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CAM (CAO), DIOGO (fl. 1480-1486)

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 79 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CAM (CAO), DIOGO (fl. 1480-1486)  , Portuguese discoverer, the first See also:European known to sight and enter the See also:Congo, and to explore the See also:West See also:African See also:coast between Cape St See also:Catherine (2° S.) and Cape See also:Cross (21° 50' S.) almost from the See also:equator to Walfish See also:Bay . When See also:King See also:John II. of See also:Portugal revived the See also:work of See also:Henry the Navigator, he sent out See also:Cam (about midsummer (?) 1482) to open up the African coast still further beyond the equator . The mouth of the Congo was now, discovered (perhaps in See also:August 1482), and marked by a See also:stone See also:pillar (still existing, but only in fragments) erected on See also:Shark Point; the See also:great See also:river was also ascended for a See also:short distance, and intercourse was opened with the natives . Cam then coasted down along the See also:present See also:Angola (Portuguese West See also:Africa), and erected a second pillar, probably marking the termination of this voyage, at Cape See also:Santa Maria (the See also:Monte See also:Negro of these first visitors) in 13° 26' S . He certainly returned to See also:Lisbon by the beginning of See also:April 1484, when John II. ennobled him, made him a cavalleiro of his See also:house-hold (he was already an escudeiro or See also:esquire in the same), and granted him an See also:annuity and a coat of arms (8th and 14th of April 1484) . That Cam, on his second voyage of 148g-1486, was accompanied by See also:Martin See also:Behaim (as alleged on the latter's See also:Nuremberg globe of 1492) is very doubtful; but we know that the explorer revisited the Congo and erected two more pillars beyond the furthest of his previous voyage, the first at another " Monte Negro " in 15° 41' S., the second at Cape Cross in 21° 50', this last probably marking the end of his progress southward . According to one authority (a See also:legend on the 1489 See also:map of'Henricus Martellus Germanus), Cam died off Cape Cross; but Joao de See also:Barros and others make him return to the Congo,and take thence a native See also:envoy to Portugal . The four pillars set up by Cam on his two voyages have all been discovered in situ, and the See also:inscriptions on two of them from Cape Santa Maria and Cape Cross, dated 1482 and 1485 respectively, are still to be read and have been printed; the Cape Cross padrao is now at See also:Kiel (replaced on the spot by a See also:granite facsimile); those from the Congo See also:estuary and the more southerly Monte Negro are in the Museum of the Lisbon See also:Geographical Society . See Barros, Decades da See also:Asia, See also:Decade i. bk. iii., esp. ch . 3; Ruy de See also:Pina, Chronica d' el Rei D . Joao II . ; See also:Garcia de See also:Resende, Chronica; Luciano Cordeiro, " Diogo Cao " in Boletim of the Lisbon Geog .

See also:

Soc., 1892; E . G . Ravenstein, "Voyages of Diogo Cao," &c., in Geog . Al. vol. xvi . (1900); also Geog . Jnl. xxxi . (1908) . (C . R .

End of Article: CAM (CAO), DIOGO (fl. 1480-1486)
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