Appendix H473
Honours and Rewards Bestowed Upon Vasco da Gama, 1499-1524
King Manuel has not infrequently been charged with a niggardly disposition, but whatever his conduct may have been in other instances there can be no doubt that he dealt most liberally with the navigator who was the first to sail a ship from a European port to India. This liberality had been called forth by the sensation produced by the discovery of an ocean highway to India, and the expectation that great wealth would pour into Portugal as a consequence; it was kept alive by the persistent importunities of the discoverer.
Vasco da Gama certainly did not undervalue the services he had rendered to the King. He considered himself entitled to a high reward, and in the end secured it. His ambition, from the very first, seems to have been to take his place among the territorial nobles of his native land. His father, Estevão da Gama, had at one time been Alcaide-mór of Sines, he himself had been born at that picturesque old fishing town, and his desire to be territorially connected with it was therefore only natural. The King was quite willing that this should be, but Sines belonged to the Order of S. Thiago, of which D. Jorge, Duke of Coimbra, a natural son of D. João II, was master; and although a papal dispensation had been received in 1501, which empowered the Order to exchange Sines for some other town, the Order refused to part with it (see Document 1). Meanwhile the King, on February 22, 1501, had granted Vasco da Gama not only an annual pension of 1,000 cruzados (£483), but also the territorial title of “Dom” (Documents 2 and 3).474
Still further favours were conferred upon Vasco da Gama on January 10, 1502, only one month previous to his second departure for India; and this, we are told, was done “freely”, and without these favours having been solicited either by their recipient or by any of his friends (see Document 4). These favours included an annual hereditary pension of 300,000 reis (£362), the title of “Admiral of India”, with all the valuable privileges conferred by it;475 the right of sending annually to India 200 cruzados, to be laid out in merchandise, upon which no import duties were to be levied, excepting the 5 per cent. claimed by the Order of Christ,476 and confirmation of the hereditary title of “Dom”, which was also to be borne by his brother Ayres, and in its feminine form of “Dona” by his sister Theresa.
A few months after Vasco da Gama’s return from his second voyage, the King, who was especially pleased with the “tribute” received from the Sultan of Kilwa, bestowed upon him a further hereditary pension of 400,000 reis (1,000 cruzados, or £483). This was done on February 4, 1504 (Document 5).
Meanwhile the negotiations for putting Gama in possession of Sines had made no progress, and the Admiral, impatient of the delay, took up his residence in that town, began to build himself a manor-house, and generally conducted himself as if the town were his own. The alcaidemór, D. Luiz de Noronha, did not venture to interfere, but the Order of S. Thiago complained to the King; and the King, justly incensed at the masterful conduct of his vassal, peremptorily ordered his Admiral to quit Sines within thirty days, and not to return to it except by special permission of the Master of S. Thiago. This order was dated March 21, 1507 (see Document 7). We need scarcely say that it was obeyed.
But the Admiral still hankered after the territorial honours which had been promised him. He enjoyed already three royal pensions amounting to 2,750 cruzados (£1,328), and Leonardo Masser,477 the Venetian Ambassador at Lisbon, estimated the whole of his income at that time at 4,000 ducats, or rather cruzados (£1,930). This was a very large sum indeed. There were at that time only six noblemen, two archbishops, and seven bishops in all Portugal whose income exceeded his.478
In November, 1508, the King authorised Luiz d’Arca to cede to Vasco da Gama the alcaideria-mór of Villafranca de Xira (see Document 8), but the negotiations appear to have led to no result. Ten years were allowed to pass, when the Admiral informed the King that, the promised title of “Count” not having been conferred upon him, he desired permission to emigrate with his family. The King, on August 17, 1518 (see Document 13), granted this permission, on condition that the Admiral should defer his departure until the end of the year. In the meantime he seriously looked about him for the territorial qualification which would enable him to confer upon his importunate Admiral the title of Count. D. Jayme, Duke of Bragança, a nephew of the King, who held Vasco da Gama in high respect, was willing to accommodate his uncle. By an agreement signed on November 4, 1519, he surrendered the towns of Vidigueira and Villa de Frades, in consideration of Vasco da Gama ceding to him an hereditary Royal pension of 400,000 reis (1,000 cruzados), and in addition, paying the sum of 4,000 cruzados in gold. This transaction having been completed at Evora, on November 7, the King, in Document 16, granted to Vasco da Gama, his heirs and successors, the towns of Vidigueira and Villa de Frades, together with all revenues and privileges hitherto enjoyed by the Duke of Bragança; and on December 29 he conferred upon his Admiral the title of “Conde de Vidigueira” (see Documents 14-17).
And thus, when Vasco da Gama, in April, 1524, departed for the last time for India, the great ambition of his life had been realised. He died at Cochin, on Christmas eve of the same year.
Abstracts of Official Documents.
1.—Lisbon, December 24, 1499.479
By Letters Patent, dated Lisbon, December 24, 1499, the King, in recognition of the merits of Vasco da Gama, and the great services rendered by him in the discovery of India, grants to him, his heirs and successors, the town of Sines, together with all the revenues, privileges, and tithes pertaining thereto, as well as civil and criminal jurisdiction. But inasmuch as this town belongs to the Order of São Thiago, the formal title-deeds are to be drawn up only after this Order shall have received satisfaction by the grant of another town belonging to the Crown, and dispensation of the Holy Father, sanctioning this exchange, shall have been received.
Satisfaction was, moreover, to be given to D. Luiz de Noronha, the alcaide-mór of the said city. But should D. Luiz refuse to surrender the said alcaideria, then, the dispensation of the Pope having been received, the King promises at once to put Vasco da Gama in possession of the said town, and likewise of the castle, as soon as terms shall have been arranged with D. Luiz de Noronha.
2.—Lisbon, February 22, 1501.480
D. Manuel orders the Casa da Mina to pay annually to Vasco da Gama the of sum 1,000 cruzados in gold [at that time equal to 390,000 reis], until he shall have been placed in possession of the manor of Sines.
3.—Lisbon, November 19, 1501.481
The King orders Gonçalo de Sequeira, chief treasurer of the Casa de Ceuta, to deliver to Dom Vasco da Gama 15 moios [43 imperial quarters] of wheat, of the value of 28,000 reis, in part-payment of 70,000 reis due to him this year, the balance of 41,200 reis to be levied upon the Casa da Mina.
The receipt given by Vasco da Gama for this wheat is still extant, and is one of the very few autographs of the Admiral in existence.
That is to say:
dõ vco da gama dygo que he verdade que receby
os dytos q’nze moyos de trygo do dyto
go de sequeyra feito a xxbiij de novẽbro de
q’nhẽtos hu.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdõ vco da gama.
Or, in English:—
Don Vasco da Gama acknowledges to have received said 15 moios of wheat from said go de Sequeyra. Done on November 28, 1501.
Dom Vasco da Gama.
4.—Lisbon, January 10, 1502.482
D. Manuel after pointing out, in these letters-patent, that the explorations begun by the Infante D. Henry [the Navigator] in 1433,483 in the hope of discovering a new highway to India, had been continued by King Alfonso and King John, at an expenditure of many lives and of much treasure, until, in 1482,484 the Rio do Infante, at a distance of 1,885 leagues, had been reached, continues:
“Being animated by an ardent desire to continue the work initiated by the Infante and our predecessors, and being assured that Vasco da Gama, a gentleman of our household, was well qualified for rendering us this service, and would disregard the perils to his person and the risk of life which he ran in accomplishing the task set him, we sent him to India as captain-major of our fleet, and with him Paulo da Gama, his brother, and Nicolau Coelho, likewise a gentleman of our household. In this voyage he did most excellent service, for whilst only 1885 leagues of coast had been discovered during the many years which had elapsed since the commencement of this enterprise, and by the many captains sent out, he by himself, in this single voyage, discovered 1550 leagues, in addition to a great gold-mine and many wealthy towns and cities, having a great trade, and finally reached and discovered that India, which all those who have given descriptions of the world rank higher in wealth than any other country, which from all time had been coveted by the Emperors and Kings of the world, and for the sake of which such heavy expenses had been incurred in this kingdom, and so many captains and others forfeited their lives—a country, in fact, which all kings not only desired to possess but even to discover.
“This discovery, begun years ago, he accomplished at a greater sacrifice of life and of treasure, and at greater peril to his own person, than suffered by those who preceded him. Paulo da Gama, his brother, died in the course of the voyage, as also one-half of the people whom we sent out with this armada, they having passed through many perils, not only because of the length of this voyage, which exceeded two years, but also because of the desire to furnish trustworthy information on these territories and all connected with them.
“And bearing in mind the great services yielded to ourselves and our kingdoms by this voyage and discovery; the great advantages accruing thence, not only to our kingdoms but to all Christendom; the injury done to the infidels [i.e., Mohammedans] who, up till now, have enjoyed the advantages offered by India; and more especially the hope that all the people of India will rally round Our Lord, seeing that they may easily be led to a knowledge of His holy faith, some of them already being instructed in it; desiring, moreover, to recompense him for his services, as befits a prince when dealing with those who have so greatly and so well served him, and to bestow upon him a grace and favour; with full knowledge, and out of our royal and absolute power, without his having solicited it, nor any other person on his behalf, we grant him, freely and irrevocably, from this day in perpetuity, an annuity of 300,000 reis, to be paid to him and his descendants.”
For the payment of this annuity the King assigns the new tithe on fish imposed upon the towns of Sines and Villanova de Milfontes, supposed to yield 60,000 reis annually, which tithe has been surrendered by Martinho de Castelbranco, who held it from the Crown, and has been compensated elsewhere. Any surplus receipts out of this tithe were to be retained by Vasco da Gama, the King, on the other hand, not being obliged to make up any deficiencies. Secondly, the King surrenders 130,000 reis annually out of the excise levied upon Sines, any deficiency in that amount to be made up out of the excise of S. Thiago de Cacem. Thirdly, the King assigns to him 40,000 reis, to be paid out of the excise of S. Thiago. Lastly, the 70,000 reis still wanted to make up the 300,000 reis shall be paid out of the receipts of the timber octroi of the city of Lisbon.
In addition the King appoints him Admiral of India, conferring all honours, franchises and revenues which that rank carries with it, throughout the territories which shall be placed under the rule of the King.
Moreover, he is granted the privilege of sending annually, by the royal vessels, 200 cruzados to India, to be laid out in merchandise, upon the importation of which no duties whatever shall be levied except the 5 per cent. payable to the Order of Christ; this privilege to be transmitted to his descendants.
The King, moreover, confers upon him, his brother Ayres da Gama, and his sister, Tarayja (Theresa) da Gama, the hereditary title of Dom (Dona).
Finally, the King desires that the heirs of Vasco da Gama shall always bear the name of Gama, in memory of the said Vasco da Gama.
5.—Lisbon, February 4, 1504.485
The King, having pointed out that as Divine justice recompenses, in the other world, those who have firmly adhered to the Catholic faith and practised good works, so should the Kings and Princes of this world recompense those who have rendered them faithful service, directs attention to the signal services rendered by Vasco da Gama during his first voyage, when he discovered India. This discovery has resulted in a great accession of wealth. What the Romans, and Emperors and Kings have vainly attempted, has been accomplished by the said Admiral, and the advantages coveted by all nations have been secured to his kingdoms. These results have been attained at a great loss of life, for more than half the men in this first expedition have succumbed, and among them Paulo da Gama, the brother of the Admiral. On his return honours and other rewards were conferred on the Admiral.
In the course of a second voyage486 the services rendered by him have been equally brilliant. The King of Kilwa has been reduced to submission, and compelled to pay an annual tribute of 1,500 mitkals in gold,487 the first instalment of which has been received. This king is very powerful, and the owner of the gold mines of Sofala, the richest in that part of the world. In all other respects Vasco da Gama has faithfully guarded the royal interests, both in making war upon the Moors of Mecca, and in peaceable negotiations with the kings of those countries. The fleet intrusted to him, owing to the wisdom and judgment exercised, has returned richly laden. On these grounds he is entitled to some recompense. Acting as becomes a King, and considering his merits, he, D. Manuel, therefore grants him, and his male descendants in the direct line, an annuity of 400,000 reis, to commence on the first of January of this year, 1504, and to be secured on the salt tax of the city of Lisbon.
6.—Lisbon, February 20, 1504.488
The King instructs Fernão Lourenço, factor of the Guinea and India trade, to pay henceforth the annuity of 1,000 cruzados to Vasco da Gama; each caravel coming from the city of S. Jorge da Mina is to contribute 32,500 reis, the payments out of twelve caravels thus making up a total of 390,000 reis.
7.—Thomar, March 21, 1507.489
In a letter dated Thomar, March 21, 1507, and signed by Antonio Carneiro, the King’s chief secretary,490 Vasco da Gama, the Admiral of India, is informed that within thirty days after date he must withdraw from the town of Sines, with his wife and the whole of his household, and that neither himself, nor his wife, nor his household can be permitted to return to that town, or its precincts, except by permission of the Master [of the Order of São Thiago and Aviz]. In case any of them should enter the town without such permission, they will render themselves liable to a fine of fifty cruzados, beyond which they will incur the punishment deserved by those who refuse obedience to the orders of their King and Lord. In a postscript the King orders, moreover, that the same penalty shall be incurred if Vasco da Gama continue the buildings he has commenced.
(This Royal Edict was presented on June 26, 1507, at the office of the Master of the Order at S. Thiago de Cacem, by one João da Gama,491 and ordered to be placed in the Archives of the Order).
8.—Tavira, November 18, 1508.492
The King authorises Luiz d’Arca to surrender his Alcaideriamór of Villafranca de Xira492 to the Admiral of India (Vasco da Gama).
9.—Lisbon, November 19, 1511.493
The King orders the authorities (“judges”) of the Order of S. Thiago to afford the receiver appointed by the Admiral every facility for collecting the revenues assigned him in the towns of S. Thiago de Cacem, Sines and Villanova de Milfontes.
10.—Lisbon, June 1, 1513.494
The King informs all whom it may concern that in consideration of the merits and very great services of Dom Vasco da Gama, it pleases him to order that no freights be charged upon merchandise forwarded to the Admiral from India, whether sent by royal or private ships, the expenses, in the latter case, being charged to the India House. This privilege is not to extend to certain spices reserved for the Crown.
