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Versão portuguesa aqui.
Vasco da Gama (Sines, Portugal, 1469 – Cochin, India, December 24, 1524) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer. In the Age of Discovery, he stood out for being the commander of the first ships to sail from Europe to India, on the longest ocean voyage ever made, exceeding a complete trip around the world through Ecuador.
Biography
He was born in mid-1469, in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal. Possibly in a house near the Church of Nossa Senhora das Salvas de Sines. Sines, one of the few ports on the Alentejo coast, was then a small village inhabited by fishermen.
He was the legitimate son of Estêvão da Gama, who in 1460 was a knight of the house of D. Fernando de Portugal, Duke of Viseu and Master of the Order of Christ. D. Fernando appointed him mayor of the castle of Sines and allowed him to receive a small tax revenue on soap production in Estremoz. Estêvão da Gama was married to Dona Isabel Sodré, daughter of João Sodré (also known as João de Resende). Sodré, who was of English descent, was connected to the house of D. Diogo, Duke of Viseu, son of Fernando de Portugal, Duke of Viseu.
Little is known of the early life of this browser. It was suggested by the Portuguese physician and historian Augusto Carlos Teixeira de Aragão who would have studied in Évora, where he may have learned mathematics and navigation. It is evident that he knew astronomy well, and it is possible that he studied with the astronomer Abraão Zacuto.
In 1492, João II of Portugal sent him to the port of Setúbal, south of Lisbon, and to the Algarve to capture French ships in retaliation for peacetime depredations against Portuguese shipping – a task that Vasco da Gama carried out quickly and effectively.
Discovery of the sea route to India (1497–1499)
Background
Since the beginning of the 15th century, driven by Infante D. Henrique, the Portuguese had been deepening their knowledge of the African coast. From the 1460s onwards, the goal had become to get around the southern tip of the African continent in order to gain access to the riches of India – black pepper and other spices – by establishing a reliable maritime route. The Republic of Venice dominated most of the trade routes between Europe and Asia, and since the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans it had limited trade and raised costs. Portugal intended to use the route initiated by Bartolomeu Dias to break the monopoly of Mediterranean trade.
When Vasco da Gama was about ten years old, these long-term plans were close to being realized: Bartolomeu Dias had returned from rounding the Cape of Good Hope, after exploring the "Rio do Infante" (Great Fish River, in present-day South Africa) and after having verified that the unknown coast extended to the northeast.
Simultaneously, land explorations were carried out during the reign of King João II of Portugal, supporting the theory that India was accessible by sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Pero da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva were sent via Barcelona, Naples and Rhodes to Alexandria, gateway to Aden, Ormuz and India.
All that was needed was a navigator to prove the connection between Bartolomeu Dias' finds and those of Pero da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva, to inaugurate a potentially profitable trade route to the Indian Ocean. The task was initially attributed by D. João II to Estevão da Gama, father of Vasco da Gama. However, given the death of both, in July 1497 the command of the expedition was delegated by the new king D. Manuel I of Portugal to Vasco da Gama, possibly taking into account his performance in protecting Portuguese commercial interests from depredations by the French along the African Gold Coast.
The so-called First Indian Armada would be financed in part by the Florentine banker Girolamo Sernige.
The trip
Manuel I of Portugal entrusted Vasco da Gama with the position of Captain General of the fleet that, on Saturday, July 8, 1497, sailed from Belém in search of India.
It was an essentially exploratory expedition that carried letters from King Manuel I to the kingdoms to visit, patterns to place, and which had been equipped by Bartolomeu Dias with some products that had proved to be useful in his travels, for exchanges with local commerce. The only personal testimony of the trip is contained in an anonymous logbook, the Roadmap of Vasco da Gama's first trip to India attributed to Álvaro Velho or João de Sá.
It had about one hundred and seventy men, including sailors, soldiers and religious, spread over four vessels:
São Gabriel, a ship measuring 27 meters in length and weighing 178 tons, built especially for this voyage, commanded by Vasco da Gama himself;
São Rafael, similar in size to São Gabriel, also built especially for this trip, commanded by Paulo da Gama, his brother; on the way back, with a reduced crew, it was shot down in Melinde, continuing on to Bérrio and São Gabriel;
Bérrio, a ship slightly smaller than the previous ones, offered by D. Manuel de Bérrio, its owner, under the command of Nicolau Coelho;
São Miguel, a ship for transporting supplies, under the command of Gonçalo Nunes, which would be burned on the way, near the bay of São Brás, on the east coast of Africa.
