Paulo Dias de Novais a nobleman of the Royal Household

Royal Household

A Royal Household in ancient and medieval monarchies formed the basis for the general government of the country as well as providing for the needs of the sovereign and his relations....

, was a Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 colonizer of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 in the 16th century and the first Captain-Governor of Angola

Angola (Portugal)

Angola is the common name by which the Portuguese colony in southwestern Africa was known across different periods of time...

. He was the grandson of the explorer Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias

Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...

.

Novais arrived in what is now Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

 on February 11, 1575. Attracted by the prospect of the famous silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 mines of Cambambe

Cambambe

Cambambe is a town and municipality in Cuanza Norte Province in Angola. It is the site of a hydroelectric dam on the Cuanza River. Cambambe also contains ruins from the 17th century Portuguese settlement of the area, including the Igreja da Nossa Senhora do Rosário....

, he established a settlement at São Paulo de Luanda, near the island of Luanda.