Question

Which one of the following is the correct pair?
1. Mungo Park – Scottish priest
2. David Livingstone – Discovered the basins of the river Niger
3. Samuel Baker – Discovered the basins of river Zambezi
4. Bartholomew Dias – His sailing brought the African continent to the notice of European Nation

Answer 1

Hint:
Here we have names of explorers and their achievements.
In this type of question we have to choose the option in which the correct achievement is mentioned for the given explorer.


Complete answer:
Bartholomew Dias was a Portuguese explorer. He was the sailing master of the ship Man-of-war. He was appointed by King John II of Portugal, to lead an expedition to sail around the southernmost tip of Africa, hoping to find a trade route to India. He reached the furthest point of this journey in 1488 when his crew refused to go any further due to the storms and bad weather. Diaz wanted to go to India, but the crew unanimously favoured their return to Portugal. While returning, they discovered the Cape of Good Hope, which originally, Diaz had named as the Cape of Storms. Diaz returned to Lisbon in December 1488 after being gone for 16 months.
Bartholomew Diaz also helped in constructing the two sister ships Sao Gabriel and Sao Raphael. These ships were used by Vasco de Gama in 1498 to complete the trip to India which Bartholomew had left incomplete. Bartholomew himself accompanied Vasco de Gama in the first leg of the journey up to the Cape Verde Islands. Vasco de Gama completed his journey to India. Bartholomew left from the Cape Verde Islands after two years and sailed towards India.
In May 1500, as Bartholomew reached the Cape of Good Hope (which he still called the Cape of Storms), he encountered a huge storm and was lost along with four other companion ships.

Therefore the answer is 4. Bartholomew Dias – His sailing brought the African continent to the notice of European Nation

Note:
Bartholomew Diaz was the first European during the Age of Discovery to reach the southern tip of the continent Africa, which we now know as South Africa.
Another famous Portuguese mariner who explored Africa a few decades before Bartholomew was, Prince Henry the Navigator. He explored the Congo river basin, present day Namibia and present day Angola.