The expedition left Lisbon, accompanied by Bartolomeu Dias, who was on a caravel heading to Mina, following the route already tried by previous explorers along the coast of Africa, through Tenerife and the Cape Verde Archipelago. After reaching the coast of present-day Sierra Leone, Vasco da Gama deviated to the south in the open sea, crossing the Equator, in search of the winds coming from the west of the South Atlantic, which Bartolomeu Dias had already identified since 1487. After more than three months, the ships had sailed more than 6,000 km of open sea, the longest journey ever made on the high seas.
On December 16, the fleet had already crossed the so-called "Rio do Infante" (Great Fish River, in present-day South Africa) – from where Bartolomeu Dias had previously returned – and sailed in waters hitherto unknown to Europeans. On Christmas Day, Gama and his crew named the coast they were sailing the name of Natal (now the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa).
On March 2, 1498, completing the contour of the African coast, the fleet reached the coast of Mozambique, after having suffered heavy storms and Vasco da Gama having put down with an iron fist a revolt by the seamen. On the East African coast, Muslim-controlled territories were part of the Indian Ocean trade network. In Mozambique they find the first Indian merchants. Initially, they are well received by the sultan, who mistakes them for Muslims and makes two pilots available. Fearing that the population was hostile to Christians, they tried to maintain the misconception but, after a series of misunderstandings, they were forced by a hostile mob to flee Mozambique, and set sail from the port firing their cannons at the city.
The pilot that the sultan of the island of Mozambique offered to take them to India had been secretly commissioned to deliver the Portuguese ships to the Moors in Mombasa. A chance led to the discovery of the trap and Vasco da Gama was able to continue.
Off the coast of present-day Kenya, the expedition looted unarmed Arab merchant ships. The Portuguese became known as the first Europeans to visit the port of Mombasa, but they were met with hostility and soon left.
In February 1498, Vasco da Gama headed north, disembarking in the friendly port of Melinde – a rival to Mombasa – where he was welcomed by the sultan who provided him with an Arab pilot, knowledgeable about the Indian Ocean, whose knowledge of the monsoon winds allowed him to guide the expedition to Calicut, on the southwest coast of India. Sources differ as to the pilot's identity, sometimes identifying him as a Christian, a Muslim and a Gujarati. One traditional story describes the pilot as the famous Arab navigator Ahmad ibn Majid, but contemporary accounts place Majid elsewhere at that time.
Arrival in Calicut
On May 20, 1498, the fleet reached Kappakadavu, close to Calicut, in the current Indian state of Kerala, the expeditions on the African tour being concluded, the Cape Route being established and the European sea route to India being opened.
The day after his arrival, João Nunes, an exiled New Christian, was sent ashore because he had a rudimentary knowledge of Arabic (he was the first to land in Calicut). Two Moors of Tunisian origin, received him in their house and to the interpellation of one of them in Spanish «To the devil that I give you; who brought you here?” the latter responded with the famous phrase: «We came to look for Christians and spice.», as reported by Álvaro Velho.
Seeing the images of Hindu gods, Gama and his men thought they were Christian saints, in contrast to the Muslims who had no images. Belief in the "Christians of India", as they were called at the time, lasted for some time even after the return.
However, negotiations with the local governor, Samutiri Manavikraman Rajá, Samorin from Calicut, were difficult. Vasco da Gama's efforts to obtain favorable trading conditions were hampered by the difference in cultures and the low value of his goods. with the representatives of the Zamorin mocking his offers, and the Arab merchants established there resisting the possibility of unwanted competition. The goods presented by the Portuguese proved insufficient to impress the Zamorin, in comparison with the high-value goods traded there, which generated some distrust. The Portuguese would end up selling their goods cheaply so that they could buy small amounts of spices and jewelry to take back to the kingdom.
Finally, the Zamorin was pleased with the letters from D. Manuel I and Vasco da Gama managed to obtain an ambiguous letter granting rights to trade, but ended up leaving without warning after the Samorin and his navy chief Kunjali Marakkar insisted that he leave all his goods as collateral. Vasco da Gama kept his goods, but left some Portuguese with orders to start a trading post.
Return to Portugal
Vasco da Gama set out on the return journey on 29 August 1498. In his eagerness to leave, he ignored local knowledge about monsoon patterns that would allow him to sail. On the island of Angediva, they were approached by a man who claimed to be a Christian but who pretended to be a Muslim in the service of Hidalcan, the Sultan of Bijapur. Suspecting him to be a spy, they flogged him until he confessed to being a Polish Jewish adventurer in the East. Vasco da Gama sponsored him, naming him Gaspar da Gama.
