The Armada was ready in 1497 and Dom Manuel entrusted the command to a fidalgo
of his Household, Vasco da Gama. The family seat of the daGamas wasin the town
of Sines and it his father Estevao who first conceived of the idea ofthe
voyage. They sailed from Belem, Vasco probably on board the San Gabriel.
Rounding the Cape, the two ships reached Mozambique in March 1498 and Melinde
in April. The king there suggested Calicut as a destination as againstnearby
Cambay. With a Melindian pilot at the helm, the crossing was made in twenty
days. Land was sighted near Cannanore, but they sailed down to Calicutand
anchored on May the 17th. The real importance of the new discovery lay in
the fact that it broke themonopoly which Venice and Egypt had long enjoyed in
the trade with India.The Moors saw the far reaching significance of the event,
knowing their tradesupremacy was endangered. Both the Egyptians and the Turks
were ready tointervene. Portugal got a respite when the Turks conquered Egypt,
and held it's position until dislodged by the Dutch. Da Gama sailed north
to Cannanore on the 29th of August and was invited to land by the Kolathiri
Raja who entered into an informal agreement with himand accepted his cargo.
He returned to Lisbon with cargo that was worth sixty times the cost of the
expedition. Honours and titles were showered on him, along with a lifetime
giftof 200 Cruzados a year.
__._,_.___ Posted by: eric pinto <ericpin...@yahoo.com>
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