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Rounding Good Hope to cut out the middleman
Brave, fierce, and above all, a skilled sailor and navigator, Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (c. 1460-1524) discovered the first sea route from Western Europe to India, opening an important new trade circuit, helping to establish Portugal as a power player in the late 15th century, and becoming one of history's most accomplished seafarers.
Travel log: Sailed five times between Lisbon and India--a journey of more than 11,000 miles--sometimes at sea for more than 90 days at a stretch.
Early adventures: Born in southwest Portugal to a nobleman who was a naval commander, da Gama earned his reputation at age 32, when he led a successful siege on French ships off the
coast of Portugal's Algarve province. In the 1490s, the Portuguese decided it was high time to find an ocean passage to India--in order to end the Muslim trade monopoly with the Far East--and they turned to the da Gama family to do the job. As fate would have it, Vasco's father died before the trip, so his son was chosen to lead the expedition.
For the history books: On July 8, 1497, da Gama and a crew of 170 men (including a collection of convicts brought along to do the most dangerous jobs) left Lisbon harbor with four three-masted ships laden with supplies. They sailed south to the Cape Verde Islands, and in November rounded the Cape of Good Hope to enter uncharted waters (for European sailors, at least). Da Gama was greeted with mixed emotion by Muslim leaders in ports along Africa's east coast, but in the city of Malindi, in what is now Kenya, he found an Arab guide to lead him on the 23-day voyage across the Arabian Sea. Ten months after leaving Portugal, in May 1498, da Gama's ships reached Calicut, a trading center on India's southwest coast, where they found an abundance of prized spices, gemstones, and exotic silks.
Da Gama's first visit lasted three months, but he made little progress establishing relations with the Hindu leaders, who expected newcomers like the Portuguese to present them with lavish gifts. And his journey back to Lisbon was long and harrowing; he lost more than half his crew to scurvy. But when he returned in September 1498, Portuguese King Manuel was pleased--da Gama was awarded money and land, as well as the title of dom--and others soon followed da Gama's new route.
In 1502, da Gama returned to India, this time with 20 ships and orders to make Calicut a Portuguese colony. Hindus and Muslims resisted, and numerous times da Gama displayed a great propensity for cruelty to the native people. Back home again, he had a falling out with the king. With a new monarch in power by 1524, da Gama was named Portugal's viceroy to India and soon made his third and final voyage to the East. Shortly after arriving, he died in the city of Cochin.
Words to live by: Chroniclers describe Vasco da Gama as a man "daring for any grand or risky achievement."
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