Vasco da Gama (1469?-1524)

Portuguese explorer and navigator, who was the first European to reach India by the sea route. Da Gama was born in Sines, Alemtejo (now Baixo Alentejo). In his youth he participated in the wars against Castile. Commissioned by Manuel, king of Portugal, to reach India by sea, da Gama sailed from Lisbon with four ships on July 9, 1497. In November he rounded the Cape of Good Hope (first rounded in 1488 by the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias) and anchored at Malindi on the east coast of Africa. With the aid of a pilot secured through Indian merchants in that port, da Gama directed his course eastward and on May 20, 1498, reached Calicut on the Malabar Coast of India. Because of the hostility of Muslim merchants, he could not establish a Portuguese trading station there. After fighting his way out of the harbor of Calicut, he returned to Portugal in 1499. Da Gama was welcomed with praise, rewarded financially, and permitted to use the prefix Dom with his name. To follow up the discoveries of da Gama, the Portuguese navigator Pedro Αlvares Cabral was immediately dispatched to India, and he established a Portuguese trading post in Calicut. When news reached Portugal that those stationed in Calicut by Cabral had been massacred, da Gama, who had been given the title of admiral of India, was sent to avenge that act. On the route to Calicut he established Portuguese colonies at Mozambique and Sofala (now part of Mozambique), in east Africa. After arriving in Calicut, da Gama subdued the inhabitants and forced the raja to make peace. Bearing a rich cargo of spice, he left India and sailed back to Portugal in 1503. For the next 20 years he saw no active sea duty. He received the title of count of Vidigueira in 1519, and in 1524 he was named viceroy and sent to India to correct the mounting corruption among the Portuguese authorities there. Da Gama reached India in the fall of 1524, but he died in Cochin only three months after his arrival.

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