At Last,
When Emanuel, Who Was Their Sovereign, Had Determined On Prosecuting The
Discovery Of India, His Choice Of A Person To Conduct The Enterprise Fell
On Gama.
As he had armorial bearings, we may justly suppose that he was of
a good family; and in all
Respects he appears to have been well qualified
for the grand enterprise to which he was called, and to have resolved, from
a sense of religion and loyalty, to have devoted himself to death, if he
should not succeed. Diaz was appointed to a command under him, but he had
not the satisfaction of witnessing the results of his own discovery; for he
returned when the fleet had reached St. Jago, was employed in a secondary
command under Cabral, in the expedition in which Brazil was discovered, and
in his passage from that country to the Cape, four ships, one of which he
commanded, perished with all on board.
As soon as the fleet which Gama was to take with him was ready for sea, the
king, attended by all his court, and a great body of the people, formed a
solemn procession to the shore, where they were to embark, and Gama assumed
the command, under the auspices of the most imposing religious ceremonies.
Nearly all who witnessed his embarkation regarded him and those who
accompanied him "rather as devoted to destruction, than as sent to the
acquisition of renown."
The fleet which was destined to accomplish one of the objects (the
discovery of America is the other) - which, as Dr. Robertson remarks,
"finally established those commercial ideas and arrangements which
constitute the chief distinction between the manners and policy of ancient
and modern times," - consisted only of three small ships, and a victualler,
manned with no more than 160 souls: the principal officers were Vasco de
Gama, and Paul his brother: Diaz and Diego Diaz, his brother, who acted as
purser: and Pedro Alanquer, who had been pilot to Diaz. Diaz was to
accompany them only to a certain latitude.
They sailed from Lisbon on the 18th of July, 1497: in the bay of St.
Helena, which they reached on the 4th of November, they found natives, who
were not understood by any of the negro interpreters they had on board.
From the description of the peculiarity in their mode of utterance, which
the journal of the voyage calls sighing, and from the circumstance that the
same people were found in the bay of St. Blas, 60 leagues beyond the Cape,
there can be no doubt that they were Hottentots. In consequence of the
ignorance or the obstinacy of the pilot, and of tempestuous weather, the
voyage to the Cape was long and dangerous: this promontory, however, was
doubled on the 20th of November. After this the wind and weather proving
favourable, the voyage was more prosperous and rapid. On the 11th of
January, 1498, they reached that part of the coast where the natives were
no longer Hottentots, but Caffres, who at that period displayed the same
marks of superior civilization by which they are distinguished from the
Hottentots at present.
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