Who sailed from Cambaya, and the
ports of India, navigated by the north and south stars, and the
constellations of the eastern and western hemispheres; and, though they
did not use these instruments in navigation, they employed one made of
three pieces of board, similar to the _balhestillia_, or cross-staff of
the Portuguese.
"In a collection of papers published in 1790, called _Documentos
Arabicos_, from the royal archives of Lisbon, chiefly consisting of
letters between the kings of Portugal and the tributary princes of the
east in the sixteenth century, the _zeque, sheik_, or king of Melinda,
with whom De Gama afterwards made a treaty of alliance, and whose
ambassador he carried into Portugal, was named Wagerage[44]."
Having thus procured a pilot, and provided all things necessary for the
voyage, De Gama departed from Melinda for Calicut, on Friday the 26th of
April 1498[45], and immediately made sail directly across the gulf which
separates Africa from India, which is 750 leagues[46]. This golf runs a
long way up into the land northwards; but our course for Calicut lay to
the east[47]. In following this voyage, our men saw the north star next
Sunday, which they had not seen of a long while; and they saw the stars
about the south pole at the same time.
