alternatehistory.com

A Portuguese Sun: Legacy of Afonso and Colombo

December 8th, 1488
Court of King Joao II of Portugal and the Algarves

"Pero Dias, I thank you for the quickness of your arrival...I am sorry forr your loss...your brother was a most trusted fellow of mine" King John II of Portugal spoke to the distressed and kneeling man before him. From the floor of his throne room, Pero Dias nodded his head dejected and depressed rising to his monarch in a dutiful manner but one that at the moment he could find little joy in his life to animate himself.

"Th-thank you your majesty...my brother Bartolomeu...he was happy in his service and wanted to greatly enchance the Kingdom's fame and glory...he was...a good man." The man's voice was low and came out strained, his face a vision of a hollowness that John II did not find very comforting.

"Please, Pero if you could recount the events of the expedition to me..." John II began slowly, wary of the volitile nature of a grieving man.

"Yes your lord!" Pero's body strainning to an attentive position, his head lolling upwards slightly as he began to live back the events for which he began to speak of "After setting out last August...we sailed southward thorugh the islands...then down to the Fort of Sao Jorge de Mina and sailed along the African coast for sometime in a southward direction...we saw a great amount of...nothing...many rivers where at the mouth of one large river we erected...we erected a statue to your honor...then...then..."

"Go on" John II commanded, hoping to prod the man's disarrayed mental state into action.

"We sailed southward into the ocean...we lost sight of the coast...and then it came. The evil, abomination of Satan...we...tried my lord. We tried to escape it but it caught the expedition and swallowed us whole! For days we were trapped with it, I lost count of time...the ships couldn't handle it...I thank my survival to de Santiago and his piloting skills from the supply ship I commanded but my brother...oh my brother..."

"What happened?"

"It was the São Pantaleão that went first, I saw...Joao Infante fall from the ship one moment and then the next a wave just...devoured the entire caravel my lord! It was terrorific sight and my brother...oh my brother Bartolomeu...I...I...I swea I saw him my lord! When the masts snapped I saw him pinned under the mast but I could do nothing! Nothing as the São Cristóvão turned over...I tried to shout for my brother but some of the sailors were pulling me to take cover and-"

"That is enough. Thank you Pero, you may go and rest now. You have served me well"

The surviving Dias brother had to be lead out of the throne room, and John II dismissed his usefullness at all for the future. The failure of the expedition stung at him, as the court could tell as he leaned back into his throne and stared for along time at the ceiling before sighing and waving over one of his aides.

"Get me Colombo. Tell him I'll see him about his proposition again..."

---------------
POD: On the expedition southward Bartolomeu Dias' is killed, as in OTL the expedition suffered from a 13 day storm that pushed them far south of the Cape of Good Hope. At this same time Christopher Columbus had returned to the Court of John II to petition for another chance at a expedition but with the success of Bartolomeu Dias he was dejected and so he eventually he wound up in the service of Castile...now how could things have gone different?
Top