Sometimes violent negotiations with the local ruler (the Samoothiri Raja, usually anglicized as Zamorin) ensued in the teeth of resistance from Arab merchants. Having got that far, da Gama was able to employ a pilot at Malindi, who brought the expedition the rest of the way to Calicut (the exact Malayalam name is Kozhikode) on the southwest coast of India on May 20, 1498. By January they had reached modern-day Mozambique, Arab-controlled territory on the East African coast that was part of the Indian Ocean's network of trade. With Christmas pending they gave the coast they were passing the name Natal (Christmas in Portuguese), which it retains to this day. On Jfour ships (the São Gabriel, the São Rafael, whose commander was his brother Paulo da Gama, the Berrio, and a storage ship of unknown name) left Lisbon and the voyage began.īy December 16 they had passed the Fish River and continued on into waters unknown to Europeans.
Vasco was then given the job on the strength of his work for the Portuguese crown along the Gold Coast of Africa. This task was given to Da Gama's father, Estêvão da Gama, but he died before he could begin. It remained only for the two segments to be joined into one voyage. Bartolomeu Dias had returned from rounding the Cape of Good Hope and exploring as far as the Fish River in modern-day South Africa, while Pero da Covilhã in India had explored south for some of the distance intervening between subcontinent and the end of explorations. He was slightly younger than 20 years old as these long-term plans were coming to fruition. From the 1460s, the goal had become one of rounding that continent's southern extremity and gaining easier access to the riches of India (mainly black pepper and other spices) through a reliable sea route instead of the costly and unsafe overland route.ĭa Gama was born in Sines. 1469– December 24, 1524) was a Portuguese explorer who was the first person to sail directly from Europe to India.įrom the early 15th century, the nautical school of Henry the Navigator had been extending Portuguese knowledge of the coast of Africa.