11.—Lisbon, August 22, 1515.495
The King authorises the Admiral to send with each fleet sailing to India a person to attend to his business, this person to draw pay as a man-at-arms.
12.—Lisbon, August 29, 1515.496
1). Manuel, having quoted in extenso the conditions of a pension of 400,000 reis granted on February 4, 1504, orders that one-half this pension shall be paid in future out of the revenues of the town of Niza,497 and the other out of the salt-tax, as before.
13.—Lisbon, August 17, 1518.498
The Admiral having reminded the King that the title of “Count” has been promised him, but has not yet been conferred, asks permission to leave the kingdom. The King, in a letter in which he addresses Vasco da Gama as “Almirante amiguo”, replies: “We order you to remain in our kingdom up to the end of December of the present year, and we hope by that time you will have seen the error you are about to commit, and desire to serve us as is seeming, and not take the extreme course proposed. But if by that time you are still minded to go, we shall not hinder your departure, with your wife, your sons, and all your moveable property. Done at Lisbon by the Secretary [Antonio Carneiro], August 17, 1518.... The King.”
14.—Evora, October 24, 1519.499
The King authorises Vasco da Gama to surrender his pension of 400,000 reis [see No. 5], to D. Jayme, Duke of Bragança, and the latter to give in exchange the towns of Vidigueira and Villa de Frades.
15.—Villa Viçosa, November 4, 1519.500
D. Jayme, Duke of Bragança and Guimaraes, authorises his “ouvidor” (bailiff), João Alves, to surrender the towns of Vidigueira and Villa de Frades, with all their revenues, etc., to D. Vasco da Gama, on condition of the latter ceding to him an hereditary pension of 400,000 reis, which he has from the King, and of paying, in addition, a sum of 4,000 cruzados in gold.
[This transaction was completed at Evora, where Vasco da Gama resided, on November 7, the 4,000 cruzados being paid in Portugueses of 10 cruzados each. As the eldest sons of the contracting parties, D. Theodesio of Bragança and D. Francisco da Gama, were still minors, it was agreed that the King should be asked to “overlook this deficiency of age”, so that they, too, should be bound by this agreement.501]
16.—Evora, December 17, 1519.502
The King, having sanctioned the arrangement between the Duke of Bragança and Vasco da Gama, and having dwelt once more upon the good services rendered by the latter not only to the Crown, but also to the inhabitants of the kingdom, and to all Christendom, grants to him and his heirs, irrevocably and for all time, the towns of Vidigueira and Villa de Frades, together with all privileges, including civil and criminal jurisdiction and church patronage, which had been enjoyed by the Dukes of Bragança, [These privileges, it should be understood, exceeded those usually enjoyed by a mere Count.]
17.—Evora, December 29, 1519.503
D. Manoel, after a glowing eulogy of the services rendered by his Admiral of India, confers upon him the title of Count of Vidigueira, together with all prerogatives, rights, graces, privileges, liberties and franchises enjoyed by the Counts of the Kingdom by usage and ancient custom.
18.—Lisbon, March 30, 1522.504
D. João III confirms Vasco da Gama’s claim, as Admiral, to the anchorage dues paid at Malacca, Goa and Ormuz, and authorises him to appoint receivers.
19.—Evora, February 5, 1524.505
The Admiral, being about to proceed to India for a third time, the King, D. João III, is pleased to order that in case of his death his son and heir shall forthwith assume the title of Count of Vidigueira, and enter upon the enjoyment of all privileges, etc., to which this rank entitles him.
Footnotes
1 He was thus eighteen years of age when Queen Isabella, in 1478, granted a safe-conduct to him and Fernão de Lemos, enabling them to pass through Castile on their way to Tangier (Navarrete, iii, p. 477). According to P. Antonio Carvalho da Costa’s unsupported statement, Vasco da Gama was born in 1469.
2 According to Castanheda, the appointment was at first offered to Paulo da Gama, Vasco’s elder brother. He declined on account of ill-health, but offered to accompany his brother as captain of one of the vessels.
3 Vasco da Gama, after his return from India, married Catarina de Ataide. He proceeded a second time to India in 1502. When returning from Cananor he shaped a direct course across the Indian Ocean to Mozambique. After a long period of rest, King João III again sent him to India in 1524, but he died at Cochin on December 25th of the same year, at the age of sixty-five. His remains were taken to Portugal in 1538, and deposited at Vidigueira. Since 1880 they are supposed to have found their last resting-place in the church of Belem.
For an interesting estimate of the character of the great navigator, see Lord Stanley of Alderley’s The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama (Hakluyt Society), 1869. See also the Appendices of this volume for further information on the first voyage.
4 Ruy Gonçalves da Camara in 1473, Fernão Telles in 1474.
5 Toscanelli’s letter to Columbus was written long after that addressed to Fernão Martinz, for the expression ha dias (perhaps a rendering of pridem or haud diu) does not mean “a few days ago”, but “long ago.” Columbus himself uses it in that sense when he writes from Jamaica that the “Emperor of Catayo asked long ago (ha dias) for men of learning to instruct him in the faith of Christ.” The request for missionaries had been made to the Pope in 1339 (Navarrete, Colleccion, 2nd ed., I, p. 457).
6 Barros, Dec. I, l. 3, c. ii.
7 It is quite possible that the draughtsman of the Cantino Chart placed St. Helena Bay incorrectly, and not as determined by Vasco da Gama. Canerio places this bay in lat. 32° 30´ S., which is only 10´ out of its true position.
8 See Wieser, Die Karte des Bartolomeo Columbo, Innsbruck, 1893. Cuba is not shown on this chart, possibly because Bartolomeo would not do violence to his conscience by representing it as a part of Asia (as his brother believed it to be to the day of his death) after its insularity had been recognised.
9 The Journal of Christopher Columbus, by C. R. Markham (Hakluyt Society), 1893.
10 Thus Correa states correctly that the Cape was rounded in November, that is, in the height of summer, but introduces accessory details—perhaps taken from an account of some other voyage (Cabral’s, for instance)—which could only have happened in mid-winter. (See p. 193).
11 An excellent translation of Correa’s account of The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama, by Lord Stanley of Alderley, was published by the Hakluyt Society in 1869. It is accompanied by foot-notes, directing attention to those numerous instances in which Correa differs from other writers.
12 Most of the documents discovered on these occasions were made known by Texeira de Aragão and Luciano Cordeiro, to whose published works frequent reference will be made.
13 Roteiro, prim. edição, p. xix.
14 Roteiro, seg. edição, p. xii.
15 Prof. Kopke (Roteiro, prim. ed., pp. ix-xiv) deals much more fully with this subject. We have been content to give the substance of his remarks.
16 See livro I, c. xxvii, of the first edition (1551) of his Historia. In the edition of 1554 this passage is suppressed, but further particulars of the voyage are not given.
17 For a conclusive proof of this see p. 2. After the S. Raphael had been broken up, the author may have been transferred to Coelho’s vessel, and have returned in her.
18 This is the “secretary” (escrivão) of Vasco da Gama. Castanheda (I, p. 54) mentions also the comptroller (veador) of the captain-major, but we are inclined to think that this is a duplication of the same person, namely, Diogo Dias, the clerk or purser of the S. Gabriel.
19 See p. 54, note 2, for this anecdote.
20 Roteiro da Viagem que em descobrimento da India pelo Cabo da Boa Esperança fez Dom Vasco da Gama em 1497. Porto, 1838. 8vo, pp. xxviii, 184.
21 Roteiro da Viagem de Vasco da Gama em MCCCCXCVII. Segunda edição. Lisboa (Imprensa Nacional), 1861. 8vo, pp. xliv, 182.
22 Compare p. xvii, and numerous references to Correa throughout this volume.
23 Reproduced on p. 150.
24 Journal du Voyage de Vasco da Gama en MCCCCXCVII, traduit du Portugais par Arthur Morelet, Lyon, 1864.
25 Reproduced by us, p. 171.
26 For a copy of this contemned portrait, see p. 109.
27 These vessels, as appears in the course of the Journal, were the S. Gabriel (flag-ship), the S. Raphael (Paulo da Gama), the Berrio (Nicolau Coelho), and a store-ship (Gonçalo Nunes). The author served on board the S. Raphael. See Introduction.
28 In the suburb of Restello, four miles below the Arsenal of Lisbon, stood a chapel or ermida, which had been built by Henry the Navigator for the use of mariners. In this chapel Vasco da Gama and his companions spent the night previous to their departure in prayer. After his victorious return, D. Manuel founded on its site the magnificent monastery of Our Lady of Bethlehem or Belem.
29 The forbidding line of low cliffs, extending for 35 miles from Leven Head to Elbow Point, in lat. 24° N., was known to the Portuguese of the time as terra alta (see D. Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, p. 40). The Rio do Ouro or River of Gold is a basin, extending about 20 miles inland and four miles wide at its mouth. No river flows into it. The real “River of Gold” is the Senegal or the Upper Niger.
30 Castanheda attributes the separation of the vessels to the fog and a storm.
31 At the southern extremity of Ilha do Sal, in lat. 16° 31´ N., is the Porto de Santa Maria.
32 S. Jorge da Mina, the famous fort built on the Gold Coast in 1482, by Diogo d’Azambuja, one of whose captains had been the very Bartholomew Dias who five years afterwards doubled the Cape, and who now returned to the Mine, having been made its captain, in recognition of his great services. (See L. Cordeira, Diogo d’Azambuja, Lisbon, 1890, and Barros, edition of 1778, to. I, part 1, p. 271.)
33 Bombardas, originally catapults, subsequently any piece of ordnance from which stone balls were thrown. In the north of Europe the term was restricted to mortars. Gama, however, carried breech-loading guns, with movable cameras or chambers. (See Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 226, note and Introduction.)
34 São Thiago, the largest of the Cape Verde Islands. The Porto da Praia, within which lies the Island of Santa Maria (14° 50´ N.), is no doubt the bay referred to in the text.
35 This date, August 18th, is obviously wrong. Deducting the delay of two days, Vasco da Gama spent 95 days on his passage from São Thiago to the Bay of St. Helena, the distance being about 1,170 leagues (4,290 miles), his daily progress amounted to 12 leagues or 45 miles. If the dates in the text were correct, he would have made 12½ leagues daily up to August 18th, and between that date and the 22nd (allowing for the delay) at least 300 leagues (1,010 miles), which is quite impossible. It is evident that the second date is wrong, and instead of “the same month”, we ought perhaps to read “October”. In that case the daily progress, up to October 22nd, would have averaged 10 leagues (34 miles). Thence, to St. Helena Bay, a distance of 370 leagues accomplished in 16 days, the daily progress would have averaged nearly 23 leagues (78 miles). Of course these are merely rough approximations, as the course taken by Vasco da Gama and the incidents of this memorable passage are not known to us. We may mention that modern sailing vessels going from S. Thiago by way of Sierra Leone and Ascension to the Cape, a distance of 5,410 miles, occupy on an average 49½ days on the passage, making thus 110 miles daily (58 in crossing from Sierra Leone to Ascension). A ship going direct (3,770 miles) has performed the passage in 41 days, thus averaging 92 daily. (See Admiral Fitzroy’s “Passage Tables” in the Meteorological Papers published by the Admiralty in 1858.)
36 The MS. has Garçõees, a word not to be found in the dictionary, but evidently an augmentative of garça, a heron. Pimental, in his Arte de Navegar, mentions large birds with dark wings and white bodies as being met with a hundred leagues to the west of the Cape of Good Hope, which are known as Gaivotões.—Kopke.
The Gaivota, or gull, however, in no respect resembles a heron.
37That is, towards Tristão da Cunha, Gama being at that time 400 miles to the N.N.W. of these islands.
38 Kopke supposes that we should read phoca instead of quoqua, but this is not very likely, as lobo marinho is employed throughout the Rutter to describe the phocæ or seals. Among the animals which these early navigators must have met with, but which are not mentioned, are porpoises (peixe de porco) and dolphins (doiradas or gilt-heads).
39 Lobo marinho, sea-wolf, a term vaguely applied to all species of seals, as also to the sea-elephant, has been translated throughout as seal.
40 Golfão, i.e., Zostera nana, which is met with along the coast of South-Western Africa.
41 A Portuguese fathom, or braça, is equal to 5.76 feet.
42 This was considerably to the north of St. Helena Bay, which was only reached three days later.
43 A reference, no doubt, to Pero d’Alenquer, Vasco da Gama’s pilot, who had been with B. Dias during his memorable voyage round the Cape, as had probably others of this armada.
44 Now called Berg River.—Kopke.
45 Castanheda and Goes state that Nicolau Coelho was sent to take the soundings. It is, however, much more probable that this duty was intrusted to Pero d’Alenquer, who had already doubled the Cape with Bartholomew Dias, and had touched at several points in its vicinity.—Kopke.
I cannot see how his having been with Dias can have conferred any very special qualification for taking soundings in a bay which Pero d’Alenquer had never seen before. On subsequent occasions Coelho seems to have been employed repeatedly upon this duty.
46 Baço, a vague term, meaning also brown or blackish.
47 Castanheda, in his first edition (1551), adopted this statement, but subsequently suppressed it. D. Jeronymo Osorio, Bishop of Silves, in De rebus Emanuelsis, has “pudenta ligneis vaginis includunt.—Kopke.
The use of such a sheath is universal among the Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, but seems now to be more honoured in the breach than the observance among the Hottentots, here spoken of. John of Empoli, who went to India with Afonso de Albuquerque (Ramusio, i), observed such a sheath made of leather with the hair on, among the Hottentots of the Bay of S. Blas. Leguat (Hakluyt Society’s edition, 1891, p. 288) found it still in use in 1698.
48 The shafts of their assegais are made of assegai- or lance-wood (Curtisea faginda) and not of olive-wood, and even in John of Empoli’s time had iron blades. Their spears for spearing fish, on the other hand, are tipped with the straight horn of the gemsbuck.
49 We learn from Barros that Vasco da Gama landed for the purpose of observing the latitude. The captive was handed over to two ship’s boys, one of whom was a negro, with orders to treat him well.
