The expedition set sail from Lisbon, following the African Coast through the island of Tenerife and Cape Verde Islands. After getting to the current Sierra Leone, it turned off towards the south, in the open ocean, and crossing the equator line. This manoeuvre, known as volta do mar, was successful and the 4th November of 1497 the expedition had arrived again to the African coast. After about three months, the ships had sailed more than 6,000 kilometres, the longest trip made in open sea. The 16th December the fleet had reached the point in which Bartolomeu Diaz had returned previously. The 2nd March of 1498, completing the outline of the African coast, the fleet arrived to Mozambique. Here they found the first Indian traders, who mistook the Portuguese for Muslims. Finally, when they found out they were Christians, they had to run away from Mozambique, forced by a hostile crowd, and set sail from the port firing their cannons against the city. In the coast of the current Kenya, the expedition sacked several unarmed merchant Muslim ships. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit the port of Mombasa, but were received in a very hostile way, and left soon. In February 1498, they disembarked in the friendly port of Malindi (rival of Mombasa), where the sultan provided them with Arab pilot, who knew the Indian Ocean and guided them to Calicut, in the southwestern coast of India. The 20th May of 1498, the fleet opened the sea route from Europe to India. The Indian governor also gave him a letter for the Portuguese king which allowed trade with Calicut. However, the conditions were not clearly expressed, and Gama decided to go back to Portugal, because he did not trust him. For this reason, the governor of Calicut obliged him to leave in the city part of his goods, to make sure he would return to trade, so Vasco da Gama left here part of his crew. He started the return voyage to Portugal the 29th August of 1498. Sailing against the Monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean took the fleet 132 days, although in the outward journey it had only taken them 23 days. Half of the surviving crew died, and many more sailors had scurvy. This is why, from the 148 men that made up the army after leaving Calicut, only 55 arrived to Portugal, in only two ships. The caravel Berrio was the first to return to Lisbon, the 10th July of 1499, under the command of Nicolau Coelho and piloted by Pêro Escobar. Later, in August, the Sao Gabriel arrived, under the command of João de Sá, and not Vasco da Gama, because he had abandoned the ship in the island of Santiago, in Cape Verde, where he chartered a caravel to take his brother Paulo da Gama, who was ill, to Terceira island, in the Azores, with the hope of saving him. Vasco da Gama returned to Lisbon in September of 1499, a month after his mates, because he had to bury his brother, who had died in the Azores islands. When he arrived to Portugal he received the title of “almirante-mor dos Mares das India”.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 08:36:34 +0000
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