Vasco da Gama

Vasco da Gama , c.1469-1524, Portuguese navigator, the first European to journey by sea to India. His epochal voyage (1497-99) was made at the order of Manuel I . With four vessels, he rounded the Cape of Good Hope, passed the easternmost point reached by Bartolomeu Dias in 1488, continued up the east coast of Africa to Malindi, and sailed across the Indian Ocean to Calicut. This voyage opened up a way for Europe to reach the wealth of the Indies, and out of it grew the Portuguese Empire. Immediately Portugal gained great riches from the spice trade. Gama dictated the instructions for Cabral's voyage (1500-1502) to India, and in 1502 he himself led a fleet of 20 ships on his second India voyage. With this force he attempted to establish Portuguese power in Indian waters and sought to secure the submission of a number of chiefs on the African coast. He was harsh in his methods and was not as good an administrator as many of the Portuguese captains who later went to the East, but he was the first, and he was fittingly honored with many tributes and the title of count of Vidigueria. In 1524 he was sent back to India as viceroy, but he died soon after his arrival. Gama's voyage is the subject of Camoens's epic The Lusiads.

Bibliography: See A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama (1898), the journal of one of Gama's subordinates; G. Corrêa, The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama and His Viceroyalty (1869, repr. 1964); K. G. Jayne, Vasco da Gama and His Successors (1910, repr. 1970); H. H. Hart, Sea Route to the Indies (1950, repr. 1971).

Gama, Vasco da (1469–1524) Portuguese navigator. He was charged with continuing Bartholomeu Diaz's search for a sea route to India. Da Gama's successful expedition (1497–99) rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and sailed across the Indian Ocean to Calicut. In 1502–03, he led a heavily armed expedition of 20 ships to Calicut, and brutally avenged the killing of Portuguese settlers left there by Cabral. Da Gama secured Portuguese supremacy in the Eastern spice trade.

Gama, Vasco da (c.1460–1524), Portuguese navigator, conquistador, and the first European known to have discovered the sea route to India. In 1497 he was selected by the King of Portugal to command a squadron of four ships to follow up the discovery by Bartholomew Diaz, nine years earlier, that there was a great ocean to the east of the Cape of Good Hope across which a route to the Orient might well exist.

Rounding the Cape of Good Hope successfully, Vasco da Gama followed the east coast of Africa to Malindi whence, under the direction of a Gujarati pilot, he crossed the Indian Ocean, reaching Calicut (now Kozhikode) on the Malabar Coast on 20 May 1498. There he set up the marble pillar by which Portuguese navigators marked any new discovery, and claimed possession of it for Portugal. The Arab traders already in the area prevented him from establishing a trading post, but he did load a full cargo of spices with which he returned home in September 1499. The voyage showed a profit of 600% and da Gama was given honours and awards by the Portuguese king.

A second expedition, commanded by Pedro Cabral (c.1467–1530), was dispatched in March 1500 to exploit da Gama's discoveries. Cabral established a trading post at Calicut, but, at the instigation of the Arab traders, this was later treacherously attacked and its occupants either killed or wounded. To avenge this attack a fleet of ten ships was dispatched under the command of da Gama, who was given the title of Admiral of India. He arrived off Calicut in 1502, bombarded it, and then treated the inhabitants with merciless cruelty before sailing on to Cochin where he obtained an immensely rich cargo for his ships.

On his return da Gama was created Count of Vidigueira and granted other honours and privileges, and retired to enjoy his great wealth. However, in 1524 he was appointed viceroy of the expanding Portuguese possessions in India and given the specific task of ensuring a thorough reform of the administration there. He arrived at Goa in September 1524 but had hardly begun work when he fell ill and died at Cochin. See also kamal. Watkins, R. , Unknown Seas: How Vasco da Gama Opened the East (2003).