50 Çeitil, a copper coin, worth about one-third of a farthing.
51 We gather from Barros and Goes that Fernão Velloso was granted the desired permission at the intercession of Paulo da Gama. When Vasco da Gama returned to his vessel, Coelho and some of the crew were left behind, collecting wood and lobsters. Paulo amused himself by harpooning a whale, which nearly cost him dearly, for the whale dived, and would have capsized the boat had not the water been shallow. In the afternoon, when Coelho and his people were returning to the vessels, Velloso was observed to run down a hill. Vasco da Gama, ever observant, saw this from his ship, and at once ordered Coelho back, entering himself a boat to join him. Some delay or misunderstanding occurred, the “negroes” threw stones and discharged arrows, and several men were wounded, including the captain-major and Gonçalo Alvarez. For further particulars see Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 46.
52 The distance is 33 leagues.
53 Castanheda says that the Cape was doubled on “Wednesday, November 20”, but Wednesday was the 22nd. Barros says “Tuesday, 20th”, but Tuesday was the 21st. Compare Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 48.
54 The actual dimensions of False Bay are about 5 by 5 leagues. The bay is called “Golfo dento. delle Serre” on the map of Henricus Martellus Germanus, 1489, which illustrates the voyage of B. Dias (Add. MS. 15760, Brit. Mus.).
55 This is without the shadow of a doubt Mossel Bay (see plan on map II). It is also most probably the Bahia de los Vaqueiros of B. Dias, who certainly was here [see below]. Barros refers to it as being now called S. Braz. Its original name had thus been abandoned in favour of that bestowed by Vasco da Gama.
56 The thirteen days are counted from November 25 to December 7, both these days being counted. According to Castanheda (I, p. 12), the store-ship was burnt.
57 See note 4, p. 9.
58 The distance by sea is over 90 leagues, that by land 64. “By sea” is probably a slip of the pen.
59 The “gora” is the great musical instrument of the Hottentots. It is not a flute or reed-pipe.
60 This island is still known as “Seal” Island, although its former visitors no longer make their appearance. The islet lies about half a mile from the land, is only 250 ft. in length and 15 ft. high.
61 Usually called Sotilicaires by Portuguese writers. They are clearly Cape Penguins.—Kopke (abridged).
62 The word used by the author is “padrão”, that is, a stone pillar bearing the arms of Portugal and an inscription, such as King John first ordered to be set up by his explorers. None of the “pillars” set up by Vasco da Gama has been recovered, for the “pillar” near Malindi is clearly of later date (see p. 90).
63 This paragraph is of the greatest importance with reference to the voyage of B. Dias, for Pero d’Alenquer, one of his companions, is the real authority for these statements. The usual statement that this pillar was erected on the Ilha da Cruz must henceforth be rejected, as had already been done in 1575, when M. de Mesquita Perestrello made a survey of this coast (see his Report in Pimental’s Roteiro da Navegação da India Oriental).
The distances given by the author are remarkably correct. From the Cape of Good Hope to Mossel Bay (São Braz) is 60 leagues, as stated by him. Thence to Santa Cruz is 56 leagues; from Santa Cruz to the Rio de Infante is 21 leagues.
Santa Cruz is the largest of a group of islands in the western part of Algoa Bay. It is 4 cables in length, rises to a height of 195 ft., and is nearly all bare rock. There are no springs. The Ilhéos chãos are readily identified with a cluster of low rocky islets about 7 leagues to the east. The Cape Padrone of the charts marks the site of the last pillar erected by Dias, and 5 leagues beyond it rises “Ship Rock,” in the locality where Perestrello claims to have discovered the Penedo das Fontes of Barros and other writers. Perestrello had, no doubt, in his possession original documents (now lost) which enabled him to identify the localities named by the early explorers. His substantial agreement with the author of this Roteiro is most satisfactory.
64 That is the Rio do Infante, now known as the Great Fish river.
65 The Agulhas current hereabouts runs at the rate of 1 to 4 knots an hour to the westward.
66 On Canerio’s map there is a Ponta da Pescaria, to the north of Port Natal.
67 Equivalent to three-fourths of a pint.
68 The MS. says January 10th, but Thursday was the 11th.
69 Hence called “Terra dos Fumos”, or, more correctly, “Mfumos” the “land of petty chiefs”. Dr. Hamy’s chart of 1502 has the name; Canerio has a “terra thrimias”, an exceptionally unrecognisable corruption of it; whilst on Ribero’s map (1529) we find the name, although in a slightly corrupted form (humos). The appellation has nothing to do with either “smoke” (fumo), or “moisture” (humor).
70 Barros (Dec. I, l. 4, c. 4) tells us that Vasco da Gama entered the Rio dos Reis, by others called Rio do Cobre, on Twelfth Night (January 6). Goes, on the other hand, confirms the author of the Roteiro, and there cannot be a doubt that Barros is mistaken. The Rio dos Reis is, indeed, one of the rivers which enters the bay subsequently called after Lourenço Marques, but discovered, either in 1501 by Sancho de Toar, one of the captains of Cabral’s fleet, or in the following year by Antonio de Campo.
Dr. Hamy’s Chart has “R. do reys”, Canerio’s “G. de lom raios” (evidently a corrupt rendering of “Golfo dos or delos Reis”, which thus seems to have been the earliest name bestowed upon what is now known as Delagoa Bay). The “agoada de bon passa” of Dr. Hamy’s Chart, and the “Rio d’aguada” of Canerio, between this bay and Cabo das Correntes, is clearly the locality referred to by the author. Ribero (1529) has a “Rio de la laguna,” a “rio de los reyes”, and further east, an “aguada de buena paz”. M. de Mesquita Perestrello (1575) places the “Aguada da boa Paz” 15 leagues to the east of “Rio do Ouro” (the Limpopo), and 43 leagues to the west of Cabo das Correntes. This position corresponds to that of the Zavora River of Admiralty Chart No. 648, in 34° 25´ E. It was here that Vasco da Gama cast anchor. The reference to the “swell of the sea” quite precludes the notion that he entered the well-sheltered Delagoa Bay.
M. Kopke (in a note, Roteiro, p. 147) would place the “Aguada da Boa Gente” between the Lagoa River and the Limpopo (Inhambane), in 32° 23´ E., and says that this locality is still generally known as “Aguada da Boa Paz”, but I can find no confirmation of this. Moreover, if this be the “Aguada”, where, on this barren coast, are we to look for the “Rio do Cobre”? (Compare Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 66). See Map III.
71 João dos Santos (Ethiopia Oriental, I. 2, c. 20) already identified this river with the Kiliman River. Dr. Hamy’s Chart calls it “Rio de bon Signals”, an evident corruption. Barros and Goes both call it ”Rio dos Bons Signals”, whilst Correa refers to it as Rio da Misericordia, the river of Mercy (see Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 11). Comp. Map III.
72 A very involved sentence! Gama arrived off the bar of the Kiliman on January 24, cast anchor, and sent the smallest of his vessels, the Berrio, within, to take soundings. On the day after, the 25th, he crossed the bar with the two other vessels.
73 Almadia, a “dug-out”, properly El Maziyah, ferry-boat (Burton’s Camoens, iv, p. 577.)
74 Burton (Commentary, p. 408), points out that the “touca” is not a turban, but a kind of cap. Its shape, however, was not that of the “toque” of our milliners.
75 From January 24 to February 24, both days included, is thirty-two days.
76 Barros says they were beached for that purpose.
77 This disease was evidently scurvy, so fatal to our early navigators. Castanheda (I. c. 4) tells us that in this time of trouble Paulo da Gama visited the sick night and day, condoled with them, and freely distributed the medicines which he had brought for his own use.
78 The Padrão de São Raphael is distinctly marked and named on Dr. Hamy’s and Canerio’s Charts. No trace of it has ever been discovered.
79 These are the “Insule primeras” (i.e., Ilhas primeiras) of Dr. Hamy’s and Canerio’s Charts. They are five in number, and form a chain less than 5 leagues in length. The three southern islands (Silva, do Fogo, and Crown) form a separate group, and are bare, whilst the two northern islands (Casuarina and Epidendron) have trees. Gama, apparently, missed the two southernmost islands.
80 These six days are reckoned from February 24 to March 1.
Correa (Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, pp. 76-84) says that on the voyage from the river of Mercy to Moçambique, Davane, a Moor, was taken out of a zambuk. Barros and Goes know nothing of this incident. Later on (p. 128) we are told that this Davane agreed to accompany the Portuguese as broker, and that he was finally discharged at Cananor with good testimonials (p. 235). He was nicknamed “tayyib”, which in Arabic means “good” (p. 132). See Appendix E.
81 See plan on Map III. See also Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 80.
82 Arabic, el Nafir, a sort of straight Moorish trumpet or tuba.
83 They took their visitors for “Turks”, or at all events for Mohammedans. All this changed after their true character had been discovered.
84 It appears from this that Vasco da Gama entered the port immediately on his arrival, and took up a position close to the town.
85 “Ruivo”, red, in the original. Castanheda, who made use of this Journal, substitutes baço, tawny, which is equally inapplicable.
86 That is, Arabic. The “Moors” of the author are, in fact, either pure Arabs (white Moors) or Swahilis speaking Arabic.
87 “Aljofar”, cf. Arabic jauhar, johar, a jewel or precious stone (Burton). Aljofar, in Portuguese, means seed-pearls
88 Barros says that Fernão Martins was their interpreter.
89 The notions about the Christianity of India prevailing at that time in Portugal (and among the earlier navigators) will be referred to elsewhere. We may add that Vasco da Gama was instructed to find out a mighty sovereign, known as Prester John, said to be a Christian, but the situation of whose states was very uncertain.—Kopke.
90 On Prester John, see Zarncke (Abhd. K. Sächs. G. der Wiss., 1876 and 1879), and G. Uzielli (Boll. della Soc. Africana d’Italia, 1892, viii). Vasco da Gama had no doubt received special instructions to inquire for that Christian potentate. At one time he was looked for inland from Benin, but the information received from Pero de Covilhão, whom King John had despatched overland to India, in 1487, no less than that furnished by Lucas Marcos, an Abyssinian priest, who came to Lisbon soon after Covilhão’s departure, confirmed the Portuguese in the belief that the “Prester John” they were in quest of was the Emperor of Ethiopia, whose capital at that time was in Shoa. (See Covilhão’s narrative, as given by Alvarez, Hakluyt Soc., 1881.)
91 Barros calls them Abyssinians from the country of Prester John, and says that when they saw the image of the saint which formed the figure-head of the St. Gabriel, they knelt down and worshipped. The Abyssinian Christians, whatever their shortcomings, do not worship images, as is the practice of the Roman Church. These captives, therefore, must have been Indians, as stated by our author.
92 Barros calls this sheikh Zacoeja (Shah Khwajah?).
93 Marlota, a short dress of silk or wool worn in Persia and India. (Moura, Vestig. da lingua Arab., sub “marlota.”)
94 A Mozambique matikal (miskal) weighs 4.41346 grammes (Antonio Nunes, O livro dos Pesos, 1554, p. 50, published at Lisbon, 1868), and its value in standard gold would consequently be about 12s.; elsewhere (p. 64) he makes this coin the equivalent of 467 reis, or about 11s. 4d. (see Index, under Cruzado).
95 The island of S. Jorge.
96 Tavolochinha, in the original, is an obsolete word, which from its etymology seems to refer to a defensive armour presenting a broad surface (tavola). Castanheda, in relating this incident, substitutes escudo—shield—whilst Goes and Osorio speak of adargas or parmae, that is, bucklers.—Kopke.
97 Tamiça, lit. “spatry-cord”, popularly known as coir-rope. These “sewn boats” were already in use when the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea was written, and the town of Rhapta (from [Greek: rhaptein], to sew) derived its name from them. (See McCrindle, The Commerce and Navigation of the Erythrean Sea, p. 71).
98 “Mats were the wings wherewith they lightly flew,
From certain palm-fronds wove by cunning hand.”
Camoens, Canto I, st. 46.
—Burton’s Translation.
99 The “Genoese needle” is, of course, the mariner’s compass.—According to the “Mohit” of Admiral Sidi Ali ben Hosein (1554), published by Dr. Bittner and Dr. Tomascheck (Vienna, 1897), the pilots of the Indian Ocean determined relative latitudes by observing the altitudes of certain stars. The result was expressed, not in degrees as was done by the scientific astronomers of the day, but in isbas or “fingers”, each equivalent to 1° 42´ 50´´. The instrument which they used consisted of three staffs. Two of these were moveable on a hinge, and were directed respectively upon the horizon, and the star the altitude of which it was desired to determine. A third staff (or an octant) was fixed at the end of the horizon-staff, and upon it the angle observed could be read off. Vasco da Gama brought one of these instruments with him to Portugal, but the astronomer of Cabral’s expedition, who had been instructed to test its qualities, reported unfavourably (Alguns documentos, 1892, p. 122). Yet the results obtained by means of this instrument by the pilots of the Indian Ocean were very satisfactory, and the charts prepared by these very practical men were far more correct than the abortions produced by “scientific” Arab geographers. Parallels (at intervals of one-eighth of an isba) and meridians were marked upon these charts, and they were superior in this respect to the Portulani of the Mediterranean pilots. The meridians were probably drawn at intervals of zams, which were equal to one-eighth isba, or three hours’ sail, or nearly thirteen of our sea-miles. It is quite possible, as suggested by Dr. Bittner, that these pilots also invented the cross-staff, for balhestilho, the name by which this instrument became known in Portugal, is more likely to be derived from the Arabic al-balista (altitude), than from the Latin ballista. Compare also Barros (Dec. I, liv. 4, c. 6), where an allusion is made to the instrument employed by the pilot who joined Vasco da Gama at Malindi. Barros says that the instrument consisted of three taboas or plates.
[100] This fruit is the coco-nut.
101 The sharifs (“nobles”) are the descendants of the Prophet, and although not “priests”, they enjoy a certain religious rank. Strictly speaking, this title can be claimed only by the head of the family which descends from the Prophet in a direct line. All others can only claim the title of Saiyid, Lord. The “white” Moors are, of course, true Arabs.
