DIAS, Antonio Gonçalves (1823-1864), a Brazilian poet and historian, was born at the little town of Caxias, in Maranhão, with the charms of which he has made his readers familiar. From the university of Coimbra, in Portugal, he returned to his native country well-equipped with legal lore, and obtained an official appointment at Maranhão; but the literary tendency which was strong within him led him to try his fortune as an author at Rio de Janeiro. Here he wrote for the newspaper press, ventured to appear as a dramatist, and at last in 1846 established his reputation by a volume of poems— Primieros Cantos— which appealed to the national feelings of his Brazilian readers, were remarkable for their autobiographic impress, and by their beauty of expression and rhythm placed their author at the head of the lyric poets of his country. In 1848 he followed up his success by Secundos Cantos e sex Tillιas de Frei Antão, in which, as the title indicates, he puts a number of the pieces in the mouth of a simple old Dominican friar; and in the following year, in fulfilment of the duties of his new post as professor of Brazilian history in the imperial college of Pedro IL, he published an edition of Berredo, and added a sketch of the migrations of the Indian tribes. A third volume of poems, which appeared with the title of Ultimos Cantos in 1850, was practically the poet’s farewell to Rio de Janeiro and the service of the muse, for he spent the next eight years engaged under Government patronage in obtaining a personal acquaintance with the scientific institutions of Europe, was appointed on his return to Brazil a member of an expedition for the exploration of the province of Ceara, was forced in 1862 by the state of his health to try the effects of another visit to ...Europe, and died in September 1864 on board the vessel that was bearing him once again to his native shores. While in Germany he published at Leipsic a complete collection of his lyrical poems, which has since gone through several editions; the four first cantos of an epic poem called Os Tymbiros (1857); and a Diccionario da lingua Tupy (1858). To the publications of the Rio de Janeiro Geographical and Historical Institute he contributed a number of papers, among which the one on Brazil and Oceania has received special notice. A complete edition of the works of Dias has made its appearance at Rio de Janeiro. See Francisco Sutero in the Rivistan Maranhense, and Wolf, Brésil Littéraire.
DIAS, Bartolommeo, a Portuguese navigator, the discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, flourished towards the close of the 15th century, the date of his birth being unknown. He seems to have interested himself at an early period in geographical research, and to have been intimate with Martin Behem. In August 1486 he was appointed by King John II. to the command of a small expedition intended to carry on the work of exploration on the coast of Africa. After touching at various points on the western shore of the continent, and taking possession of them for his royal master, he sailed onward into the unknown sea and doubled the Cape without being aware of it. He touched land at the mouth of the Great Fish River. He now found that he had rounded the continent, and in his return voyage he sighted the promontory to which he gave the name Cabo Tormentoso, or Cabo de todos los tormientos (Cape of all the Storms). This was afterwards changed by the king for the happier title it still bears. Dias arrived in Lisbon in December 1487. He afterwards commanded a ship in the first expedition of Vasco da Gama, who sent him back to Portugal after they had reached the Cape Verd Islands. He held a similar position in the expedition under Cabral which discovered Brazil. On the return voyage the vessel he commanded foundered in a storm on the 29th May 1500.
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