On the outward journey, crossing the Indian Ocean to India with the help of monsoon winds took just 23 days. The return trip, sailing against the wind, took 132 days, with the vessels docking in Melinde on January 7, 1499. On this trip, about half of the surviving crew perished, and many of the rest were severely affected by scurvy, so of the 148 men who made up the fleet, only 55 returned to Portugal. Only two of the vessels that left the Tagus managed to return to Portugal, arriving, respectively, between July and August 1499. The caravel Bérrio, being the lightest and fastest of the fleet, was the first to return to Lisbon, where it docked on July 10, 1499, under the command of Nicolau Coelho and having Pêro Escobar as pilot, who would later accompany Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet on the voyage that recorded the discovery of Brazil in April 1500 .
Vasco da Gama returned to Portugal in September 1499, a month after his companions, as he had to bury his older brother Paulo da Gama, who had fallen ill and died on Terceira Island, in the Azores. Upon his return, he was rewarded as the man who had completed a plan that had taken eighty years to complete. He received the title of "Admiral-General of the Seas of India", being granted an income of three hundred thousand réis annually, which he would pass on to the children he had. He also received, together with his brothers, the perpetual title of Dom and two villages, Sines and Vila Nova de Milfontes.
Second voyage to India (1502)
On February 12, 1502, Vasco da Gama commanded a new expedition with a fleet of twenty warships, with the aim of enforcing Portuguese interests in the East. He had been invited after the refusal of Pedro Álvares Cabral, who had fallen out with the monarch over the command of the expedition. This trip took place after the second fleet to India, commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500, who, after deviating from the route, discovered Brazil. When he arrived in India, Cabral learned that the Portuguese who had been left there by Vasco da Gama on the first voyage to establish a trading post had been killed. After bombarding Calicut, he headed south to Cochin, a small rival kingdom, where he was warmly received by the Raja, returning to Europe with silk and gold.
Gama took and demanded tribute from the island of Quiloa in East Africa, one of the ports under Arab rule that had fought the Portuguese, making it a tributary of Portugal. With gold from 500 coins brought by Vasco da Gama from the king of Quiloa (now Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania), as a tribute of vassalage to the King of Portugal, the Custody of Belém was created by King Manuel I for the Jerónimos Monastery.
On this voyage, the first known European record of sightings of the Seychelles took place, which Vasco da Gama named Ilhas Amirante (Almirante's Islands) in his own honor.
Vasco da Gama left with the aim of installing the Portuguese center and a factory in Cochin, after consecutive efforts by Pedro Álvares Cabral and João da Nova. He bombed Calicut and destroyed Arab trading posts.
After reaching the northern Indian Ocean, Vasco da Gama waited until he captured a ship returning from Mecca, the Mîrî, with important Muslim merchants, seizing all the goods and setting fire to it. Upon arriving in Calicut, on October 30, 1502, the Zamorin was willing to sign a treaty, in an act of ferocity that shocked even contemporary chroniclers, who considered it an act of revenge for the Portuguese killed in Calicut on their first voyage.
On March 1, 1503, war broke out between the Zamorin of Calicut and the Rajah of Cochin. His ships harassed Arab merchant ships, also destroying a fleet of 29 ships from Calicut. After this battle, he then obtained favorable trade concessions from the Zamorin. Vasco da Gama founded the Portuguese colony of Cochin, India, returning to Portugal in September 1503. Vasco da Gama returned to his homeland in 1513 and led a retired life in Évora, despite the consideration he enjoyed with the king.
Third voyage to India (1524)
In 1519 he was made the first Count of Vidigueira by King Manuel I, based on land purchased from King Jaime I, Duke of Bragança, who on November 4 had ceded the towns of Vidigueira and Vila de Frades to Vasco da Gama, his heirs and successors, as well as all related income and privileges, being the first Portuguese Count without royal blood.
Having acquired a reputation as a fearsome "solver" of problems in India, Vasco da Gama was sent back to the Indian subcontinent in 1524. The aim was for him to replace Duarte de Meneses, whose rule was proving to be disastrous, but Vasco da Gama contracted malaria shortly after arriving in Goa. As viceroy he acted rigidly and managed to impose order, but he died in the city of Cochin, on Christmas Eve, on December 24, 1524, a Saturday.