102 There are Government tanks now on the island, which are filled by the prisoners of Fort St. Sebastian.
103 Agonia, Arabic El Jumbiyah, a crooked poniard, worn in the waist-belt.
104 Barros calls these captives “Moors”, and the author himself does the same at a later stage of his Journal (see note, p. 37).
105 That is S. Jorge, and the small islet of S. Thiago, 1¾ miles to the south.
106 The text has 30th, but Saturday was the 31st.
107 These were the Kerimba islands, the southernmost of which is Kiziwa, 12° 35´ S. The mainland being generally low, will rarely be seen when coasting outside the reefs (Africa Pilot, Part III, p. 254).
108 These were the islands off Cabo Delgado, called Ilhas das Cabecas (Cabras?) on Dr. Hamy’s and Canerio’s maps. None of these, however, is more than nine miles from the mainland.
109 This island was Quiloa (Kilwa), whose king, at that time, was the most powerful along the coast, Sofala, the Zambezi, Angoshe and Mozambique being subject to him (Duarto Barbosa, p. 10).—Kopke.
When Vasco da Gama attempted to put back he had probably reached Ras Tikwiri, 8° 50´ S.
110 Mafia.—Kopke.
111 On the homeward voyage, in January 1499, the S. Raphael was burnt at these shoals, which are described as lying off the town of Tamugata (Mtangata), and this enables us to fix upon the locality with much certainty. There still is a roadstead or bay called Mtangata, which “the long roll of the Indian Ocean renders a place of trembling to the coast trader” (Burton, Journal Royal Geographical Society, 1858, p. 200). A “town” of this name exists no longer, but Burton describes the ruins of what was once an extensive city near the village of Tongoni.
There are no “mountains” close to the coast corresponding to the “Serras de S. Raphael”, but the mountains of Usambara, rising 20 to 25 miles inland to an altitude of 3,500 ft., are visible in clear weather for a distance of 62 miles.
Sir John Kirk writes to me: “The baixas de S. Raphael are undoubtedly the coral reefs of Mtangata; and the Usambara mountains, with their valleys, steep precipices, and lofty summits would, especially at that season of the year, be plainly seen from the ships. There can be no doubt as to this point, as these are the only mountains that approach the coast and form so marked an object from the sea when the air is clear. They are then visible from the town of Zanzibar.”
112 This was Pemba, which, owing to its deep bays, appeared to consist of a number of islands. Its distance from the mainland is only 30 miles (9 leagues), its length 37 miles. The trees of that island still supply masts for native vessels (Note by Sir J. Kirk).
113 Zavra or zabra, a dhow, which is a small open vessel, sharp at the stern, with a square sail of matting.
114 The Swahili “dress” their vessels at the feast that follows the Ramadan month (Sir J. Kirk), but Ramadan, of the year of the Hejra 903, began on April 23, 1498, and the Bairam therefore lasted from May 22-24. These dates are according to the Old Style.
115 Alcaide, from the Arabic Alkadi, the Judge.
116 Burton (Camoens, iv, p. 241) suggests that this picture of the Holy Ghost may have been a figure of Kapot-eshwar, the Hindu pigeon-god and goddess, an incarnation of Shiva and his wife, the third person of the Hindu Triad.
117 Trigo tremez, corn that ripens in three months. This, according to a note furnished by Sir John Kirk, would be sorghum (the “matama” of the Swahili), which is sent in shiploads to Arabia and the Persian Gulf.
118 These two “Moors” were undoubtedly two of the four men whom Paulo da Gama had captured at Moçambique, but whom the author previously described as “Negroes”. Of the two pilots who escaped, one had been given them by the Sultan of Moçambique, the other must have been the old Moor who came on board voluntarily, unless one of the men taken by Paulo was a pilot. (See note 1, p. 31).
119 Barros (Dec. I, liv. 8, c. 7) says erroneously that this fort was built after Vasco da Gama’s visit. When the vessel of Sancho de Toar, of the armada of Pedro Alvarez Cabral, was lost near Mombaça, the Moors succeeded in fishing up seven or eight of her guns. These they placed in this fort, in the vain hope of being thus enabled to resist the attack of D. Francisco d’Almeida in 1505.—Kopke.
120 Castanheda (I, c. 10, p. 35) says they waited two days in the hope of being able to secure a pilot to take them to Calecut. On crossing the bar they were unable to heave up one of the anchors. The Moors subsequently fished it up and placed it near the royal palace, where D. Francisco d’Almeida found it when he took the town in 1505.
121 The author spells Milinde, Milynde, Milingue.
122 Sir J. Kirk suggests to me that these places are Mtwapa, Takaungu and Kilifi, distorted into Benapa, Toca-nuguo and Quioniete. “Kioni” is the native name of the village usually called Kilifi.
123 The ruins of the ancient town of Malindi lie to the south of the modern village of that name, and are of great extent. They include the remains of a town wall. Persian and Arabic inscriptions have been discovered, but, with the exception of Vasco da Gama’s pillar, no traces of occupation by the Portuguese. Malindi Road, or Port Melinda of the Admiralty chart, lies about three miles to the south of the town, but Vasco da Gama anchored off the town, and not in this sheltered road. The anchorage is less than half a mile from the town in four fathoms and a half. Comp. Lord Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 109.
124 Barros speaks of these Christians as Banyans, while Goes and Castanheda say that these vessels belonged to merchants from Cranganor, in Malabar.
125 Correa (p. 113) says that the Moor sent with this message was the Davane already referred to, and (p. 115) distinguishes him from the Moor who was captured on April 14th.
126 Balandrau, a surtout worn by the Brothers of Mercy in Portugal.
127 Lambel, a striped cotton stuff which had a large sale at the beginning of the African trade.—Herculano.
128 I am indebted for a photograph of one of these trumpets to Sir John Kirk, who states that the Royal Trumpet, or Siwa, was peculiar to the cities ruled by the descendants of the Persians of Shiraz, who settled on this coast in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. They were of ivory, or copper and wood, and consisted of three pieces. The ivory or copper was sometimes most elaborately carved, and bore Arabic texts.
129 We learn from this passage that the “king” referred to by the author was in reality the king’s son, who acted as regent. He may be supposed to be the Sheikh Wagerage (Wajeraj), who in 1515 wrote a letter to D. Manuel, in which he begged for permission to send annually one vessel to Goa and to Mozambique. He very humbly (or sarcastically?) addresses the king as the “fountain of the commerce of all cities and kingdoms, the most equitable of sovereigns, and the enricher of all people”; when, indeed, the Portuguese had crippled the trade of Malindi, which had received them with open arms. Another letter addressed to King Manuel was written by “Ali, King of Melinde”, in 1520. Was this “king” the son of Wajeraj, or of the “prince who visited Vasco da Gama on board his vessel”? F. João de’ Sousa, who publishes these letters (Documentos Arabicos, Lisbon, 1790, pp. 67, 123), with a few comments, only obscures the point, unless indeed Wajeraj the Sheikh and Ali the Prince be one and the same person.
Cabral met a Sheikh Omar, a brother of the King of Malindi, who was present at Malindi when Vasco da Gama touched at that place; as also a Sheikh Foteima, an uncle of the king (Barros, Dec. I, liv. 5, c. 3).
On the ungenerous treatment dealt to the King of Malindi, see D. F. d’Almeida’s letter of 1507 (Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 125).
130 Of course they looked upon these Romish images and pictures as outlandish representations of their own gods or idols.
131 Burton (Camoens, IV, p. 420) suggests that they cried Krishna, the name of the eighth Incarnation of Vishnu, the second person of the Hindu Trinity, and the most popular of Indian gods. Sir J. Kirk knows of no word resembling “Krist” likely to have been called out by these Indians.
132 This pilot was a native of Gujarat, whom Goes (c. 38), Barros (Dec. I, liv. 4, c. 6), and Faria y Sousa call Malema Cana, or Canaqua. Malema is a corruption of Mallim, master or teacher, whilst Canaqua (Kanaka), is the name of his caste. It is also used for sailing master.
133 The island in question is Kilwa. The information furnished by this Malindi pilot is scarcely more correct than that previously obtained from the Moors (see note 3, p. 32).
134 Alcochete, a town on the left bank of the estuary of the Tagus, above Lisbon.
135 From April 15 to 23 is nine days.
136 The “Bay” is the Arabian Sea, which the “Strait” of Bab el Mandeb joins to the Red Sea. Cambay (Khambhat), in Gujarat, when the Portuguese first came to India, was one of the most flourishing marts of commerce. The silting up of the Gulf accounts, in a large measure, for its commercial decline since then.
137 The MS. says 17th, but Friday was the 18th.
138 From April 24 to May 18, both days inclusive, is twenty-five days; the African coast was within sight for several days.
139 Mount Eli (Dely) was probably the land first sighted, a conspicuous hill forming a promontory about 16 miles to the north of Cananor, and named thus from the Cardamoms which are largely exported from this part of Malabar, and are called Ela in Sanscrit (Yule’s Marco Polo, ii, p. 321).
140 The rains in Malabar begin about April or May, and continue until September or October. They are synchronous with the S.W. monsoon, and are heaviest in June, July, and August. The annual rainfall exceeds 150 inches!
141 Cotta Point, or Cape Kadalur, the “Monte Formosa”, of the Portuguese, 15 miles N.N.W. of Calecut.
142 Castanheda and Barros call this place Capocate. It was seven miles N.N.W. of Calecut, at the mouth of the Elatur River.
143 The MS. says “abaixo”, below, with reference no doubt to the latitude, which is less than that of Calecut.
144 Pandaramy (Pandarani) is Batuta’s Fandarain. Barros calls it Pandarane. It is identical with Pantharini Kollam, the northern Kollam or Quillan, and boasts one of the nine original mosques built on the Malabar coast by Malik Ibn Dinar. It is 14 miles N.N.W. of Calecut. The author of the MS. elsewhere spells Pandaramy and Pandarin.
145 According to Correa (Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 159), his name was João Nunez. See Appendix E.
146 One of the “Moors” is frequently referred to as “Monçaide”. See Appendix E.
147 Castanheda (I, c. 15) retails the conversation which this Moor is supposed to have had with Gama on board ship, and says that the captain-major was much pleased with his offers of service.
148 The visitors thus became at once acquainted with the various castes constituting the population of Calecut, including the Nairs, or fighting caste of Malabar, who eat meat (which shows a servile origin), but wear the thread of the Dwija (twice-born), rank next to the Brahmans, and practise polyandry; and the turbulent Moplah, who are descendants of Arab fathers and native women. These latter are the “native” Moors.
149 Goes (I, c. 39) and Castanheda (I, c. 15) say that he was at Panane, a coast town, 28 miles to the south of Calecut.
150 One of these messengers was Fernão Martins. They were accompanied by Monçaide (Castanheda, I, c. 15).
151 Off Calecut there are banks and reefs which may endanger the safety of a ship, but the anchorage in the roadstead within them is perfectly safe.
152 Bale in the Arabic Wali, governor. Alcaide, in Portuguese, has this same meaning. Barros and Castanheda give this official the title of “Catual” (Kot-wal, governor of a fort, in Hindustani). He was the civil intendant of the Rajah and head of the police. Correa calls him gosil, or guozil (pron. Wozil), a corruption, probably, of the Arabic wazir, minister.
153 Among the thirteen men were Diogo Dias, João de Sá, Gonçalo Pirez, Alvaro Velho, Alvaro de Braga, João de Setubal, João de Palha, and six others, whose names are not recorded. Paulo da Gama and Coelho were left in charge of the vessels, with orders to sail at once for Portugal should any disaster happen to their chief. Coelho was, moreover, ordered to await his chief’s return in the boats. See Appendix E.
154 This river is the Elatur. See Map IV.
155 Burton (Goa, p. 191) says that even now the usual ferry-boat consists of a platform of planks lashed to two canoes and usually railed round.
156 This “church” was, of course, a pagoda or temple. The high pillar in front of it is used for suspending the flag which indicates the commencement of the Temple festival. It is of wood, but usually covered with copper or silver. The cock, which surmounts it, is the symbol of the War-god Subraumainar. The smaller pillar supports the coco-oil lamps during the festival.—Rev. J. J. Jaus.
157 Corucheo, which literally means spire or minaret; but further on the author calls this sanctuary a chapel, capella. Goes (c. 40) calls it a “round” chapel.
158 Goes (c. 40) says that the four priests alone entered this sanctuary, and, pointing to the image, said “Maria, Maria”, upon which the natives prostrated themselves, whilst the Portuguese knelt, in adoration of the Virgin. Burton suggests that this was an image of Gauri, the ”White Goddess”, whilst Charton (III, p. 246) suggests Maha Maja and her son Shakya. Our illustration is taken from E. Moor, The Hindu Pantheon, new edition by Rev. W. O. Simpson (Madras, 1864) Plate xxxv. It represents Krishna and his mother Devaki. When Kansa (Devaki’s brother) heard of his birth, he ordered all newly-born infants to be slain. The trays with animals and fruit are supposed to symbolise Krishna’s power over the animal and vegetable kingdoms. On the low table are placed food, poison, and amrita, symbolising life, death, and immortality, as also a small triangular die denoting trinity in unity.
The Rev. J. Jacob Jaus, of the Basel Mission at Calicut, informs me that there is a local deity called Māri, or Māriamma, much dreaded as the goddess of small-pox, and highly venerated. Amma, in Malayalam, means mother.
159 These bells are struck by the Brahmans when they enter the temple, but must not be touched by people of inferior castes.
160 It is just possible that some of the Portuguese doubted whether these Hindu Gods and images represented the saints of their own churches. Castanheda (i, p. 57) says that when João de Sá knelt down by the side of Vasco da Gama, he said: “If these be devils, I worship the true God”; at which his chief smiled. But however this may be, it is equally true that the reports furnished by the heads of the expedition described these Hindus as Christians, and that the king believed them to be so (see Appendix A).
161 The “quafees” are, of course, Brahman priests. The Rev. J. J. Jaus suggests kāz (Arabic), meaning “judge”.
162 The “white earth” is a mixture of dust, cow-dung, sacrificial ashes, sandal wood, etc., cemented in rice-water (see Belnos, The Sundya or Daily Prayer of the Brahmans, Lond., 1851).
