On 8 July 1497 Vasco da Gama led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from Lisbon. The distance traveled in the journey around Africa to India and back was greater than the length of the equator. The navigators included Portugal's most experienced,
Pero de Alenquer,
Pedro Escobar, , and Afonso Gonçalves. It is not known for certain how many people were in each ship's crew but approximately 55 returned, and two ships were lost. Two of the vessels were
carracks, newly built for the voyage; the others were a
caravel and a supply boat. This course proved successful and on 4 November 1497, the expedition made landfall on the African coast. For over three months the ships had sailed more than of open ocean, by far the longest journey without landfall made by that time. By 16 December, the fleet had passed the
Great Fish River (
Eastern Cape, South Africa) – where Dias had anchored – and sailed into waters previously unknown to Europeans. With Christmas pending, da Gama and his crew gave the coast they were passing the name
Natal, which carried the connotation of "birth of Christ" in Portuguese.
Mozambique Vasco da Gama spent 2 to 29 March 1498 in the vicinity of
Mozambique Island. Arab-controlled territory on the East African coast was an integral part of the network of trade in the Indian Ocean. Fearing the local population would be hostile to Christians, da Gama impersonated a Muslim and gained audience with the Sultan of Mozambique. With the paltry trade goods he had to offer, the explorer was unable to provide a suitable gift to the ruler. Soon the local populace became suspicious of da Gama and his men. Forced by a hostile crowd to flee Mozambique, da Gama departed the harbor, firing his cannons into the city in retaliation.
Mombasa In the vicinity of modern Kenya, the expedition resorted to piracy, looting Arab merchant ships that were generally unarmed trading vessels without heavy cannons. The Portuguese became the first known Europeans to visit the port of
Mombasa from 7 to 13 April 1498, but were met with hostility and soon departed.
Malindi in
Malindi, in modern-day
Kenya, erected on the journey Vasco da Gama continued north, arriving on 14 April 1498 at the friendlier port of
Malindi, whose leaders were in conflict with those of Mombasa. There, da Gama and his crew contracted the services of a Gujarati pilot who used his knowledge of the
monsoon winds to guide the expedition the rest of the way to
Kozhikode, located on the southwest coast of India. Ibn Majid was also, aged 77, too old at the time to have made the journey. Vasco da Gama left Malindi for India on 24 April 1498.
Kozhikode, India , 1900 of Calicut (Kozhikode), by
Veloso Salgado, 1898 The fleet arrived in
Kappadu near
Kozhikode (known as Kozhikode at the time, subsequently known as Calicut and now renamed Kozhikode) on the
Malabar Coast (present-day
Kerala state of India) on 20 May 1498. The
Zamorin (Samoothiri) of Kozhikode, who was at that time staying in his second capital at
Ponnani, returned to the city on hearing the news of the foreign fleet's arrival. The navigator was received with traditional hospitality, including a grand procession of at least 3,000 armed
Nairs, but an interview with the Zamorin failed to produce any concrete results. When local authorities asked da Gama's fleet, "What brought you hither?", they replied that they had come "in search of Christians and spices." For a moment he thought that he found long-lost Christians. He entered a temple, saw the statue of the Virgin Mary and fell on his knees in front of the statue. It turned out to be the Hindu goddess
Parvati in a Brahmin temple. The presents that da Gama sent to the Zamorin as gifts from Dom Manuel – four cloaks of scarlet cloth, six hats, four branches of corals, twelve , a box with seven brass vessels, a chest of sugar, two barrels of oil and a cask of honey – were trivial, and failed to impress. While the Zamorin's officials wondered at why there was no gold or silver, the Muslim merchants who considered da Gama their rival suggested that the latter was only an ordinary pirate and not a royal ambassador. Vasco da Gama's request for permission to leave a factor behind him in charge of the merchandise he could not sell was turned down by the King, who insisted that da Gama pay customs duty – preferably in gold – like any other trader, which strained the relation between the two. Annoyed by this, da Gama carried a few Nairs and sixteen fishermen (
mukkuva) off with him by force.
Return Vasco da Gama left Kozhikode on 29 August 1498. Eager to set sail for home, he ignored the local knowledge of monsoon wind patterns that were still blowing onshore. The fleet initially inched north along the Indian coast, and then anchored in at
Anjediva island for a spell. They finally struck out for their Indian Ocean crossing on 3 October 1498. But with the winter monsoon yet to set in, it was a harrowing journey. On the outgoing journey, sailing with the summer monsoon wind, da Gama's fleet crossed the Indian Ocean in only 23 days; now, on the return trip, sailing against the wind, it took more than 90 days. Da Gama saw land again only on 2 January 1499, passing before the coastal
Somali city of
Mogadishu, then under the influence of the
Ajuran Empire in the
Horn of Africa. The fleet did not make a stop, but passing before Mogadishu, the anonymous diarist of the expedition noted that it was a large city with houses of four or five storeys high and big palaces in its center and many mosques with cylindrical minarets. Da Gama's fleet finally arrived in Malindi on 7 January 1499, in a terrible state – approximately half of the crew had died during the crossing, and many of the rest were afflicted with scurvy. Not having enough crewmen left standing to manage three ships, da Gama ordered the
São Rafael scuttled off the East African coast, and the crew re-distributed to the remaining two ships, the
São Gabriel and the
Berrio. While there he was also granted permission by the Sultan to set up a (a stone pillar).
The Vasco da Gama Pillar, as it is still known locally, seems to be the only one of the many set up by da Gama to survive to the present day. After leaving Malindi, the sailing was smoother. By early March, the fleet had arrived in Mossel Bay, and crossed the Cape of Good Hope in the opposite direction on 20 March, reaching the western coast of Africa by 25 April. The diary record of the expedition ends abruptly here. Reconstructing from other sources, it seems they continued to Cape Verde, where Nicolau Coelho's
Berrio separated from Vasco da Gama's
São Gabriel and sailed on by itself. The
Berrio arrived in Lisbon on 10 July 1499 and Nicolau Coelho personally delivered the news to King Manuel I and the royal court, then assembled in
Sintra. In the meantime, back in Cape Verde, da Gama's brother, Paulo da Gama, had fallen grievously ill. Da Gama elected to stay by his side on
Santiago island and handed the
São Gabriel over to his clerk,
João de Sá, to take home. The
São Gabriel under Sá arrived in Lisbon sometime in late July or early August. Da Gama and his sickly brother eventually hitched a ride with a Guinea caravel returning to Portugal, but Paulo da Gama died en route. Da Gama disembarked at the
Azores to bury his brother at the monastery of São Francisco in
Angra do Heroismo, and lingered there for a little while in mourning. He eventually took passage on an Azorean caravel and finally arrived in Lisbon on 29 August 1499 (according to Barros), or early September Vasco da Gama was justly celebrated for opening a direct sea route to Asia. His path would be followed up thereafter by yearly
Portuguese India Armadas. The spice trade would prove to be a major asset to the Portuguese royal treasury, and other consequences soon followed. For example, da Gama's voyage had made it clear that the east coast of Africa, the
Contra Costa, was essential to Portuguese interests; its ports provided fresh water, provisions, timber, and harbors for repairs, and served as a refuge where ships could wait out unfavorable weather. One significant result was the colonization of
Mozambique by the Portuguese Crown. == Rewards ==