Vasco da Gama (c. 1460 - 1524)

Portuguese navigator whose voyages to India (1497-99, 1502-03, 1524) opened up the sea route from western Europe to the East by way of the Cape of Good Hope and thus ushered in a new era in world history. He also helped make Portugal a world power. Life.

The third son of Estêvão da Gama, a nobleman who was commander of the fortress of Sines on the coast of Alentejo province in southwestern Portugal, Vasco was born in about 1460. Little is known of his early life; he may have studied at the inland town of Évora—somewhere he learned mathematics and navigation. In 1492 King John II of Portugal sent him to the port of Setúbal, south of Lisbon, and to the Algarve, Portugal's southernmost province, to seize French ships in retaliation for French peacetime depredations against Portuguese shipping—a task that Vasco rapidly and effectively performed.

In accordance with the policy of Prince Henry the Navigator, King John was planning to send a Portuguese fleet to India to open the sea route to Asia and to outflank the Muslims, who had hitherto enjoyed a monopoly of trade with India and other eastern states. Estêvão da Gama was chosen to lead the expedition, but after his death Vasco took his place. Accounts of his appointment differ; whether he was chosen by King John and this choice confirmed by King Manuel, who ascended the throne in 1495, or whether it was King Manuel who first chose him, remains unclear. According to one version, the appointment was first offered to his eldest brother Paulo, who declined because of ill health. The first voyage.

Da Gama sailed from Lisbon on July 8, 1497, with a fleet of four vessels—two medium-sized three-masted sailing ships, each of about 120 tons, named the "São Gabriel" and the "São Rafael"; a 50-ton caravel, named the "Berrio"; and a 200-ton storeship. They were accompanied to the Cape Verde Islands by another ship commanded by Bartolomeu Dias, the Portuguese navigator who had discovered the Cape of Good Hope a few years earlier and who was en route to the West African castle of São Jorge da Mina on the Gold Coast (now Ghana). With da Gama's fleet went three interpreters—two Arabic speakers and one who spoke several Bantu dialects. The fleet also carried padrões (stone pillars) to set up as marks of discovery and overlordship.

Passing the Canary Islands on July 15, the fleet reached the São Tiago in the Cape Verde Islands on the 26th, remaining there until August 3. Then, to avoid the currents of the Gulf of Guinea, da Gama took a circular course through the South Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope, reaching Santa Helena Bay (in modern South Africa) on November 7. The expedition departed on November 16, but unfavourable winds delayed their rounding of the Cape of Good Hope until November 22. Three days later da Gama anchored in Mossel Bay, erected a padrão on an island, and ordered the storeship to be broken up. Sailing again on December 8, the fleet reached the coast of Natal on Christmas Day. On Jan. 11, 1498, it anchored for five days near the mouth of a small river between Natal and Mozambique, which they called the Rio do Cobre (Copper River). On January 25, in what is now Mozambique, they reached the Quelimane River, which they called the Rio dos Bons Sinais (the River of Good Omens), and erected another padrão. By this time many of the crews were sick with scurvy; the expedition rested a month while the ships were repaired.

On March 2 the fleet reached the island of Mozambique, the inhabitants of which believed the Portuguese to be Muslims like themselves. Da Gama learned that they traded with Arab merchants and that four Arab vessels laden with gold, jewels, silver, and spices were then in port; he was also told that Prester John, the long-sought Christian ruler, lived in the interior but held many coastal cities. The Sultan of Mozambique supplied da Gama with two pilots, one of whom deserted when he discovered that the Portuguese were Christians.

The expedition reached Mombasa (now in Kenya) on April 7 and dropped anchor at Malindi (also now in Kenya) on April 14, where a pilot who knew the route to Calicut, on the southwest coast of India, was taken aboard. After a 23-day run across the Indian Ocean, the Ghats Mountains of India were sighted, and Calicut was reached on May 20. There da Gama erected a padrão to prove he had reached India. Welcomed by the Zamorin, the Hindu ruler, of Calicut (then the most important trading centre of southern India), he failed, however, to conclude a treaty—partly because of the hostility of Muslim merchants and partly because the trumpery presents and cheap trade goods that he had brought, while suited to the West African trade, were hardly in demand in India.

