On his arrival back to Lisbon, on September 9, 1499, da Gama received wealth and titles. The return voyage claimed the life of his brother Paulo, who had captained one of the ships, as well as the lives of many of his crew. On his return voyage back to Portugal, da Gama encountered extensive hardship. 5ĭespite not having secured a trade agreement, he was able to secure a large shipment of spices before leaving. In addition to their goods not selling well, the Muslin merchants, with whom da Gama had conflicts and who dominated the city’s trade, convinced the zamorin that they would gain nothing by entering into a trade agreement with the intruders. The goods that da Gama and his crew brought did not sell. Da Gama was initially received with the usual hospitality, and he traded goods with their host, but sadly their goods were not appreciated. 4 Although the King of Calicut was staying at Ponnani, he returned to Calicut upon hearing of the foreigners’ arrival. With the help of a local Muslin pilot, he then departed across the Indian Ocean and reached Calicut on May 20. On March 2, 1497, Da Gama and his crew arrived at what is known as Mozambique they stationed themselves there for several months to allow the crew time to recover from the scurvy they had contracted and to repair their vessels. The expedition made several stops along the eastern coast of Africa to trade the goods in their possession for fruits and vegetables. On November 22, he led his crew around the Cape of Good Hope, and on Christmas Day, arrived at what is known today as Natal. After spending the next days at Cape Verde resting and preparing for the next stage of their trip, the crew set sail again on August 3 Da Gama and his crew would not see land for the next three months. The fleet reached the Canary Islands on July 15 and proceeded on to the Cape Verde Islands. He was accompanied by Dias who served as pilot to the Canary Islands.
On July 8, 1497, da Gama set sail from Lisbon to Asia. 3 A Chart Illustrating the First Voyage of Vasco Da Gama | Courtesy of Mariners Museum Many of the crew that he recruited were convicts whose lives, he believed, were expendable. Along with the experienced navigators, he looked for men that were tough enough to withstand the harsh conditions of life at sea. He recruited a crew of 170 men that included some of Portugal’s most experienced navigators. His fleet consisted of two new ships that were built specifically for the expedition and two refurbished ships that were equipped with better cannons than the new ones. 2įor the expedition, da Gama turned to Dias to help him plan and organize the trip. Although da Gama was an inexperienced explorer, he was appointed to lead the expedition to discover a sailing route to India.
A few years later, in 1497, da Gama was appointed to command a ship by King Manuel. He wanted to open a route for Portugal to make money trading spice and thereby establish Portugal as a major maritime and colonial power. When King Manuel rose to power in 1495, he decided to revisit the possibility that Dias’s new route opened the potential to sending a Portuguese fleet to Asia around Africa. In 1487, on a voyage funded by Portugal, Bartholomeu Dias found that the Indian and Atlantic Oceans were linked and discovered a passage around the Cape of Good Hope. In 1492, King John II sent da Gama to a port south of Lisbon, known as Setubal, and to Algarve to seize French ships in retaliation to the French destroying Portugal shipping.
Under the direction of King John II, da Gama was appointed commander of a ship with the intention of finding a sailing route to India. He joined the Portugal navy as soon as he was old enough to join. He was the third son of Esevao da Gama, also a navigator, that was the commander of the fortress of Sines on the coast of Alentejo. Vasco da Gama, the first European to sail around the continent of Africa to Asia, was born into a noble Portuguese family around 1460 in Sines, Portugal.