163 For a description of this palace, see Travels of Pietro della Valle (Hakluyt Society, 1892), pp. 367-377.
164 Goes says that knives were used.
165 For Correa’s elaborate but quite untrustworthy narrative of this audience, see Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, pp. 193-6.
166 Atambor, a corruption of the Arabic tambur, the betel-nut. It is the fruit of Areca Catechu, and is universally chewed throughout India, the Indian Archipelago and Southern China. Its juice discolours the teeth, but is said to make the breath sweet, and to be conducive to health. “Erva” (herb) is quite inapplicable to this fruit. Usually it is cut up into four slices, which are wrapped up in a leaf of Betel-pepper (Piper Betle), and chewed with an admixture of lime and catechu.
167 These fruits were the Jack (Artocarpus integrifolia) and bananas.
168 According to Goes (c. 41), Gama was attended by his interpreter, Fernão Martins, whilst the king was attended by the head Brahman, his betel carrier, and his factor (veador da fazenda), who, he said, were persons in his confidence.
169 These are, of course, the letters referred to by Barros and other historians, which were given to Gama when he left Portugal. Correa’s story, that Vasco and his brother Paulo concocted the letters whilst off Calecut, and forged the king’s signature, is therefore quite incredible. Nor is Gama made to say in the “Roteiro” that he had been sent with a fleet of fifty ships, and that the voyage took two years (Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, pp. 168, 173). The “grand” Vasco has many sins to answer for, and we ought not, without good proof, to fasten upon him the charge of forgery. As to truthfulness, that seems not to have been a strong point with the diplomatists of that age.
170 That is, it was about 10 P.M.
171 This was done to afford shelter until the rain should have ceased.
172 It is still the practice in Calecut to ride horses without a saddle, and no slight seems therefore to have been intended.
173 According to G. Correa’s not very credible narrative, the captain slept at the factory, which had been established previously to the audience of which an account has just been given.
174 Lambel, striped cloth, see p. 41, note 3.
175 As a matter of fact, Vasco da Gama was very poorly provided with suitable merchandise, as may be seen from the king’s letter printed in the Appendix.
176 Barros writes Çamorij; Correa, Samori and Çamorin, and others Zamorin. It is a title; according to some a corrupt reading of Tamuri Rajah, Tamuri being the name of the most exalted family of the Nair caste, whilst others derive it from “Samudriya Rajah”, that is, “King of the Coast” (see G. P. Badger’s Varthema, pp. lxii and I, 37).
177 Whom others call his “veador”, that is butler or comptroller of the household.
178 That is, a man of Guzerat.
179 “Bisarma” in the original. Herculano accepts the definition of Spelmann ([v]. Ducange, sub bisarma).
180 These men were Diogo Dias, as factor, and Alvaro de Braga as his assistant (Castanheda, I, 74.)
181 The fanão of Calecut (according to Nunes, O Livro dos Pesos, 1554) is worth 25-5/7 reis, or 7.45d. Three hundred reis of the coinage of 1485 were of the value of 7s. 7d., taking the gold cruzado at 9s. 8d.
182 The bahar at Calecut is equivalent to 208.16 kilogrammes (Nunes, O Livro dos Pesos.)
183 The xerafin at Calecut is worth about 7s. 5d.; the sum demanded therefore amounted to £223.
184 Can this be Ormuz?
185 This Moor was Monçaide, elsewhere more accurately referred to as “a Moor of Tunis”. See Appendix E.
186 The author says nineteen; but it appears from what precedes that there were only eighteen in all. See Appendix E.
187 The author says Wednesday, but that day was the 22nd.
188 A reference to the 600 xerafins.
189 The “tenor”, not the literal phraseology; and hence the absence of the complimentary verbiage so usual with Orientals must not be interpreted as an intentional insult to the King of Portugal.
190 This pillar was dedicated to S. Gabriel. There exists apparently no record of its having actually been set up by the king, as promised.
191 This “Moor of Tunis”, according to Castanheda (I, c. 24, p. 8), was Bontaibe (Monçaide), concerning whom see Appendix E.
192 As a matter of fact, it was only a portion of what had been landed, and Cabral was instructed to demand payment from the Samorin for what had not been returned (Alguns documentos, p. 98).
193 Five of these men of Calecut were actually taken to Lisbon. They were restored to their country by Cabral (see Alguns documentos, p. 97).
194 Castanheda calls these “barcas”, tones. The “tone” is a rowing boat, the planks of which are “sewn” together.
195 A note by the copyist says:—“The author has omitted to tell us how these weapons were made.”
196 The country of Prester John (Abyssinia) was known as “Lower India.”
197 Ceylon cinnamon still enjoys this pre-eminence, its cultivation in other parts of the world not having hitherto been attended with success. The “cinnamon”, or cassia, found in Malabar is of very inferior quality.
198 The Moluccas, and more especially Amboīna, are the true home of the clove, the cultivation of which is now carried on widely in different parts of the world.
199 Should be Arabia.
200 The “Grand Sultan” is, of course, the Circassian Mamluk Sultan of Egypt.
201 Prof. Kopke rashly identifies this place with Suez, but M. F. Denis points out that it must be Tor.
202 The cruzado was a Portuguese gold coin worth about 9s. 8d.; 600,000 cruzados amounted thus to £290,000.
203 This Cidadym (called Cadadin in the Commentaries of Afonso Dalbuquerque, Hakluyt Society, 1875, i, p. 202) can be identified with Sultan Muhammed ben Azhar ed-din ben Ali ben Abu Bekr ben Sa’d ed din, of Harar, who ruled 1487-1520 (see Paulitschke, Harar, p. 506).
204 Castanheda (I, c. 25, p. 84) says that Monçaide wrote this letter, in which Vasco da Gama apologised for having carried off the Malabaris; explained that he had done so in order that they might bear witness to the discoveries he had made; and said that he would have left a factor behind him if he had not been afraid that the Moors would kill him. He expressed a hope that ultimately friendly relations would be established to their mutual advantage. Goes (c. 43), who also gives a version of this letter, says the king was much pleased with it, and read it to his wives and the relatives of the kidnapped men.
205 Burton (Camoens) identifies Compia with Cananor, which, on the partition of the dominions of Cherman Perumal was included in the kingdom of the Chirrakal Rajahs. From João de Sousa (Documentos Arabicos, p. 80) we learn that the king with whom Vasco da Gama made a treaty in 1502 was called Cotelery. Correa (Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 224) gives a circumstantial account of Vasco da Gama’s transactions with the king of Cananor during this first voyage. Neither Goes nor Barros knows anything about these events.
206 These are the Netrani or Pigeon Islands (Ilhas dos Pombos), in lat. 14° 1´ N., the largest being about half a mile in length, and rising to a height of 300 feet.
207 The Anjediva or “Five Islands” lie close to the coast in 14° 45´ N., and about 40 miles to the south of Goa. The largest of these is not quite a mile in length. It rises boldly from the sea, but a beach on its northern side affords facilities for landing. D. Francisco de Almeida built a fort there in 1505, but it was demolished seven months afterwards. The existing fortifications were erected by order of Francisco de Tavora, Conde d’Alvar, in 1682. (See A. Lopez Mendes, A India Portugueza, ii, 1886, p. 209, with map.)
208 The author says 19th, but Thursday was the 20th.
209 These branches and leaves were carried to Portugal, as we learn from the king’s letter (see Appendix A), but they had most certainly not been taken from true cinnamon trees, for only an inferior cassia is found in that part of India.
210 Barros and Goes say that the leader of these vessels was a pirate named Timoja, whose head-quarters were at Onor. He subsequently rendered valuable services to the Portuguese. (See Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 244.)
211 This island was the largest of the Anjediva.
212 Three lingams, emblems of the generative power?
213 The fusta is a galley or undecked rowing boat, with one mast. For an illustration see Linschoten’s Itinerarium ofte Schip-vaert, etc.
214 Tambaram, in Malayalam, has merely the meaning of lord or master.
215 This man subsequently became known as Gaspar da Gama. See Appendix E.
216 The Sabayo or Governor of Goa.
217 The original MS. uses the verb “perguntar”, that is, to question; but Barros says that he was tortured, and this would account for his attempting to make himself understood by “gestures”, when previously he had spoken very fluently, and had been understood.
218 September 24 to October 5 is twelve days, both days inclusive.
219 From October 5 to January 2.
220 At Mombaça.
221 The MS. says “February” but this is an obvious mistake.
222 From Moçambique to Madagascar is only 60 leagues; 300 leagues would carry a ship as far as the Seychelles.
223 Mukhdisho of the Arabs, Madisha of the Somal, in lat. 5° N. The town was founded by Arabs, perhaps on the site of a more ancient city, in 907, and attained the height of its prosperity under the dynasty of the El Mdofer, which was expelled by the Abgal Somal, probably in the sixteenth century.
224 Whether merely as a sign of rejoicing or in wanton enmity is not clear.
225 Pate is an island in 26° 5´ S., with a town of the same name.
226 The author says the 9th, but Monday was the 7th. The stay of five days extended from the 7th to the 11th.
227 “Vasco da Gama’s Pillar”, now to be seen at Malindi, close to the town (to the left of it as seen from the sea) and at the extremity of a narrow rocky promontory of only a few feet in height, is certainly not the padrão erected by the great navigator, though it probably occupies its site. When Cabral arrived at Malindi in 1501 the pillar had been removed, it having proved a “stone of offence” to the people of Mombaça. The king, however, had stowed it away carefully, and had even caused the royal arms to be repainted. João de Sá, who had been with Gama, identified it.
The existing pillar, of which we give an illustration, is built up of concrete made of coral rock and lime. It rises to a height of 16 feet, and is surmounted by a cross, bearing on the sea side the arms of Portugal, but no inscription. It is not the pillar put up at the request of Vasco da Gama, but Sir John Kirk feels sure that the cross is very ancient. The latter is of sandstone, and evidently of local make, whilst the other crosses discovered hitherto are of limestone or marble. See Introduction.
228 This ambassador returned with Cabral in 1501.
229 The figure-head of the S. Raphael was taken away by Vasco da Gama and treated as an heirloom by the family, several members of which carried it with them on their travels. It ultimately found a resting-place in the church of Vidigueira, founded by D. Francisco da Gama. When the church was desecrated in 1840, the figure was removed to another church, where Texeira de Aragão discovered it in 1853. It is now in the church at Belem. The figure is carved in oak, and about 24 inches in height (see Texeira de Aragão, in the Boletim of the Lisbon Geographical Society, VI, 1886, p. 621.)
230 The author says five, but from January 13 to January 27, both included, is fifteen days.
231 Barros says Tangata. It is Mtangata (see note, p. 33).
232 Zanzibar is only twenty miles (six leagues) from the mainland.
233 Twenty-seven days carry us from March 20 to April 16.
234 The author here evidently refers to tornadoes or violent gusts of wind peculiar to the west coast of Africa, and more frequent at the beginning and termination of the rainy season. They generally blow off shore, their approach being indicated by an arch of clouds, from which lightning and thunder constantly proceed. At Sierra Leone the rainy season begins at the end of April (see Africa Pilot, 1893, Part II, p. 10).
235 The Rio Grande of the Portuguese is an arm of the sea from five to thirteen miles in breadth, called Orango Channel on the Admiralty Chart. It lies between the mainland and the Bissagos islands.
236 This church was demolished in 1646; the place of burial can no longer be identified.
237 See Jose da Silva Mendes Leal (Transactions of Lisbon Academy, 1871), and Texeira de Aragão (Boletim Lisbon Geogr. Soc., VI, 1886, p. 583).
238 This trustworthy man can have been no other than the “Moor” who was carried off from Anjediva (see Appendix E), and who, having been baptised, became known as Gaspar da Gama.
239 The frazila of Calecut is equal to 10.4 kilogr.; the fanão is worth 25-5/7 reis of 1555 (about 7.45d.) and the cruzado is worth 9s. 8d. But if 3 cruzados are accepted as the equivalent of 50 fanãos, the value of a fanão would be 6.96d.
240 I have little doubt that instead of Baqua we ought to read Bezoar. In D. Manuel’s letter to the King of Castile, the royal writer states that among the presents which the King of Cochin gave to Vasco da Gama (in 1502) there was a stone as large as a filbert, which was taken out of the head of a very rare animal, called Burgoldof, and which proved a specific against all poisons.
The Rev. J. J. Jaus, of the Basel Mission, informs me that the bezoar, in Malayalam, is called Gōrōchanam, which means “out of the cow’s brain”, go signifying cow. It still sells for its weight in silver, and is highly prized as a medicine and antidote. My esteemed correspondent is unable to enlighten me as to the meaning of burgoldof.
Bishop J. M. Speechly, in a letter addressed to me, suggests that “Baqua” (Bakwa) may be a corruption of “Bagawat”, a common name for Shiva, and the “Stone of Baqua” a dedication to him.
The Arabic name of the bezoar (badesar) has the meaning of antidote. This “stone” is a calcareous concretion found in the intestines of some animals, more especially goats and antelopes, but also in those of monkeys. It varies in size from a pea to a fist. All through the Middle Ages, this oriental bezoar was looked upon as a most potent medicine against poisons, and it is still highly valued in the East. The Bezoar of Goa (Gowa) is an artificial product made up of musk, ambergris, and gum of tragacanth.
241 The pequy (pik) is about 27 inches.
242 This, according to Prof. Kopke, is meant for Crangalor, the modern Kodungalar in Cochin. The frazila there is equal to 8.314 kilo., and the fanão, when buying pepper, is valued at 22-8/19 reis (6.5d.).
243 It is the Coilum of Marco Polo, the Columbum of Friar Jordanus (1330), the modern Quilon. It is one of the principal seats of the Syrian Christians. The Portuguese built a fort there in 1503.
244 Marco Polo’s Cael has been satisfactorily identified by Dr. Caldwell with the decayed village of Kayal (Palaya Kayal), near the mouth of the Tamrapanni river; whilst our author’s Caell is the Callegrande of Barros, now represented by Kayal Patnam, some distance to the south of that river. (Comp. Yule’s Marco Polo, ii, p. 307.) The pearl fisheries are near it, on the coast of Ceylon.
