessel, or tender, to carry provisions. Of these vessels, one was commanded by Bartholomew Diaz, as commodore, the second caravel by Juan Infante, another cavalier or gentleman of the court, and Pedro Diaz, brother to the commander in chief of the expedition, had charge of the tender. The preparations being completed, Bartholomew sailed in the end of August 1486, steering directly to the southwards.

We have no relation of the particulars of this voyage, and only know that the first spot on which Diaz placed a stone pillar, in token of discovery and possession, was at Sierra Parda, in about 24°40'S. which is said to have been 120 leagues farther to the south than any preceding navigator. According to the Portuguese historians, Diaz sailed boldly from this place to the southwards, in the open sea, and never saw the land again until he was forty leagues to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, which he had passed without being in sight of land. The learned geographer, Major Rennel, informs us, that Sir Home Popham and Captain Thompson, while exploring the western coast of Africa in 1786, found a marble cross, on which the arms of Portugal were engraved, in latitude 26°37'S. near a bay named Angra Pequena: But, as the Portuguese long continued to frequent these coasts exclusively, and considered them all as belonging to their dominions under the papal grant, this latter cross, on which the inscription was not legible, may have been erected at a considerably subsequent period. At all events, the track of Diaz was far beyond the usual adventure of any former navigator, as he must have run a course of from seven to ten degrees of latitude, and at least between two or three degrees of longitude, in utterly unknown seas, without sight of land. The first land seen by Diaz is said to have been forty leagues to the eastward of the cape, where he came in sight of a bay on the coast, which he called Angra de los Vaqueros, or bay of herdsmen, from observing a number of cows grazing on the land. The distance of forty Portuguese leagues, would lead us to what is now called Struys bay, immediately east of Cabo das Agullias, which latter is in lat. 34° 50' S. and long. 20° 16' E. from Greenwich. From this place Diaz continued his voyage eastwards, to a small island or rock in the bay, which is now called Zwartkops or Algoa, in long. 27° E. on which rocky islet he placed a stone cross or pillar, as a memorial of his progress, and named it, on that account, Santa Cruz, or El Pennol de la Cruz. In his progress to this place from the Angra de los Vaqueros, he had set some Negroes on shore in different places, who had been brought from Portugal for this purpose, and who were well clothed, that they might be respected by the natives. These Negroes were likewise provided with small assortments of toys for bartering with the natives, and were especially charged to make inquiry as to the situation and distance of the dominions of Prester John. Of the fate of these Negroes we are nowhere informed, but may be well assured they would receive no intelligence respecting the subject of their inquiry, from the ignorant Hottentots and Caffres of Southern Africa.