He was buried in the Church of San Francisco (Cochin). In 1539 his remains were transferred to Portugal, more specifically to the Church of a Carmelite convent, currently known as Quinta do Carmo (today privately owned), near the Alentejo town of Vidigueira, as Count of Vidigueira of interest and estate (i.e. to himself and his descendants) since 1519.
They stayed here until 1880, when they moved to the Jerónimos Monastery, which were built shortly after their trip, with the first profits from the spice trade, standing next to the tomb of Luís Vaz de Camões. There are those who defend, however, that the bones of Vasco da Gama are still found in the Alentejo village. As evidence of the transfer of bones, in front of the statue of the navigator in Vidigueira, there is the former Vasco da Gama Primary School (whose construction served as a bargaining chip to obtain permission to carry out the transfer at the time), where the Municipal Museum of Vidigueira is located.
Titles and honors
Was made:
Gift with right exceptionally extended to all his male and female offspring, and to his brothers and sister;
Fidalgo de Cota de Armas from Mercê Nova for da Gama; 1st Lord of Vilas da Vidigueira and Vila de Frades with the title of 1st Count of Vidigueira in 1519 by King D. Manuel I of Portugal;
1st Major Admiral of the Indian Seas;
3rd Viceroy and 6th Governor of India in 1524.
Legacy
The spice trade would prove to be an asset to the Portuguese economy, and Vasco da Gama's voyage made clear the importance of the east coast of Africa to Portuguese interests: its ports provided drinking water, food and timber, served for repairs and as a shelter for ships to wait in unfavorable times (waiting for the monsoon, or sheltering from attacks). A significant result of this exploration was the colonization of Mozambique by the Portuguese Crown.
Although King D. Manuel understood the importance of his goods, however scarce, Vasco da Gama's achievements were somewhat overshadowed by his failure to bring commercial goods of interest to the nations of India. Furthermore, the sea route was fraught with dangers – his fleet spent more than thirty days without seeing land and only 60 of his 180 companions, in one of his three ships, returned to Portugal in 1498. However, this journey opened the Cape route directly to Asia.
In the second fleet to India, by Pedro Álvares Cabral, a demonstration of power would be made, with a crew ten times larger and 9 more ships.
From his wife, D. Catarina de Ataíde, Vasco da Gama had seven children. Some followed him and came to hold important positions in the East: Francisco, second Count of Vidigueira; Stephen, 11th Governor of India; Paul; Christopher, a martyr in Ethiopia; Pedro, Isabel de Ataíde and Álvaro da Gama, Captain of Malacca.
The epic poem "Os Lusíadas" (1572) by Luís Vaz de Camões, focuses largely on the travels of Vasco da Gama. José Agostinho de Macedo wrote the narrative poem "Gama" (1811), later recast and perfected in the epic poem "O Oriente" (1814), with Vasco da Gama as Hero. The opera "L'Africaine", composed in 1865 by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Eugène Scribe, includes the character of Vasco da Gama, performed in 1989 at the San Francisco Opera by tenor Placido Domingo. Nineteenth-century composer Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray composed an opera in 1872 of the same name, based on the life and maritime explorations of Vasco da Gama. The port city of Vasco da Gama in Goa is named in his memory, as is the "Vasco da Gama Crater" on the Moon. There are three football clubs in Brazil (including Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama) and Vasco Sports Club in Goa, also named in his honour. A church in Cochin, Kerala, the Vasco da Gama Church, and the Vasco Quarter in Cape Town also honor him. The three voyages of Vasco da Gama are reported in detail in the historical novel "Indias", by João Morgado, Literário Alçada Baptista 2012.
Marriage and descendants
He married Catarina de Ataide (c. 1470 – 1532), daughter of Álvaro de Ataide, Lord of Penacova and Mayor of the castle of Alvor and Maria da Silva, and sister of the famous governor of Safim, Nuno Fernandes de Ataíde; they had eight children:
Estêvão da Gama (1505–1576). 12th Governor of Portuguese India. Had descendants;
Isabel de Ataide (1506–?). He married Inácio de Noronha, son of the 1st Count of Linhares. No descendants;
Pedro da Gama (1507–?). He married Inês de Castro. No descendants;
Francisco da Gama (1510–?). 2nd Count of Vidigueira. Had descendants;
Christopher da Gama (1516–1542). No descendants;
Álvaro da Gama (1517–?). Captain of Malacca. Had descendants;
Paulo da Gama (1518–?). No descendants;
Juliana da Gama (1519–?). He married Belchior Vaz Borralho. No descendants.
Versão portuguesa aqui.