245 According to Prof. Kopke, it extended from Point Calymere to the Godavari.
246 Barbosa (p. 214) says that “the best sapphires are found in Ceylon,” as also “many rubies,” but inferior to those of Pegu.
247 The silk referred to by the author, as also by Barbosa and Barros, is the produce of the silk cotton tree (Bombax malabaricum) and is much inferior in quality to true silk.—Kopke.
248 This, according to Prof. Kopke and Yule (Marco Polo, ii, p. 222), is Siam, the old capital of which (Ayuthia) is called Sornau or Xarnau by Varthema, Giovanni d’Empoli, and Mendez Pinto.
249 Benzoin (Gum-Benjamin) is the produce of Styrax Benzoin, found in Siam, Cochin-China, Java and Sumatra, that of Siam being accounted the best.
250 The odoriferous aloe-wood of the author is the wood of Aquilaria Agallocha (Roxb.), found in Further India, and more especially in Chamba. Its Sanscrit name, Aguru, was corrupted into Agila and Aquila; and hence its Latin and Portuguese name of “Eaglewood.” (Yule’s Marco Polo, ii, p. 215.)
251 Prof. Kopke identifies Tenacar with Tenasserim, a great emporium at one time, through which the products of Siam reached the outer world.
252 Brazil-wood first became known in Europe at the beginning of the fourteenth century under the designation of Lignum presillum. The most esteemed kind of this dye-wood is known as Sapan wood (Caesalpinia sappan), found more especially in Siam.
253 This is no doubt Bengal, the capital of which was Chatigam (Chittagong).
254 Cloves were originally found only in the Moluccas; the true nutmeg (Myristica moschata) comes from the same islands and those further to the east. Tin was—and still is—a native product. The silk and porcelain came from China.
255 The frazila was equal to 10.51 kilo., the bahar was 210.22 kilo. The cruzado was a silver coin and was valued at 360 reis (8s. 8d.).
256 Barbosa (p. 186) gives a better account of musk, which really only reaches Pegu from the interior. It is the secretion of Moschus moschiferus, an animal resembling a deer, which lives in the mountains lying between the Amur river, China and India. The male has a pouch between the navel and the genitals which holds about 50 grammes of this secretion.
257 Burma, above Pegu, is still famous for its rubies.
258 This is evidently a duplicate account of what has been said above about Bemgala.
259 Prof. Kopke would identify this with Timor, where there is a fort called Camanaça. This, however, is quite inadmissible, for there are no elephants in Timor. I am more inclined to think that “Conimata” stands for Sumatra, a small state in North Sumatra, adjoining Pedir. The voyage to Pater and Conimata is stated to occupy the same time, viz., fifty days. If this be so, there is a duplication of Sumatra as well as of Bengal.
260 This seems to be Pedir, a small kingdom in Northern Sumatra, which had a pagan king when Varthema was there, although many of the inhabitants were Mohammedans. Rhubarb (Rheum officinale) is, however, only to be found in W. and N.W. China and in Tibet. The lacca tree is a native of Sumatra.
261 Say £966.
262 In calculating these values we have assumed the quintal to be equivalent to 100 pounds, the bahar = 460 pounds, the ratel = 1 pound. The cruzado is taken at 9s. 8d.
It is interesting to compare these prices with those given by Duarte Barbosa for Calecut. Assuming the fanão to be worth 6.5d. they were as follows per pound:—Cinnamon, 4.3d.; cloves, 7.2d. to 8.3d.; pepper, 2.9d. to 3.3d.; ginger, 0.5d. to 0.9d.; nutmeg, 3.0d. to 3.36d.; lac, 3.6d. to 5.2d.; rhubarb, 9s. 9d. to 11s.; musk, £15 11s.; aloe-wood, 24s. 7d.; frankincense, 0.9d. to 1.5d. A purchaser of one pound of each of these commodities would have paid at Calecut £17 13s. 6d., and would have received at Alexandria £57 12s. 8d., an increase of 210 per cent. (See Lord Stanley of Alderley’s version of Duarte Barbosa, Hakluyt Society, 1866, p. 219.)
Present Retail Prices in London are as follows (per pound): cinnamon, 1s. 8d.; cloves, 1s. 6d.; pepper, 7½d. to 10½d.; ginger, 10d. to 1s. 4d.; nutmeg, 2s. 6d. to 3s.; lac, 8d.; rhubarb, 8s. to 12s.; musk, £117.
263 The words placed within brackets have been kindly furnished me by the Rt. Rev. J. M. Speechly, D.D., who was Bishop of Travancore, 1879-89. In a letter to me he remarks that, “at the sea-port towns generally the worst Malayālam is spoken. Many Malayālam words are the same in Tamil, and in this list there are some which a Tamil scholar would be able to point out. Also, it is not unlikely that there are some Arabic words Malayālamised in the list. The anonymous author’s list is a very interesting one, and his journal, I have no doubt, will be so also. The ‘ne’ which ends so many words may stand for ‘nī’, ‘thou’. Sometimes it is only an expressive ending”.
264 She died in childbed on August 24, 1498; and Dom Manuel, having been granted a dispensation from the Pope, married her sister, Doña Maria, on August 24, 1500, the second anniversary of his first wife’s death.
265 Collecção de S. Vicente, t. III, fol. 513; XIV, fol. 1.
266 Collecção de S. Vicente, t. XIV, fol. 1.
267 Gaspar da Gama certainly came in the S. Gabriel (see Sernigi’s letter, Appendix B).
268 The immediate business of Pedro Correa was to get Pope Alexander VI to grant permission to the Commanders and Knights of the Orders of Christ and Aviz to marry. In this he succeeded (Goes, Chronica do D. Manuel, I, c. 15).
269 “e proveito nosso.” This, in Alguns Documentos, is rendered “e principalemente nosso”. It is just possible that the King meant to say that the “service of God” was his principal object, as it had been that of his predecessors.
270 “By these same discoverers” (Alguns Documentos).
271 This reference to “boughs and leaves” reminds us of what the author of the Journal says about gathering the branches and leaves of supposed cinnamon trees, p. 81.
272 Alguns Documentos adds: “nor such as suited”, that is, suited the requirements of the Indian market.
273 This paragraph only appears in Alguns Documentos.
274 The King, or his advisers, thus at once identified Ptolemy’s Taprobane with Ceylon, whilst Ortelius, the professional geographer, seventy-six years later, still assigns that name to Sumatra (see his map Indiae Orientalis, in Theatrum Orbis Terrarum).
275 Monçaide and Gaspar da Gama, see Appendix E.
276 A Bull of Alexander VI, dated Rome 1497, kalendas of June, allows King Manuel and his successors to keep possession of the countries conquered from the infidels, without prejudice to any prior claims of other Christian powers, and prohibits all kings, not possessing such claims, from disturbing King Manuel in the enjoyment of these rights. Finally, the Pope requires the King to establish the Christian religion in all the countries he may conquer (quoted from Alguns Documentos, p. 90).
277 Canestrini, Delle relazioni tra Firenze e il Portugallo (Archivo Storico Italiano, Florence, 1846, App. III).
278 Falcão, Livro de toda a fazenda, 1612, p. 144.
279 See Parte III, Fonti italiane, vol. i, p. 215; vol. ii, p. 113.
280 Delle Navigationi e Viaggi, i, Venice, 1550.
281 Vita e lettere d’ Amerigo Vespucci, Firenze, 1745, p. L.
282 Roteiro, 2º ed., pp. 124-7.
283 Markham, The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci. London (Hakluyt Society), 1894, p. x.
284 Il Milione di Marco Polo, Firenze, 1828, i, p. liii.
285 Sechs-und-zwanzigster Jahresbericht des historichen Kreisvereins von Schwaben, Augsburg, 1861, pp. 113-170.
286 Peutinger studied at Padua and other cities of Italy, 1483-6. He is supposed to have paid a flying visit to Rome early in the sixteenth century. His brother-in-law, Christopher Welser, was at that time resident there, and perhaps the abstract was made by him.
287 Sailing vessels going from the Cape Verde Islands to Lisbon frequently shape their course by the Azores. See p. 94.
288 Translated from Codex 1910 in the Riccardian Library at Florence.
289 Literally, “whalers”, or “vessels having the shape of a whale”, called “barinels” by the Portuguese, and not caravels.
290 According to the Paesi novamente retrovati and Ramusio, there were 180, but Peutinger says there were 118, of whom 55 died and 60 came back.
291 According to the Paesi, etc., July 11th.
292 This was the vessel commanded by Nicolau Coelho.
293 “Molto amalado”. The Paesi says “amallato a morte”, sick unto death, the very expression used by Peutinger.
294 Ramusio says 1,300 leagues, but even this is a gross exaggeration. If we allow 17½ leagues to a degree, the new land actually discovered beyond the Rio de Infante amounted to 860 leagues, viz., 800 leagues along the African coast and 60 leagues in India.
295 From the Cape to the Rio dos Bons Signaes is only 460 leagues.
296 The Rio dos Bons Signaes, or Kiliman River.
297 Peutinger says: “if they would stay till new moon, when the waters would grow small, they would give them gold in plenty in exchange for their money or merchandise.”
The Zambezi begins to subside in the beginning of April. Vasco da Gama left on February 25th. This is a very satisfactory confirmation of the writer’s information.
298 From the Kiliman River (Zambezi) to Melinde is 330 leagues.
299 The writer must have misunderstood his informants. Gaspar da Gama is evidently referred to. See Appendix E.
300 From Melinde to Calecut is about 2,340 miles, or 682 leagues.
301 This sentence is omitted by Ramusio.
302 The “Bab el mandeb”.
303 The Strait of Romania is the Bosporus, ancient cartographers (Ortelius and others) very properly writing “Romania” for the Turkish “Rum-ili”, instead of the corrupt “Roumelia” of most modern authors.
304 The “Sinus Arabicus” of Pliny (vi, 28) is a gulf of the Erythrean, identical with our Red Sea.
305 Peutinger adds that the people of Calecut were neither black nor white; and that they were Christians, although bad ones.
306 Peutinger says: “churches and convents.”
307 Peutinger’s version of this sentence is as follows: “Large and small are baptized in a state of nudity, once every three years, in a river near the town.”
308 The writer evidently refers to the roads in Portugal, but Ramusio says “as in Italy”.
309 Ramusio: “Esquires, doorkeepers and chamberlains.”
310 Ramusio and Peutinger say: “by about fifty persons.”
311 Peutinger says the couch “was hung round (umhangen) with blackish-green velvet, and had a white coverlet, all worked with gold, and above it a sumptuous curtain. The walls were hung with fine velvet of various colours.”
312 Peutinger: “the king had the captain asked what he wanted or sought.”
313 Ramusio: “carried on in their vessels.”
314 Peutinger translates: “Irrkirche,” i.e., heterodox church.
315 Industria: The word in Peutinger’s letter, “gescheidigkeit”, or intelligence, seems more appropriate.
316 Ramusio adds here “partly”. The island is Ceylon.
317 Ramusio adds: “and not by Christians, and the Moors are the masters (signori).”
318 The Italian original has “stapola”.
319 Babylonia of Egypt. Ramusio omits “Babylonia”. Peutinger has Alkeiro (Cairo).
320 The xerafins of Portuguese authors, worth about 7s. 10d. (at Calecut).
321 The Paesi and Ramusio add “zetanini velutati”; and Ramusio introduces also “damasked Lucca cloth”, in place of “scarlet cloth”. Prof. Dalla Vedova suggests that “cetanini” may stand for “setini”, a silken stuff of narrow width used in decorating the columns of churches. Bandini says it means “zendado, a kind of cloth”. Lucca was famous in the sixteenth century for its silks and woollen cloths.
322 Tin, from Malacca.
323 The Paesi, Ramusio, and Peutinger say May 19. According to the “Roteiro”, Vasco da Gama anchored off Capua on May 20.
324 Ramusio says 200 tons; Peutinger 1,200.
325 This sentence is omitted by Ramusio; but Peutinger says “many of these vessels are drowned in the sea”.
326 Ramusio says: “are of curious build”.
327 Ramusio adds: “but with wooden bolts”, but omits the allusion to the loadstone.
Peutinger locates the “calamito or loadstone” near Ceylon. The myth of magnetic mountains and islands originated in India or China, and was widely credited during the Middle Ages. It was believed that the magnet pulled out the iron bolts and nails of passing ships, which then fell to pieces and were lost.
328 Ramusio adds: “The sea rises and falls alternately every six hours, as elsewhere, and sometimes between 500 and 700 vessels may be seen there—a great sight”.
329 Peutinger adds that the cantar is equal to 250 pounds, when in fact it is only a hundredweight. Five cantars were equal to 1 bahar = 208 kilo = 460 pounds.
330 Ramusio and Peutinger say that ginger is worth only one half. They say nothing about cinnamon.
331 Ramusio says nothing about “calking”. The writer seems to look upon “ballasting” and “calking” as identical operations. Or has he made use of a Portuguese term (alastrar), the meaning of which he did not know? Or are we to understand that lac was employed as a substitute for pitch?
332 Ramusio and Peutinger say that they also take corals in payment, and this seems more probable.
333 “Balasci” are the pink rubies named after the country of their origin, Badakhshi, which was usually known, according to Ibn Batuta, as Al-balaksh (Yule’s Marco Polo, I, p. 169; Heyd, Geschichte des Levante-Handels, 1879, I, p. 582). Badakhshi is Badakhshan, and not a kingdom near Pegu and Bengal, as supposed by Duarte Barbosa (Hakluyt Society’s edition, 1866, p. 212).
334 The latter part of this sentence is omitted by Ramusio.
335 Bab el Mandeb.
336 The Rio dos Bons Signaes, or Zambezi.
337 Malvasia (Malmsey) is a luscious Greek wine, named after the town of Napoli di Malvasia, in Laconia. The vines were transplanted to Crete, Madeira, and other places.
338 Ramusio says: “they had a beard between the nose and the mouth, such as is worn by the courtiers at Constantinople, who call it a moustache.”
