navigator, explorer

Vasco da Gama
Dolocan Karina & Bejenaru Teodora
 Information-
❏ Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (1460 – 24 December 1524) was a
Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea.

❏ Vasco da Gama is one of the most famous and

celebrated explorers from the Age of Discovery. He
was responsible for Portugal's success as an early
colonising power. Following da Gama's initial
voyage, the Portuguese crown realized that
securing outposts on the eastern coast of Africa
would prove vital to maintaining national trade
routes to the Far East.
 His first voyage-
❏ On 8 July 1497 Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from
Lisbon. The distance traveled in the journey around Africa to India and back was
greater than the length of the equator.

After reaching the coast of present-day

Sierra Leone, da Gama took a course south into
the open ocean, crossing the Equator and seeking
the South Atlantic westerlies that
Bartolomeu Dias had discovered in 1487. This
course proved successful and on 4 November
1497, the expedition made landfall on the
African coast. For over three months the ships
had sailed more than 10,000 kilometres of
open ocean, by far the longest journey out of
sight of land made by that time.
Besides his journey to The Cape, he also went through..
01 Mozabique
Arab-controlled territory on the
02
East African coast that was an
integral part of the network of
trade in the Indian Ocean.
03 Malindi
The friendlier port of Malindi,
04
whose leaders were having a
conflict with those of Mombasa.
There the expedition first noted
evidence of Indian traders.
Mombasa
The Portuguese became the first
known Europeans to visit the port
of Mombasa from 7 to 13 April
1498, but were met with hostility
and soon departed.
Calicut [India]
The navigator was received with
traditional hospitality, including a
grand procession of at least 3,000
armed Nairs. They told them that
they had come "in search of
Christians and spices."

[Illustration] - Vasco da Gama arrives at
Calicut, India
*In his second voyage*
Calicut
After demanding the expulsion of Muslims
from Calicut to the Hindu Zamorin, the
latter sent the high priest Talappana (the
very same person who conducted da Gama
to the Zamorin's chamber during his much
celebrated first visit to Calicut) for talks.
Da Gama called him a spy, ordered the
priest's lips and ears to be cut off and sent
him away.The Portuguese fleet then
bombarded the unfortified city for nearly
two days from the sea, severely damaging
it. He also captured several rice vessels and
left a note to the Zamorin, in which Gama
declared that he would be open to friendly
relations once they had paid for the items
plundered from the feitoria as well as the
gunpowder and cannonballs.
 Return-
❏ Vasco da Gama left Calicut on 29 August 1498. Eager to set sail for home, he ignored
the local knowledge of monsoon wind patterns that were still blowing onshore.

Not having enough crewmen left standing to manage three ships, da Gama ordered the São
Rafael scuttled off the East African coast, and the crew re-distributed to the remaining two
ships, the São Gabriel and the Berrio. Thereafter, the sailing was smoother. By early March,
they had arrived in Mossel Bay, and crossed the Cape of Good Hope in the opposite
direction on 20 March, reaching the west African coast by 25 April.
The diary record of the expedition ends abruptly here.

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