Vasco Da Gama
Vasco Da Gama
b. 1460 Sines,
Portugal d. 1524 Cochin, India
Vasco Da Gama was the first navigator to complete a journey around
Africa's
Cape of Good Hope
to
India.
Da Gama had been sped on his way by King Manuel I of
Portugal
in July 1497 - a full nine years after Bartholemeu Dias became the first to
round the cape. The years in between held the distraction of Columbus'
discoveries for
Spain
in the New World.
Da Gama
was a veteran soldier and seasoned
(experienced) navigator
when he was called upon to lead a convoy
(line of ships)
of three crew ships
and a supply vessel. The king, taking as little chance of failure as
possible, had Dias himself supervise the preparations (and later personally
escort Da Gama as far as the Cape
Verde Islands.)
Every technical detail and event was considered beforehand. Coming up with
200 qualified crewmen, however, was no easy task, since long sea voyages were
known to take a terrible toll on human life (only
55 of the 200 were to survive), the ranks
of sailors had to be plumped up with a dozen or so criminals fresh from
prison.
Once they rounded the cape and proceeded up the coast of
Africa,
they encountered wave upon wave of hostility from the natives, some of
which had been instigated by
Muslim
traders who resented
(did not like)
competition from the
Portuguese.
By this point, too, so many of his men were dead from scurvy
(a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C)
that Da Gama no longer had enough sailors to operate the supply ship and was
forced to burn it.
After 10 months at sea, they finally
reached the city of Calicut on India's Malbar Coast in May 1498. The items
they had brought with them, such as cloth and glass beads, failed to impress
the Indian traders, who for the most part had precious stones and coveted
spices. Still, the small portion of bounty that Da Gama was able to get from
them was enough to earn him a hero's welcome from his king. He was sent back
to India in 1502, in command of 21 heavily armed ships and under orders to lay
in along the way to all those ports that had given him trouble before.
This strong-arm strategy worked:
Da Gama returned to Portugal in 1503 with the first tribute of gold from the
East.
After
King Manuel's death, King John III sent Da Gama to India as a Portuguese
viceroy (the King's representative in India). Vasco Da Gama died of an illness
in India on December 24, 1524; his remains were returned to Portugal for
burial.