339 Ramusio adds: “of Melinde”. The “pilot” here referred to was Gaspar da Gama. See Appendix E.
340 This information was apparently never asked for. The “strangers” were undoubtedly Chinese. Marco Polo (Yule, I, p. lxvi, and II, pp. 197, 327) already mentions their four-masted vessels. In his time, Chinese vessels regularly visited the west coast of India. The vizor in the guise of a mask, distinctly points to the Chinese, and the sword attached to a spear is a Chinese weapon. Up to the introduction of pig-tails by the Manju, in 1644, the Chinese wore their hair long. A punitive fleet of sixty-two Chinese vessels was sent to Ceylon in 1401. In 1417 an embassy was sent from Mu-ku-tu-su (Magadoxo) to China (Bretschneider, On the Knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs, London, 1871), and in 1431 Chinese junks might be seen at Jedda (Hirth, Verhandlungen, Berlin Geographical Society, 1889, p. 46).
During the second half of the fifteenth century the intercourse between China and Malabar seems to have become rare, until at last it ceased altogether (Richthofen, China, I, p. 10, 5).
Ramusio contemptuously suppresses the writer’s speculations about these curious strangers being Germans or Russians.
341 Less than a penny.
342 “di mezo sapore”. Ramusio has “tutte dolci”.
343 “Poponi”: Ramusio says “pomi”, apples.
344 Or rather Buddha.
345 Ramusio has suppressed this passage.
346 Ramusio adds: “And bread made of corn and other things of the kind”.
347 Professor Dalla Vedova suggests that the “pescotto” of the original may be the “Pesce persico” (Perca fluviatilis), or perch. Ramusio, in his edition of 1563, however, has “pescietti”, which means “small fishes” (sardines).
348 Lenguazzi: perhaps the modern “linguattole”, or sole.
349 Bisuccho, in Portuguese Besugo, the sea-bream (Sparus cantabricus).
350 The words within brackets are only to be found in the Paesi.
351 Ramusio adds: “There are also horses as with us, and they are highly valued by Christians and Moors alike”. Peutinger and the Paesi say the same.
352 Ramusio says: “silk-stuffs and bocassins”. He does not mention the colours.
353 Peutinger adds: “They are decent, quiet (fromm) people at his court, and dress according to their condition and rank (adel)”.
354 Jubbi (Arabic) is a long coat or caftan; the balandrau (Portuguese) is a surtout worn by the Brothers of Mercy in Portugal. Ramusio calls the latter garments palascani.
355 The actual distance is about 10,500 nautical miles, or 3,060 Portuguese leagues.
356 In his second letter the writer recurs to this subject.
357 These are the Laccadive islands, fourteen in number: but, as their name implies (Laksha Dwipa = the Hundred Thousand Islands), supposed to be much more numerous. Mr. Sneyd’s Codex says there were 11,000 of these islands. The Maldives were known as Narikela Dwipa.
358 That is the West Indies!
359 Ramusio adds: “through vessels which go to Mecca”.
360 Ramusio adds: “benzoin”.
361 It should be 160.
362 Ramusio adds: “many sapphires and other jewels”. He then says: ”Pepper and ginger grow around the said city of Calicut”. The paragraph is worded obscurely, but my version seems to be preferable. Sapphires are mentioned at the end of the letter.
363 Ramusio does not mention almonds, nor does Peutinger.
364 This expression proves that the letter was not written at one sitting, but by degrees.
365 Ramusio has much condensed the whole of this paragraph, and seems to have misunderstood the writer. The statement that provisions were sent from Melinde to Calecut can hardly be accepted, and it was perhaps for this reason that Ramusio suppressed the name of that town. The country around Calecut is certainly sandy, but it is not as sterile as the bald statement of the writer would lead one to believe, for the city lies in the midst of extensive groves of palm, mango, and jack trees.
Peutinger thus summarises this passage: “The country around Kalekut is mostly sand, and neither corn nor any other fruit grows there. These are imported by sea.”
366 Should be Chalechut, as Bandini prints it.
367 The last two paragraphs have been omitted by Ramusio.
368 Translated from the Paesi novamente retrovati, Vicenza, 1507.
369 The true history of the Jewish colony in Malabar has been written by Claudius Buchanan (Christian Researches in Asia, Edinburgh, 1812). Ritter (Erdkunde, v, pp. 595-601) gives an excellent summary.
370 Gaspar da Gama was quite right. There were no Christians at Calecut when Vasco da Gama first visited that town, nor are there many now. Cochin, and not Calecut, was the chief seat of the Syrian Christians of Malabar. They were an offshoot of the church of Persia, which recognised the Nestorian patriarch of Babylon (Mosul). After the condemnation of their dogmas by the Council of Ephesus (431) they sought a refuge in distant countries. After 1599 many of them recognised the Pope, but after the ascendency of the Dutch (since 1653) some turned Protestants, whilst others recognised the Jacobite bishop of Antioch as their head. Popularly they are known as S. Thomas Christians, although there exists not the slightest evidence of that Apostle ever having visited India. Their worship is of a simple nature: they admit no images to their churches, reject the doctrine of transubstantiation, and allow their priests to marry (G. Milne Rae, The Syrian Church in India, 1892; Percy Badger, The Nestorians and their Ritual, 1852; German, Die Kirche der Thomaschristen, 1877).
371 Ramusio says: “excepting those called Jacobites and those of Prester John.”
372 Ramusio says forty days.
373 Ramusio adds: “towards the Gulf of Persia”.
374 Ramusio says 300 leagues. The real distance of Bahrein is about 550 leagues. There may be some confusion with the Manar pearl fishery.
375 Varthema (p. 95) and Duarte Barbosa (p. 37) refer to the pearl fishery of the Bahrein islands. They both describe the islanders as Mohammedans. Mr. Bent (Journal Royal Geographical Society, xii, 1890) visited the islands in 1889, and states that there is a good supply of water. Indeed, a river such as is described in the letter only exists some 250 miles away.
376 King Manuel was better advised (see p. 115, note).
377 Ramusio says: “is frightened”.
378 These “anchors”, according to Varthema (p. 153), consist of a block of marble, which has two ropes attached to it. On the African coast a box fitted with stones is used for the same purpose.
379 The next expedition was that sent out under Pedralvarez Cabral, who left Lisbon in March, 1500, with thirteen vessels.
380 In Book VIII of his Natural History.
381 This last paragraph is not found in the Paesi novamente retrovati, and is taken from Ramusio.
382 This paragraph is rather puzzling. July 10th, 1499, was the date of Coelho’s arrival. Of the four vessels, two are correctly stated to have been burnt, though not near Cape Verde, namely, the store ship of 110 tons, and one of the vessels of 90 tons (the S. Raphael). Coelho brought home the small vessel of 50 tons, and the “captain” himself is stated to have returned in the remaining vessel of 90 tons.
383 The Cape Verde islands.
384 Grão or gran (Portuguese), kermes-grain, anciently scarlet, is not mentioned by Ramusio.
385 Rosebeeren (Roseberries) seems to stand for Rose mallus, or Rossamalha, an aromatic resin containing benzoic acid, yielded by the majestic Rasamala tree (Altingia excelsa) of Java, where it is used as a substitute for benzoin.
386 I need hardly direct the reader’s attention to the fact that the fustas of the Sabayo were fought after Vasco’s return from Calecut, and that he visited neither Cochin nor Cananor in the course of this first voyage.
387 A MS. in the Torre do Tombo quoted by Texeira de Aragão (Boletim, VI, 1886, p. 580), ornamented with the coloured coats of arms of the Counts of Vidigueira, and extending to 1641, seems to be identical in several respects with the MS. from which the above is quoted. The concluding portion, beginning with “returned to this kingdom”, is taken word for word from the earlier Jornal. Vasco da Gama is stated to have gone in the S. Raphael, whilst Paulo’s vessel, the S. Gabriel, is said to have been destroyed on the homeward voyage near Cabo de S. Vicente.
388 Paulo da Gama came back in this vessel, his own having been burnt by order of Vasco da Gama, off Tangáta. [Note by the author.]
389 Pavia, a small town twenty miles to the north of Evora.
390 The 7th of April was a Saturday (see p. 34).
391 The preceding dates agree with those in the Journal, but the anchorage, two leagues from Calecut (see p. 48) was only reached on May 20th, and the stay at or off Calecut was certainly much longer than the seventy-four days allowed by Rezende. In fact, seventy-four days would only carry us from May 20th to August 1st.
392 That is, the mouth of the Tagus.
393 A sailing vessel occasionally propelled by oars.
394 Henrique Lopes de Mendonça, Estudos sobre navios Portuguezes, Lisbon (Ac. Real), 1892, p. 58.
395 A pilot, Fernando Rodriques Berrio, resided at Lagos in 1502, and there were other members of the same family (Varnhagen).
396 Goes, Chronica do Rei D. Emanuel, 1790, I, p. 10.
397 Only their type, for the legend below N. Coelho’s ship (“which they broke up”) shows that these are not portraits of the actual vessels, but fancy sketches. Coelho’s vessel was the first to return to Lisbon; it was the store-ship which was broken up.
398 Obras de Luiz de Camões, VI.
399 Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 26.
400 Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, Lisbon, 1892, p. 99.
401 Esmeraldo, p. 99.
402 A ton register is of a capacity of 100 cubic feet; a ton measurement is usually assumed to have a capacity of 40 cubic feet. Hence 400 tons measurement would be equivalent to 160 tons register, instead of 250 to 300.
403 Le construzione navali (Raccolta Colombiana), Rome, 1893, p. 76.
404 The palmo de goa was equal to 293 m.m., and the tonel consequently measured 2.42 cubic metres or 85 cubic feet. “Goa” has nothing to do either with agoa, or with the town of that name in India, but is a corruption of “gouê”, a measure anciently used by shipbuilders in the Mediterranean (see Lopez de Mendonça, loc. cit., p. 118).
405 Os Navios de Vasco da Gama, Lisbon, June, 1892.
406 Noticia sobre e Não S. Gabriel, Lisbon, August, 1892.
407 Captain Braz d’Oliveira gives the following dimensions: length, 106 ft.; keel, 54.5 ft.; beam, 20 ft.; draught, aft, 10.5 ft.; depth, 18 ft.
408 This consists in multiplying length of keel, breadth and depth, and dividing by thirty. The result is expressed in botte.
409 See J. de Barros, Dec. I, l. vi, c. 3.
410 Barros and Castanheda, in addition to bombards, mention spin-gards (wall-pieces) and one-pounder matchlocks. Correa (Stanley’s Vasco da Gama) says that the ships, or some of them, in Vasco da Gama’s second voyage were armed with six heavy guns below, four smaller guns and four falconets on deck, and several swivel guns. The caravels, though only manned by thirty men, carried four heavy guns below, six falconets and twelve swivel guns.
411 Note by Sir Clements R. Markham.
412 D. Diogo Ortiz de Vilhegas was a native of Calçadinha, in Leon, and came to Portugal as father-confessor and spiritual director of that “excellent lady”, D. Joanna. King Manuel held him in high respect, and appointed him Bishop of Tangier in 1491. Jointly with Masters Rodriguez, the physician, and Jose Vizinho, he is responsible for reporting adversely on the bold projects of Columbus. In 1500, he was transferred to the See of Ceuta, and, in 1505, to that of Vizeu. He never resided in his African dioceses. When Gama took leave of the King at Montemór ó novo, Vilhegas is said to have celebrated Mass. He died in 1519 at Almeirim.—(Paiva Manso, Historia Ecclesiastica, Lisbon, 1872, I, pp. 40, 47, 62.)
413 Pero de Covilhão and Affonso de Paiva were despatched from Santarem in 1487 to spy out the countries of the east. Covilhão, in the course of his extensive travels, visited Hormuz, Calecut, and the east coast of Africa as far as Sofala. He ultimately reached the court of Prester John, and was never again allowed to leave it. These travellers, too, received a map and instructions from D. Diogo de Vilhegas. The best account of Covilhão’s adventures is that furnished by Alvarez, c. 103 (see Lord Stanley’s translation, published by the Hakluyt Society).
414 Lucas Marcos visited Rome and Lisbon. The information furnished by him included a vocabulary.—(Barros, Da Asia, Dec. I, l. iii, c. 5.)
415 Abraham ben Samuel Zacuto was professor of astronomy and mathematics in the University of Salamanca when King John II called him to Portugal in 1492, and appointed him Astronomer Royal. He is the author of Ephemerides, originally written in Hebrew, a Latin translation of which, by José Vizinho, one of his pupils, was first printed in 1496—on the eve of Vasco da Gama’s departure—although there can be no doubt that these useful tables previously circulated in MS. José Vizinho is perhaps identical with the physician José whom King John had charged, jointly with Master Rodrigo, to prepare tables of the declination of the sun, which would enable navigators to determine their latitude after they had lost sight of the Pole star. Rudolf Wolf (Geschichte der Astronomie, p. 97) credits Regiomontanus with having produced the first set of “practical” tables for the use of mariners. He does not even once mention Zacuto in his history, and states that the tables of the great German astronomer were those made use of by Dias and Vasco da Gama. As the Ephemerides of Regiomontanus were printed in 1474, they naturally became more widely known than those of Zacuto, which only circulated in MS., and they were, perhaps, brought to Portugal by Martin Behaim. It cannot, however, be doubted that the tables which Vasco da Gama took with him were those of Zacuto.
For the contents of the first printed edition of Zacuto’s Almanach Perpetuum, see Antonio Ribeiro dos Santos in Memorias de Litteratura Portugueza, 2 edição, VIII, p. 46; for later reprints of the Tables of the Declination of the Sun, see Luciano Cordeira in the Boletim of the Lisbon Geographical Society, 1883, p. 163.
416 See Hellmann, in Zeitschrift für Erdkunde, 1897. The Roteiros of João de Castro, containing these observations, were published at Lisbon, 1833 and 1882.