Vasco da Gama (Sines, Portugal, 1469 – Cochin, India, December 24, 1524) was a Portuguese navigator and explorer. In the Age of Discovery, he stood out for being the commander of the first ships to sail from Europe to India, on the longest ocean voyage ever made, exceeding a complete trip around the world through Ecuador.
Biography
He was born in mid-1469, in Sines, on the southwest coast of Portugal. Possibly in a house near the Church of Nossa Senhora das Salvas de Sines. Sines, one of the few ports on the Alentejo coast, was then a small village inhabited by fishermen.
He was the legitimate son of Estêvão da Gama, who in 1460 was a knight of the house of D. Fernando de Portugal, Duke of Viseu and Master of the Order of Christ. D. Fernando appointed him mayor of the castle of Sines and allowed him to receive a small tax revenue on soap production in Estremoz. Estêvão da Gama was married to Dona Isabel Sodré, daughter of João Sodré (also known as João de Resende). Sodré, who was of English descent, was connected to the house of D. Diogo, Duke of Viseu, son of Fernando de Portugal, Duke of Viseu.
Little is known of the early life of this browser. It was suggested by the Portuguese physician and historian Augusto Carlos Teixeira de Aragão who would have studied in Évora, where he may have learned mathematics and navigation. It is evident that he knew astronomy well, and it is possible that he studied with the astronomer Abraão Zacuto.
In 1492, João II of Portugal sent him to the port of Setúbal, south of Lisbon, and to the Algarve to capture French ships in retaliation for peacetime depredations against Portuguese shipping – a task that Vasco da Gama carried out quickly and effectively.
Discovery of the sea route to India (1497–1499)
Background
Since the beginning of the 15th century, driven by Infante D. Henrique, the Portuguese had been deepening their knowledge of the African coast. From the 1460s onwards, the goal had become to get around the southern tip of the African continent in order to gain access to the riches of India – black pepper and other spices – by establishing a reliable maritime route. The Republic of Venice dominated most of the trade routes between Europe and Asia, and since the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans it had limited trade and raised costs. Portugal intended to use the route initiated by Bartolomeu Dias to break the monopoly of Mediterranean trade.
When Vasco da Gama was about ten years old, these long-term plans were close to being realized: Bartolomeu Dias had returned from rounding the Cape of Good Hope, after exploring the "Rio do Infante" (Great Fish River, in present-day South Africa) and after having verified that the unknown coast extended to the northeast.
Simultaneously, land explorations were carried out during the reign of King João II of Portugal, supporting the theory that India was accessible by sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Pero da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva were sent via Barcelona, Naples and Rhodes to Alexandria, gateway to Aden, Ormuz and India.
All that was needed was a navigator to prove the connection between Bartolomeu Dias' finds and those of Pero da Covilhã and Afonso de Paiva, to inaugurate a potentially profitable trade route to the Indian Ocean. The task was initially attributed by D. João II to Estevão da Gama, father of Vasco da Gama. However, given the death of both, in July 1497 the command of the expedition was delegated by the new king D. Manuel I of Portugal to Vasco da Gama, possibly taking into account his performance in protecting Portuguese commercial interests from depredations by the French along the African Gold Coast.
The so-called First Indian Armada would be financed in part by the Florentine banker Girolamo Sernige.
The trip
Manuel I of Portugal entrusted Vasco da Gama with the position of Captain General of the fleet that, on Saturday, July 8, 1497, sailed from Belém in search of India.
It was an essentially exploratory expedition that carried letters from King Manuel I to the kingdoms to visit, patterns to place, and which had been equipped by Bartolomeu Dias with some products that had proved to be useful in his travels, for exchanges with local commerce. The only personal testimony of the trip is contained in an anonymous logbook, the Roadmap of Vasco da Gama's first trip to India attributed to Álvaro Velho or João de Sá.
It had about one hundred and seventy men, including sailors, soldiers and religious, spread over four vessels:
São Gabriel, a ship measuring 27 meters in length and weighing 178 tons, built especially for this voyage, commanded by Vasco da Gama himself;
São Rafael, similar in size to São Gabriel, also built especially for this trip, commanded by Paulo da Gama, his brother; on the way back, with a reduced crew, it was shot down in Melinde, continuing on to Bérrio and São Gabriel;
Bérrio, a ship slightly smaller than the previous ones, offered by D. Manuel de Bérrio, its owner, under the command of Nicolau Coelho;
São Miguel, a ship for transporting supplies, under the command of Gonçalo Nunes, which would be burned on the way, near the bay of São Brás, on the east coast of Africa.
