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:
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