417 The description of this proposed series is of historical interest (see Alguns documentos, 1892, p. 516).
418 See Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, pp. 73 and 144. The “Sphere” was a device bestowed upon D. Manuel by King João II. A coin called an “Esphera de Ouro” was coined in Portuguese India. M.B. Lopez Fernandes (Memoria das moedas, Lisbon, 1856, p. 121) had such a coin in his possession. It had the device on the face, and a royal crown with the word MEA on the obverse. Manuel de Faria (Noticias de Portugal, Disc. IV, § 31) thinks that MEA stands for “Mine”, meaning that the whole sphere was Manuel’s; but Fernandes is inclined to think that it stands for MEIA, that is, “Half”. The coin in his collection had an intrinsic value of about six shillings.
The Pelican was the device of King João II. It may have been on the padrãos erected by Dias, but has not been discovered on those of Cão.
419 See Texeira de Aragão (Boletim, VI, 1886, p. 562).
420 See Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, pp. 38, 73, 94, 96.
421 According to J. de Escalante de Mendoso (1575), quoted by D’Albertis, loc. cit., p. 84.
422 In quoting authorities I refer to the following editions:—João de Barros, Da Asia, Lisbon, 1788; Castanheda, Historia da India, Lisbon, 1833; Manuel de Faria y Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, Lisbon, 1666; Gaspar Correa, Lendas da India, Lisbon, 1858-64; Damião de Goes, Chronica do Rei D. Manuel, 1790.
423 If Correa (I, p. 656) can be trusted, he still had a wife at Cochin in 1506. Sernigi (see p. 136) credits him with a wife and children at Calecut.
424 Barros, Dec. I, IV, c. 1; Goes, 1, c. 23; Castanheda, I, c. 2.
425 Correa gives a circumstantial account of the embarkation in the King’s presence, but the description of the paintings which were to have been executed by the King’s order in illustration of the discovery and “conquest” of India, shows very conclusively that the King was not there (Alguns documentos, p. 516).
426 This, without a doubt, is the correct date. The author of our “Journal”, Barros, Goes, Castanheda, and Faria y Sousa, they all agree in this. Sernigi gives July 9th; Correa fixes upon March 25th as the day of departure.
We may say, once for all, that the dates given in the “Journal” may confidently be accepted as correct, allowing for a few lapsi calami (or errors of the copyist), which can fortunately be rectified in nearly every instance, as the Author names the day of the week, and often even the name of the Saint to whom the day is dedicated.
427 This date is doubtful. See p. 3, note 3. The wrong date is not August 18th, but August 22nd.
428 The variation being about 19° E., according to João de Castro, the true course would have been nearly S. by E.
429 See p. 4, note 1.
430 See Admiralty “Chart showing the tracks of sailing vessels with auxiliary steam power”; the valuable track-charts by Capt. A. Schück in the Jahresbericht of the Hamburg Geographical Society, for 1874; Dr. G. Schott, “Die Verkehrswege” in Zeitschrift für Erdkunde, 1895, with maps; the sailing directories of all ages since Duarte Pacheco wrote his Esmeraldo in 1505.
431 According to Barros, Bartholemeu Dias kept in his company until he took the direction of Mina.
432 See, for instance, The Voyage of François Leguat, by Capt. Pasfield Oliver (Hakluyt Society, 1891), i, p. 25.
433 Modern sailing vessels do much better. The passage from São Thiago to the Cape by way of Trinidad (5,140 miles) is made on an average in forty-six days, being a daily run of 125 miles, as compared with 54 miles daily, with which we have credited Vasco da Gama (see the Table at the end of this Appendix).
434 One league of Columbus = 4 Italian miles = 3.38 nautical miles.
435 In note 3, p. 3, we have assumed a somewhat shorter course, but after due consideration we now give the preference to the track laid down upon our chart. On an old map of Africa, by H. Moll, a “tract” passing to the east of Ascension and St. Helena is recommended as “a good course of sailing from Great Britain to the East Indies in the Spring and Fall”. What would Admiral Wharton say to this?
436 These islands are distinctly shown on the Cantino Chart, but unfortunately not named. They are not, however, the Ys. Tebas of Juan de la Cosa, as is supposed by the Editor of Spruner’s Historical Atlas, for the chart of the Spanish pilot which contains this name was completed before Cabral’s return. If we can credit a statement of Correa (Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 825), who quotes Gaspar da Gama as his authority, Cabral also discovered Tristão da Cunha. He certainly must have been very near these islands when several of his vessels foundered.
437 King Manuel, in his letter of 1505, to King Ferdinand of Castile (“Centenario do descobrimento da America”, Lisbon, 1892), says that João da Nova sailed to the Terra de Santa Cruz (Brazil), and thence to the Cape. He does not mention Ascension (Conceiçao). This, however, is not conclusive, for Kings, unlike Popes, are not infallible. Barros, Goes, and Galvão are our authorities for the discovery of the island of Concepçao in 8° S.
438 There is no doubt that the island referred to by Thome Lopes (see Ramusio) as being 330 leagues from the Ilha dos Papagaios (Brazil), 775 leagues from the Ilha da Boa Vista (Cape Verdes), and 850 leagues from the Cape, is the island now known as Trinidad. This island, on early Portuguese charts, is called Ascenção menor.
439 If the distance given by Giovanni da Empoli, who writes as an eye-witness, can be trusted, this must be the Ascenção menor (Trinidad), and not the island discovered by João da Nova, which is only 400 leagues from Cape Verde.
440 On Canerio’s chart St. Helena’s Bay is placed 32° 30´ S., the true latitude being 32° 40´ S. Cantino, whose outline is far more correct places the Bay in 31° S.
441 See Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, p. 48. Compare Introduction, p. xviii.
442 See Stanley’s Vasco da Gama, pp. 62, 67, 270.
443 The History of the Portuguese during the Reign of Emmanuel, London, 1752, 1, p. 48.
444 Roteiro, first edition, p. 143.
445 For a discussion of these sites, see p. 18, note.
446 Africa Pilot, iii, p. 241.
447 Vasco da Gama thus took 24 days to cross from Melinde to India. Cabral, João da Nova, Estevão da Gama and Affonso de Albuquerque effected this passage in from 15 to 18 days. They crossed in August, when the S.-W. monsoon blows freshly.
448 The Discoveries of the World (Hakluyt Society), p. 93.
449 These “Flats” are a submerged coral reef lying between 12° 30´ and 13° 40´ N. The native name is Maniyal Par.
450 According to the author of Add. MS. 20901 (British Museum), Vasco da Gama “cast anchor in front of the most noble and rich city of Calecut on May 22”. The date of this MS. is about 1516.
451 On page 80, note 2, we have identified the island upon which this padrão was placed with Pigeon Island, 14° 1´, on the ground of its answering better to the description given by the author of the Roteiro; but we see reasons for accepting the general opinion that one of the islands off Mulpy (perhaps Coco Nut Island) must be meant, although none of these islets is more than a mile from the coast, instead of two leagues. Barros (Dec. 1, l. iv, c. ii.) locates the Ilhéos de Santa Maria between Bacanor and Baticala.
452 Cabral, on his homeward voyage in 1501, reached Lisbon from Cape Verde in twenty days, but Juan Sebastian del Cano, in the Victoria, took fifty-seven days to reach San Lucar from the Cape Verde Islands.
453 In converting legoas into nautical miles we have assumed 100 legoas to be the equivalent of 338 miles. See League in Index and Glossary.
454 Or thirty miles, if we exclude the five days wasted in a vain effort to stem the Agulhas current (see p. 15).
455 No account is taken of the four days lost in an attempt to sail north (see p. 28).
456 This includes a delay of fifteen (?five) days when burning the S. Raphael.
457 Charts on a larger scale, but of a later date, are available, and enable us to trace the physical features of the coast, but their nomenclature is not always that of the original discoverers. Nor are we so fortunate as to possess such full descriptions of the coast as are to be found in the “Africa Pilot”, for the Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis (1505) of the famous Duarte Pacheco Pereira stops short at the Rio de Infante; whilst works such as Linschoten’s Itinerarium ofte Schipvaert, belong either to a much later epoch, or are of too general a nature to prove of use when attempting to identify the more obscure place-names. I think it was Admiral Ignacio da Costa Quintella, the author of the Annaes da marinha Portugueza, who regretted that the task of writing the history of Portuguese exploration should have devolved almost exclusively upon landsmen, who neglected to give satisfactory accounts of the routes followed by the early navigators. This regret we fully share.
458 See, for instance, A. Mori, in Atti IIo Congresso Geogr. Italiana, Rome, 1895, who describes maps by him in a “Ptolemy” in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Florence.
459 The late Dr. Kohl published a facsimile of this map in the Zeitschrift für Erdkunde, I, 1856, but it is not very accurate. That portion of the map which lies between the Guinea islands and Dias’s furthest accompanies my Paper on “Cão, Dias and Behaim”, in the Geographical Journal.
460 A legend (near the southern tropic and on the meridian of Lisbon) refers to Santa Cruz as “ysla descubierta por portugal”.
461 There are flags at Abaran, c. etiopico and quinonico.
462 A fine facsimile of this map was published at Madrid, in 1892, by Antonio Cánovas Vallego and Prof. Traynor, together with a biographical sketch of Juan de la Cosa by Antonio Vasáno.
463 A. Galvano, The Discoveries of the World, London (Hakluyt Society), 1862, p. 98; and The Letters of Vespucci, translated by Sir C. R. Markham, ib. 1894.
464 This carries us almost to Hawaii.
465 The words “questo avemo visto”, to the south of Moçambique, point to the use of an original sailing chart.
466 Reproduced in Sir Clements R. Markham’s Journal of Christopher Columbus, London, 1893, where also see Cantino’s letters.
467 Die topographischen Capitel des Indischen Seespiegels Mohit, von Dr. M. Bittner, Vienna, 1897, with thirty maps by Dr. Tomaschek.
468 Even Ptolemy seems to have been in possession of some of these Indian sailing charts, and Dr. Tomaschek suggests that the monstrous size of his Taprobana, or Ceylon, is due to his having mistaken the horizontal lines crossing these charts for parallels drawn at intervals of a degree.
469 Africa to the north of Mozambique measures 28° across on Canerio’s chart, and 25° on Cantino’s, the actual breadth being 26°.
470 Le Portulan de Nicolas de Canerio (Bulletin de la Soc. de Géogr. de Lyon, 1890).
471 Geographie du Moyen Age, ii, p. 143.
472 In Nordenskiöld’s Atlas will be found facsimiles of these maps.
473 Instead of a full translation of the two documents on this subject, which are printed as an appendix to the original edition of the Roteiro, we have given abstracts of all the available documents bearing upon it. Most of these will be found in extenso in Teixeira de Aragão’s Vasco da Gama e a Vidigueira (Boletim, Lisbon Geogr. Soc., 1886, pp. 541-702); Luciano Cordeiro’s De come e quando foi feito Conde Vasco da Gama (Boletim, 1892, pp. 257-303); and Cordeiro’s O Premio da Descoberta, Lisbon, 1897.
474 The original document bestowing this title is not available, but the King makes use of it in his Order of Nov. 19th, 1501.
475 Compare Document 18 at end of this Appendix.
476 See also Documents 10 and 11.
477 Peragallo, Carta de El-Rei D. Manuel ao Rei Catholico, Lisbon, 1892, p. 89. Leonardo Masser describes the Admiral as being ill-tempered and unreasonable, and as exhibiting but little gratitude in return for the favours conferred upon him by the King.
478 Peragallo, loc. cit., p. 92. The highest incomes were enjoyed by the Duke of Coimbra (16,000 cruz.), the Duke of Bragança (16,000 cruz.), the Bishop of Evora (12,000 cruz.), the Marquis of Villa Real and the Archbishop of Lisbon (10,000 cruz. each).
479 Cordeiro, Boletim, 1892, p. 285.
480 Quoted by teixeira de Aragão, p. 572, from a document in the Torre do Tombo.
481 teixeira de Aragão, p. 573.
482 This document was first printed as an Appendix to the second edition of the Roteiro, and has since been published as an Appendix to Lord Stanley of Alderley’s Vasco da Gama, and in Alguns Documentos, p. 127. Its provisions were confirmed in favour of D. Francisco da Gama by King John III, May 4th, 1526 (Cordeiro, O Premio da Descoberta, pp. 48-55.
483 In 1434 (not 1433) Gil Eanes doubled Cape Bojador.
484 In 1482 Diogo Cão discovered the Congo. We ought evidently to read 1488, for the Congo is only 1,240 leagues from Lisbon, whilst the 1,885 leagues actually carry us to the Rio do Infante. The name is thus spelt in this document as if the river had been named in honour of Prince Henry, and not after João Infante, the companion of Dias.
485 Published in extenso in the 2nd edition of the Roteiro, p. 175.
486 Departure from Lisbon, February 10, 1502; return, September 1, 1503.
487 About £900. The King had this gold converted into a “custodia”, which he presented to the church of Belem.
488 Cordeiro, Boletim, 1892, p. 287.
489 Teixeira de Aragão, p. 675.
490 Leonardo da Chá Maser calls him “discreet and experienced, although quite illiterate” (see Peragallo, Carta de El-Rei D. Manuel, Lisbon, 1892, p. 89).
491 This Gama was the third son of the first Vasco, and consequently an uncle of the Admiral. He was Comptroller of the Revenues (“casa da fazenda”) of the Order.
492 Cordeiro, Boletim, 1892, p. 287.
493 A town on the Tejo, 20 miles above Lisbon.
494 Cordeiro, Boletim, 1892, p. 288. This Alvaró was confirmed by King John, June 17, 1522 (Cordeiro, O Premio da Descoberta, p. 45).
495 Cordeiro, O Premio da Descoberta, p. 46.
496 Roteiro, Appendice, p. 175.
497 Niza, a town in the district of Portalegre, about 100 miles to the N.E. of Lisbon. When the 5th Count da Gama was raised to the dignity of a “Marquis” in 1648, he took his title from this town.
498 Cordeiro, Boletim, 1892, p. 289.
499 Cordeiro, Boletim, 1892, p. 292.
500 Cordeiro, Boletim, 1892, pp. 278, 291.
501 Cordeiro, pp. 274, 295.
502 Cordeiro, Boletim, p. 295.
503 Cordeiro, p. 280.
504 Cordeiro, O Premio da Descoberta, p. 46.
505 Cordeiro, p. 302.