Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama (c. 1469 – 24 December 1524) was a Portuguese navigator who established a sea route from Europe to India.

Early life

Few details are known about Vasco da Gama's early life. He was born around 1469 in Sines, a seaport in the southwest coast of Portugal, or in one of the nearby villages (the best candidate being Salas). His father was Estêvão da Gama and his mother Isabel de Sodré. He was named after his paternal grandfather, who served as alcaide of Évora.

Vasco’s father was a member of Order of Saint James of the Sword and had a close ties with its master, D. Fernando, Duke of Viseu (a brother of the Portuguese king Afonso V). He participated in the military campaign against the Moroccan town of Casablanca (1468-69) and served as alcaide-mor of Sines and Silves. Vasco’s mother was of English ancestry, the grandaughter of nobleman named Sudley who fought against Castile and settled in Portugal.

It appears that Vasco da Gama was destined to follow a life as a cleric, as in 5 November 1480 he had the prima tonsura.

In 1492 Vasco received from King John II of Portugal the mission to seize all French ships on the ports of Setúbal and in the ports of the coast of the Algarve, in retaliaton for attacks performed by French pirates on Portuguese ships carrying slaves.

Expedition

After Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and sailed as far as the Great Fish River in his 1487-88 expedition, it was almost certain that the Atlantic and Indian oceans were not landlocked and that India could be reached by sea. Vasco’s father was chosen by King John II to lead the follow-up expedition that was to establish a sea route to India, but both Estêvao and the King died before the project took place. Portugal’s new king, Manuel I, put into practice the plans of his predecessor and appointed Vasco da Gama as captain-major of the expedition.

Vasco da Gama’s fleet was composed of four ships: the St. Gabriel, under his command; the St. Raphael, under the command of his brother, Paulo da Gama; the Bérrio, whose captain was Nicolau Coelho; and a supply vessel commanded by Gonçalo Nunes that was to be burned after its provisions were distributed by the others ships.

The crew is estimated to have been between 150 and 170 men, some of them convicts who were to perform dangerous tasks. Joining the fleet was a caravel captained by Bartolomeu Dias that followed until the Cape Verde islands, from whence it traveled to the Portuguese trading post of Elmina in West Africa. Modern knowledge of the expedition course is based on a voyage log written by Álvaro Velho, a member of the St. Raphael (although some scholars attribute it to João de Sá).

The fleet departed from Lisbon July 8 1497. After passing by the Canary Islands, the ships arrived at the island of Santiago in the archipelago of Cape Verde. The journey resumed on 3 August, with the ships sailing south and then southwest, far from the African coastline, describing a big arc, in order to avoid unfavorable winds. The fleet stayed on open-sea for 96 days, longer than Christopher Columbus stayed on his first voyage to the Americas. On 8 November they anchored on the south coast of Africa, on a bay named Saint Helen, where Vasco da Gama measured the height of the sun with his astrolabe and realized that they were near the Cape of Good Hope.

On 22 November the fleet rounded Cape of Good Hope and three days later anchored at Mossel Bay, where it remained for 13 days. On Mossel Bay the Portuguese made contact with the native Khoikhoi people and burned the supply vessel. They also erected a stone pillar (padrão), an act that proclaimed Portugal’s sovereignty on the place. They saw it being destroyed by the locals as they left.

By 15 December the fleet had passed the furthest point reached by Bartolomeu Dias ten years before and were sailing northwards on the east coast of Africa. On Christmas Day Vasco da Gama named a part of the coast as Natal, from the Portuguese word for Christmas. After a stay on the mouth of Copper River, the expedition anchored on the Zambeze River on 25 January and stayed there for 30 days. It was here that they learned about the presence of Arab merchants in the region.

Vasco da Gama’s expedition reached Mozambique island on 2 March, the southernmost point of Muslim influence on eastern Africa. Initially the Portuguese were well treated, as they were thought to be Turkish merchants. When it was realized that they were Christians, the Portuguese were forced out by the local population. At Mombasa, on the coast of present-day Kenya, they found similar hostility.

At Malindi Vasco da Gama had a welcoming reception from the sultan, who provided him with one of the best pilots of the time, an Arab Ahmed ibn Majid. With his help the crossing of the Arabian Sea was made in 27 days, taking advantage of the monsoon winds. The fleet arrived at Calicut (present-day Kozhikode in the state of Kerala) on 20 May 1498.

The Portuguese spent three months in India. Acting as a representative of King Manuel, Vasco da Gama tried to establish political and commercial ties with the Hindu local ruler, the Zamorin. At first, the Portuguese were well treated, but because of the influence of Muslim merchants at the local court, who spread rumours that the Portuguese were pirates (as they feared Portuguese commercial competition), relations deteriorated. Moreover, the cheap goods that the expedition brought from Portugal were not suitable for doing business and were even ridiculed by the Zamorin.

Vasco da Gama's fleet left Calicut on 29 August 1498. Sailing north, they passed by Angediva Island, near Goa, from whence they left on 5 October. Having lost their pilot and facing unfavorable monsoon winds, it took almost 3 months to reach Malindi. About 30 men died from scurvy. At Malindi Vasco da Gama ordered the destruction of the St Raphael, since its captain Paulo da Gama was sick from tuberculosis, and also because the size of the crew had diminished.

The fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope on 20 March 1499 and then proceeded to sail along the African coastline, having as their destination the Cape Verde Islands. From there the Bérrio sailed alone to Lisbon, where it arrived on 10 July 1499. In the island of Santiago Vasco da Gama handed the St. Gabriel to João de Sá, who was to repair it and then take it to Lisbon, while he and his sick brother embarked on a caravel to seek medical treatment. Realizing that it would be impossible to reach Lisbon in time, the ship sailed to the Azores. Paulo da Gama didn’t survive and died on the city of Angra, on Terceira island.

For unknown reasons Vasco da Gama spent the next two months on the Azores (probably mourning the death of his brother or recovering an illness), only arriving at Lisbon on 29 August 1499. Back at the capital, Vasco got a triumphal reception from King Manuel and the people of Lisbon. The monarch awarded him with the lordship of Sines and the dignity of Dom (Lord). He was also nominated to the newly created post of Admiral of the Indian Ocean and was promissed the title of Count. In 1500 Vasco da Gama married Catarina de Ataíde, who gave him seven children.

Second voyage

After Vasco da Gama’s voyage King Manuel had dispatched a new expedition to India under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral (1500-01), that resulted in the establishment of a Portuguese trading post in Cochin.

On 12 February 1502 Vasco da Gama commanded a new expedition to India whose mission was to secure Portuguese interests and to avenge the death of Portuguese men left by Cabral. After passing by the Cape Verde Islands and anchoring on Goree Island (28 February), the fleet took again its long loop into the Atlantic (6 March), staying 87 days on open-sea. In the African east coast the fleet passed by Sofala and Mozambique, and then arrived at Kilwa, in the modern nation of Tanzania. In Kilwa, Vasco da Gama exacted the payment of tribute from its local ruler, Amir Ibrahim, who became a vassal of the King of Portugal. As they were leaving Kilwa, they met a squadron of five ships commanded by Estêvão da Gama (a nephew of Vasco) that had left Lisbon 1 April. From there the ships sailed to India, reaching Cananor in the beginning of September.

Bibliography

• Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama. Cambridge University Press, 1997.