After tension between da Gama's expedition and the Zamorin of Calicut increased, da Gama left at the end of August, taking with him five or six Hindus so that King Manuel might learn about their customs. He visited Anjidiv Island (near Goa) before sailing for Malindi, which he reached on Jan. 8, 1499. Unfavourable winds caused the expedition to take nearly three months crossing the Arabian Sea, and many of the crew died of scurvy. At Malindi, because of greatly reduced numbers, da Gama ordered the "São Rafael" to be burned; there he also erected a padrão. Mozambique, where he set up his last padrão, was reached on February 1. On March 20 the "São Gabriel" and "Berrio" rounded the Cape together but a month later were parted by a storm; the "Berrio" reached the Tagus River in Portugal on July 10. Da Gama, in the "São Gabriel," continued to Terceira Island in the Azores, whence he is said to have dispatched his flagship to Lisbon. He himself reached Lisbon on September 9 and made his triumphal entry nine days later, spending the interval mourning his brother Paulo, who had died on Terceira. Manuel I granted Vasco the title of dom (equivalent to the English "sir"), an annual pension of 1,000 cruzados, and estates. The second voyage.

To further da Gama's achievement, Manuel I dispatched the Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral to Calicut with a fleet of 13 ships. Later, the Hindus, incited by the Muslims, rose in arms and massacred the Portuguese whom Cabral had left behind. To avenge this deed a new fleet was fitted out in Lisbon to be sent against Calicut and to establish Portuguese hegemony in the Indian Ocean. At first the command was to be given to Cabral, but it was later transferred to da Gama, who in January 1502 was given the rank of admiral. Da Gama himself commanded 10 ships, which were in turn supported by two flotillas of five ships each, each flotilla being under the command of one of his relations. Sailing in February 1502, the fleet called at the Cape Verdes, reaching the port of Sofala in East Africa on June 14. After calling briefly at Mozambique, the Portuguese expedition sailed to Kilwa, in what is now Tanzania. The ruler of Kilwa, the amir Ibrahim, had been unfriendly to Cabral; da Gama threatened to burn Kilwa if the Amir did not submit to the Portuguese and swear loyalty to King Manuel, which he then did.

Coasting southern Arabia, da Gama then called at Goa (later the focus of Portuguese power in India) before proceeding to Cannanore, a port in southwestern India to the north of Calicut, where he lay in wait for Arab shipping. After several days an Arab ship arrived with merchandise and between 200 and 400 passengers, including women and children. After seizing the cargo, da Gama shut up the passengers aboard the captured ship and set it afire, killing all on board, the cruelest act of his career.

After da Gama formed an alliance with the ruler of Cannanore, an enemy of the Zamorin, the fleet sailed to Calicut. The Zamorin offered friendship, but da Gama rejected the offer and presented an ultimatum that the Muslims be banished from the port. To show that he meant what he threatened, da Gama bombarded the port and seized and massacred 38 Hindu fishermen who had sailed out to his ships to sell their wares; their bodies were then thrown overboard, to be washed ashore. The Portuguese then sailed south to the port of Cochin, with whose ruler (an enemy of the Zamorin) they formed an alliance. After an invitation to da Gama from the Zamorin had proved to be an attempt to entrap him, the Portuguese had a brief fight with Arab ships off Calicut but put them to full flight. On Feb. 20, 1503, the fleet left Cannanore for Mozambique on the first stage of their return voyage, reaching the Tagus on October 11. The third voyage.

Obscurity surrounds the reception of da Gama on his return by King Manuel. Da Gama seemingly felt himself inadequately recompensed for his pains. Controversy broke out between the Admiral and the Order (i.e., religious association) of São Tiago over the ownership of the town of Sines, which the Admiral had been promised but which the order refused to yield. Da Gama had married a lady of good family, Caterina de Ataíde—perhaps in 1500 after his return from his first voyage—and he then appears to have retired to the town of Évora. He was later granted additional privileges and revenues, and his wife bore him six sons. Until 1505 he continued to advise the King on Indian matters, and he was created count of Vidigueira in 1519. Not until after King Manuel died was he again sent overseas; King John III nominated him in 1524 as Portuguese viceroy in India.

Arriving in Goa in September, da Gama immediately set himself to correct the many administrative abuses that had crept in under his predecessors. Whether from overwork or other causes, he soon fell ill and died in Cochin in December. In 1538 his body was taken back to Portugal. (Eila M.J. Campbell, Encyclopaedia Britannica Article)