The expedition left Lisbon, accompanied by Bartolomeu Dias, who was on a caravel heading to Mina, following the route already tried by previous explorers along the coast of Africa, through Tenerife and the Cape Verde Archipelago. After reaching the coast of present-day Sierra Leone, Vasco da Gama deviated to the south in the open sea, crossing the Equator, in search of the winds coming from the west of the South Atlantic, which Bartolomeu Dias had already identified since 1487. After more than three months, the ships had sailed more than 6,000 km of open sea, the longest journey ever made on the high seas.
On December 16, the fleet had already crossed the so-called "Rio do Infante" (Great Fish River, in present-day South Africa) – from where Bartolomeu Dias had previously returned – and sailed in waters hitherto unknown to Europeans. On Christmas Day, Gama and his crew named the coast they were sailing the name of Natal (now the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa).
On March 2, 1498, completing the contour of the African coast, the fleet reached the coast of Mozambique, after having suffered heavy storms and Vasco da Gama having put down with an iron fist a revolt by the seamen. On the East African coast, Muslim-controlled territories were part of the Indian Ocean trade network. In Mozambique they find the first Indian merchants. Initially, they are well received by the sultan, who mistakes them for Muslims and makes two pilots available. Fearing that the population was hostile to Christians, they tried to maintain the misconception but, after a series of misunderstandings, they were forced by a hostile mob to flee Mozambique, and set sail from the port firing their cannons at the city.
The pilot that the sultan of the island of Mozambique offered to take them to India had been secretly commissioned to deliver the Portuguese ships to the Moors in Mombasa. A chance led to the discovery of the trap and Vasco da Gama was able to continue.
Off the coast of present-day Kenya, the expedition looted unarmed Arab merchant ships. The Portuguese became known as the first Europeans to visit the port of Mombasa, but they were met with hostility and soon left.
In February 1498, Vasco da Gama headed north, disembarking in the friendly port of Melinde – a rival to Mombasa – where he was welcomed by the sultan who provided him with an Arab pilot, knowledgeable about the Indian Ocean, whose knowledge of the monsoon winds allowed him to guide the expedition to Calicut, on the southwest coast of India. Sources differ as to the pilot's identity, sometimes identifying him as a Christian, a Muslim and a Gujarati. One traditional story describes the pilot as the famous Arab navigator Ahmad ibn Majid, but contemporary accounts place Majid elsewhere at that time.
Arrival in Calicut
On May 20, 1498, the fleet reached Kappakadavu, close to Calicut, in the current Indian state of Kerala, the expeditions on the African tour being concluded, the Cape Route being established and the European sea route to India being opened.
The day after his arrival, João Nunes, an exiled New Christian, was sent ashore because he had a rudimentary knowledge of Arabic (he was the first to land in Calicut). Two Moors of Tunisian origin, received him in their house and to the interpellation of one of them in Spanish «To the devil that I give you; who brought you here?” the latter responded with the famous phrase: «We came to look for Christians and spice.», as reported by Álvaro Velho.
Seeing the images of Hindu gods, Gama and his men thought they were Christian saints, in contrast to the Muslims who had no images. Belief in the "Christians of India", as they were called at the time, lasted for some time even after the return.
However, negotiations with the local governor, Samutiri Manavikraman Rajá, Samorin from Calicut, were difficult. Vasco da Gama's efforts to obtain favorable trading conditions were hampered by the difference in cultures and the low value of his goods. with the representatives of the Zamorin mocking his offers, and the Arab merchants established there resisting the possibility of unwanted competition. The goods presented by the Portuguese proved insufficient to impress the Zamorin, in comparison with the high-value goods traded there, which generated some distrust. The Portuguese would end up selling their goods cheaply so that they could buy small amounts of spices and jewelry to take back to the kingdom.
Finally, the Zamorin was pleased with the letters from D. Manuel I and Vasco da Gama managed to obtain an ambiguous letter granting rights to trade, but ended up leaving without warning after the Samorin and his navy chief Kunjali Marakkar insisted that he leave all his goods as collateral. Vasco da Gama kept his goods, but left some Portuguese with orders to start a trading post.
Return to Portugal
Vasco da Gama set out on the return journey on 29 August 1498. In his eagerness to leave, he ignored local knowledge about monsoon patterns that would allow him to sail. On the island of Angediva, they were approached by a man who claimed to be a Christian but who pretended to be a Muslim in the service of Hidalcan, the Sultan of Bijapur. Suspecting him to be a spy, they flogged him until he confessed to being a Polish Jewish adventurer in the East. Vasco da Gama sponsored him, naming him Gaspar da Gama.
