There is no conclusive explanation of the name white rhinoceros. A popular theory that white is a distortion of either the Afrikaans word wyd or the Dutch word wijd (or its other possible spellings whyde, weit, etc.,) meaning wide and referring to the rhino's square lips is not supported by linguistic studies.n its snout it has two horns. The front horn is larger than the other horn and averages 90 cm (35 in) in length and can reach 150 cm (59 in). The white rhinoceros also has a prominent muscular hump that supports its relatively large head.
Diaz was also one of the captains and sailors of the second Indian expedition, lead by Pedro Alvares Cabral. On the 14th of May of 1500, when the expedition reached the Cape of Good Hope, a terrible storm made four ships of the fleet sink, in one of which Dias travelled. All the sailors died, including Bartolomeu Diaz. During this expedition, the objective of which India was, the fleet had also suffered a deviation which had made it arrive at the coast of Brazil. It is not konwn if this was an accident or Cabral's intention was, in fact, visiting the American lands which had been asigned to Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494).
Dias lost sight of the coast at 20Â° south latitude when his ship was caught in a storm which lasted thirteen days. When the seas and sky finally cleared, Dias sailed in an easterly direction, hoping once again to see land. With no success sailing east, he made the decision to turn northward. He landed in Mossel Bay, on the coast of present-day South Africa, on February 3, 1488. In May 1488, on his return voyage to Portugal, Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope, near the southern tip of Africa. Dias originally named it the Cape of Storms because of all the violent storms in the area.