Vasco Da Gama: The Explorer Who Created New Pages of History

Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer who sailed from Europe to India. This particular traveler's account is so famous that almost all of us have heard his name. This story interestingly traces his journey and discoveries.

Vasco Da Gama. Source: kids.britannica.com

During those days gold, spices, and other wealth were precious in Europe and so they had to travel long distances over land and sea to reach Asia. Europeans during this period were looking for faster ways to sail through Africa and reach India. Da Gama completed the task. In this way, he helped open up important trade routes to Asia. Portugal celebrated his success and his voyage ushered in a new era of exploration and world trade.

Historically, scholars are not exactly certain of the time and place of Gama’s birth. Some believe that he was born in the town of Sines in Portugal in the mid-fifteenth Century, somewhere around 1460. Estevan da Gama, his father was a knight to the Duke of Viseu. Vasco Da Gama’s mother, Isabel Sodre too was a noble. Young Vasco was always exposed to his father’s involvement in the duke’s court which ultimately prepared him with good elementary education.

As his birthplace was considered to be Sines, which is a port city, Vasco Da Gama since his childhood was quite fascinated and also acquainted with ships, navigation, and trade. It is said that he received his primary education in a school at Evora, a huge village around 70 miles away from Sines, where he learned advanced calculative mathematics to grasp the fundamental principles of navigation. At the age of 15, he became an expert of merchant ships and his enthusiasm led him to become a captain at the tender age of 20. Hence it is not a miracle that a child so intent on ships and navigation would be able to discover an entire subcontinent like India.

The inception of his career took place when Portugal was in pursuit of finding trade routes between India and Africa. During those days, the Ottomans dictated the Eurasian trade routes and imposed hefty charges on ships passing through their channels and ports. It was this event that forced Prince Henry of Portugal to find the era of Portuguese exploration.

Vasco Da Gama is known far and wide for different nautical expeditions that he sent along the various coastlines of Africa from the beginning of the 1400s till his last breath. He is responsible for the discovery of several trade lines by sending out numerous expeditions abroad to explore the unknown world. However, Bartolomeu Diaz was the first to navigate through the “dark continent” of Africa and reach up to the Indian Ocean. But, he failed to go to India and had to return back to India.

In the dying years of the 15th Century, when Manuel I was crowned the King of Portugal, he wanted to open trade routes to the Indian Subcontinent. A number of navigators were called up for leading this venture, however, he ultimately chose Vasco Da Gama for fulfilling the task.

Vasco Da Gama started his monumental journey of navigation on the 8th of July, 1497, from Lisbon with a convoy of four ships and a 170-men crew. Da Gama directed San Gabriel. Vasco's brother, Paulo Da Gama, commanded the three-masted San He Raphael. There was also the caravel Verio and the cargo ship San Maria. Accompanying him was Bartolomeu Diaz who sailed with da Gama and gave him useful advice for navigating along the dangerous African coast.

Vasco Da Gama and his fleet sailed towards the Cape of Good Hope but were delayed by a storm. For three days they circled around the Cape and to avoid the storms and strong currents near the Gulf of Guinea, Da Gama and his fleet sailed for the South Atlantic and headed for the Cape of Good Hope. A storm delayed them for a while. Three days later they circled the cape and anchored at Mossel Bay, South Africa. They anchored at the Rio do Cobre (Copper River) near Mozambique in January and continued until they reached the Rio dos Bon Sinais (River of Good Omen). Here they erected a statue bearing the name of Portugal.

He stayed here for a month, as most of the crew contracted scurvy, caused by a deficiency of vitamin C6. Da Gama's fleet eventually set sail again. In March they reached Mozambique Island. After trading with local Islamic merchants, Da Gama set sail and made a short stopover in Malindi (now Kenya). He had recruited a pilot to help him navigate through the great Indian Ocean. According to reports, they continued sailing for a total of 22 days and are said to have reached the Indian subcontinent on the 20th day of March, 1498.

Vasco Da Gama was introduced to the king at Calicut. However, for no definite reason, the king wasn't impressed by the gifts he brought as an offering for the newly discovered land and its people. What followed was rather interesting. His crew and he traded in India for the next few months and enquired into the different cultures and traditions of the Indians that had so long been alien to these people. After reflecting on their visit and trading for a consistent period of 3 months, Vasco Da Gama left India by the end of August. While is sail back home, he anchored at Anjediva Island near the coast of Goa and also at Malindi in the next year of January 1499. He finally sailed back home by September 1499. Manuel I was extremely impressed by Da Gama and awarded him the title of admiral and gave him a box full of gold coins.

It was after his discovery, in 1500, that Vasco Da Gama met Caterina de Atide, to who he got married to. They lived in the beautiful city of Evora with their six loving sons. He was resent to India in the year of 1524. He reached Goa and was said to have completely restored order among the existing Portuguese leadership. However, at the end of 1524, he suddenly fell ill and died in Cochin on the 24th of December, 1524. He was buried in a local cemetery and after nearly 15 years of his death, his remains were returned to Portugal for the commemoration of a great discoverer.

Vasco Da Gama was the first discoverer to have navigated through a maritime trade route to India. He achieved what so long was regarded unachievable. His discovery of this new Eurasian sea route enabled the Portuguese empire to organize everlasting colonial regimes in Asia and Africa. Newer sea routes now enabled the Portuguese sailors to expand their trading power across the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

Thus, Vasco da Gama opened a new world of wealth by opening a sea route across the Indian Ocean. His travels and explorations helped change the world of Europeans.