On the outward journey, crossing the Indian Ocean to India with the help of monsoon winds took just 23 days. The return trip, sailing against the wind, took 132 days, with the vessels docking in Melinde on January 7, 1499. On this trip, about half of the surviving crew perished, and many of the rest were severely affected by scurvy, so of the 148 men who made up the fleet, only 55 returned to Portugal. Only two of the vessels that left the Tagus managed to return to Portugal, arriving, respectively, between July and August 1499. The caravel Bérrio, being the lightest and fastest of the fleet, was the first to return to Lisbon, where it docked on July 10, 1499, under the command of Nicolau Coelho and having Pêro Escobar as pilot, who would later accompany Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet on the voyage that recorded the discovery of Brazil in April 1500 .
Vasco da Gama returned to Portugal in September 1499, a month after his companions, as he had to bury his older brother Paulo da Gama, who had fallen ill and died on Terceira Island, in the Azores. Upon his return, he was rewarded as the man who had completed a plan that had taken eighty years to complete. He received the title of "Admiral-General of the Seas of India", being granted an income of three hundred thousand réis annually, which he would pass on to the children he had. He also received, together with his brothers, the perpetual title of Dom and two villages, Sines and Vila Nova de Milfontes.
Second voyage to India (1502)
On February 12, 1502, Vasco da Gama commanded a new expedition with a fleet of twenty warships, with the aim of enforcing Portuguese interests in the East. He had been invited after the refusal of Pedro Álvares Cabral, who had fallen out with the monarch over the command of the expedition. This trip took place after the second fleet to India, commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500, who, after deviating from the route, discovered Brazil. When he arrived in India, Cabral learned that the Portuguese who had been left there by Vasco da Gama on the first voyage to establish a trading post had been killed. After bombarding Calicut, he headed south to Cochin, a small rival kingdom, where he was warmly received by the Raja, returning to Europe with silk and gold.
Gama took and demanded tribute from the island of Quiloa in East Africa, one of the ports under Arab rule that had fought the Portuguese, making it a tributary of Portugal. With gold from 500 coins brought by Vasco da Gama from the king of Quiloa (now Kilwa Kisiwani, Tanzania), as a tribute of vassalage to the King of Portugal, the Custody of Belém was created by King Manuel I for the Jerónimos Monastery.
On this voyage, the first known European record of sightings of the Seychelles took place, which Vasco da Gama named Ilhas Amirante (Almirante's Islands) in his own honor.
Vasco da Gama left with the aim of installing the Portuguese center and a factory in Cochin, after consecutive efforts by Pedro Álvares Cabral and João da Nova. He bombed Calicut and destroyed Arab trading posts.
After reaching the northern Indian Ocean, Vasco da Gama waited until he captured a ship returning from Mecca, the Mîrî, with important Muslim merchants, seizing all the goods and setting fire to it. Upon arriving in Calicut, on October 30, 1502, the Zamorin was willing to sign a treaty, in an act of ferocity that shocked even contemporary chroniclers, who considered it an act of revenge for the Portuguese killed in Calicut on their first voyage.
On March 1, 1503, war broke out between the Zamorin of Calicut and the Rajah of Cochin. His ships harassed Arab merchant ships, also destroying a fleet of 29 ships from Calicut. After this battle, he then obtained favorable trade concessions from the Zamorin. Vasco da Gama founded the Portuguese colony of Cochin, India, returning to Portugal in September 1503. Vasco da Gama returned to his homeland in 1513 and led a retired life in Évora, despite the consideration he enjoyed with the king.
Third voyage to India (1524)
In 1519 he was made the first Count of Vidigueira by King Manuel I, based on land purchased from King Jaime I, Duke of Bragança, who on November 4 had ceded the towns of Vidigueira and Vila de Frades to Vasco da Gama, his heirs and successors, as well as all related income and privileges, being the first Portuguese Count without royal blood.
Having acquired a reputation as a fearsome "solver" of problems in India, Vasco da Gama was sent back to the Indian subcontinent in 1524. The aim was for him to replace Duarte de Meneses, whose rule was proving to be disastrous, but Vasco da Gama contracted malaria shortly after arriving in Goa. As viceroy he acted rigidly and managed to impose order, but he died in the city of Cochin, on Christmas Eve, on December 24, 1524, a Saturday.
