António de Saldanha

António de Saldanha was a Castilian-Portuguese 16th-century captain. He was the first European to set anchor in what is now called Table Bay, South Africa, and made the first recorded ascent of Table Mountain.

Chroniclers Gaspar Correia (p. 412) and Fernão Lopes de Castanheda (p. 157) identify António de Saldanha as a "Castilian nobleman" who arrived in Portugal around 1497, in the household service of the queen Maria of Aragon. His original Castilian name is unknown, 'Saldanha' possibly referring to the Castilian town of Saldaña, which may have been his place of origin.

Being a man of "some nautical experience", Saldanha was appointed to head a squad of three vessels, part of Afonso de Albuquerque's fleet bound for India to reinforce the Portuguese settlement at Cochin. Although accompanying the India fleet, Saldanha's squad was said to have been given separate instructions to patrol the mouth of the Red Sea, and prey on Arab shipping.

Saldanha's three-ship squad (himself, Rui Lourenço Ravasco and Diogo Fernandes Pereira) set out of Lisbon in early May 1503, intending to catch up with Albuquerque's main fleet, which had gone on ahead. Poor pilotage, however, led to numerous errors. The squad mistakenly sailed into the Gulf of Guinea, Saldanha and Lourenço alighting near São Tomé, with no idea where their third ship might be (Diogo Fernandes was actually on the proper track, sailing on alone). The remaining two began to make their way painfully south along the African coast, against the contrary winds and currents. Somewhere along the way, Saldanha and Lourenço lost sight of each other as well.

...
Wikipedia