He was buried in the Church of San Francisco (Cochin). In 1539 his remains were transferred to Portugal, more specifically to the Church of a Carmelite convent, currently known as Quinta do Carmo (today privately owned), near the Alentejo town of Vidigueira, as Count of Vidigueira of interest and estate (i.e. to himself and his descendants) since 1519.
They stayed here until 1880, when they moved to the Jerónimos Monastery, which were built shortly after their trip, with the first profits from the spice trade, standing next to the tomb of Luís Vaz de Camões. There are those who defend, however, that the bones of Vasco da Gama are still found in the Alentejo village. As evidence of the transfer of bones, in front of the statue of the navigator in Vidigueira, there is the former Vasco da Gama Primary School (whose construction served as a bargaining chip to obtain permission to carry out the transfer at the time), where the Municipal Museum of Vidigueira is located.
Titles and honors
Was made:
Gift with right exceptionally extended to all his male and female offspring, and to his brothers and sister;
Fidalgo de Cota de Armas from Mercê Nova for da Gama; 1st Lord of Vilas da Vidigueira and Vila de Frades with the title of 1st Count of Vidigueira in 1519 by King D. Manuel I of Portugal;
1st Major Admiral of the Indian Seas;
3rd Viceroy and 6th Governor of India in 1524.
Legacy
The spice trade would prove to be an asset to the Portuguese economy, and Vasco da Gama's voyage made clear the importance of the east coast of Africa to Portuguese interests: its ports provided drinking water, food and timber, served for repairs and as a shelter for ships to wait in unfavorable times (waiting for the monsoon, or sheltering from attacks). A significant result of this exploration was the colonization of Mozambique by the Portuguese Crown.
Although King D. Manuel understood the importance of his goods, however scarce, Vasco da Gama's achievements were somewhat overshadowed by his failure to bring commercial goods of interest to the nations of India. Furthermore, the sea route was fraught with dangers – his fleet spent more than thirty days without seeing land and only 60 of his 180 companions, in one of his three ships, returned to Portugal in 1498. However, this journey opened the Cape route directly to Asia.
In the second fleet to India, by Pedro Álvares Cabral, a demonstration of power would be made, with a crew ten times larger and 9 more ships.
From his wife, D. Catarina de Ataíde, Vasco da Gama had seven children. Some followed him and came to hold important positions in the East: Francisco, second Count of Vidigueira; Stephen, 11th Governor of India; Paul; Christopher, a martyr in Ethiopia; Pedro, Isabel de Ataíde and Álvaro da Gama, Captain of Malacca.
The epic poem "Os Lusíadas" (1572) by Luís Vaz de Camões, focuses largely on the travels of Vasco da Gama. José Agostinho de Macedo wrote the narrative poem "Gama" (1811), later recast and perfected in the epic poem "O Oriente" (1814), with Vasco da Gama as Hero. The opera "L'Africaine", composed in 1865 by Giacomo Meyerbeer and Eugène Scribe, includes the character of Vasco da Gama, performed in 1989 at the San Francisco Opera by tenor Placido Domingo. Nineteenth-century composer Louis-Albert Bourgault-Ducoudray composed an opera in 1872 of the same name, based on the life and maritime explorations of Vasco da Gama. The port city of Vasco da Gama in Goa is named in his memory, as is the "Vasco da Gama Crater" on the Moon. There are three football clubs in Brazil (including Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama) and Vasco Sports Club in Goa, also named in his honour. A church in Cochin, Kerala, the Vasco da Gama Church, and the Vasco Quarter in Cape Town also honor him. The three voyages of Vasco da Gama are reported in detail in the historical novel "Indias", by João Morgado, Literário Alçada Baptista 2012.
Marriage and descendants
He married Catarina de Ataide (c. 1470 – 1532), daughter of Álvaro de Ataide, Lord of Penacova and Mayor of the castle of Alvor and Maria da Silva, and sister of the famous governor of Safim, Nuno Fernandes de Ataíde; they had eight children:
Estêvão da Gama (1505–1576). 12th Governor of Portuguese India. Had descendants;
Isabel de Ataide (1506–?). He married Inácio de Noronha, son of the 1st Count of Linhares. No descendants;
Pedro da Gama (1507–?). He married Inês de Castro. No descendants;
Francisco da Gama (1510–?). 2nd Count of Vidigueira. Had descendants;
Christopher da Gama (1516–1542). No descendants;
Álvaro da Gama (1517–?). Captain of Malacca. Had descendants;
Paulo da Gama (1518–?). No descendants;
Juliana da Gama (1519–?). He married Belchior Vaz Borralho. No descendants.
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