A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499
History
A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama 1497-1499
Africa -- Description and travel; Gama, Vasco da, 1469-1524; India -- Description and travel; Voyages and travels
[p] See p. 19, _note_: The “barreiras” to the east of it may be a reef
forming a “barrier” along the coast.
[q] See p. 19, note 1, and p. 21.
[r] These words prove that the compiler of Dr. Hamy’s Chart was able
to utilise materials brought home by Vasco da Gama’s pilots, for it is
just in this locality that he again turned to the land, and discovered
his “first islands”. See p. 21.
[s] See p. 21, note 2.
[t] “Coraes” means “corals”. “Moçambique Flat” is a great coral bank.
[u] This river was named after one of Vasco da Gama’s companions. See p
177.
[v] See p. 32.
[w] For the baixos de S. Raphael, etc., see pp. 33, 92.
[x] For Mombaça and places to the north of it, see p. 40.
[y] See p. 58.
[z] See p. 88.
[aa] See p. 80.
[bb] See p. 200.
[cc] See p. 79.
[dd] See p. 48.
[ee] See p. 48.
APPENDIX H.
[Illustration: THE COAT-OF-ARMS OF VASCO DA GAMA.]
HONOURS AND REWARDS BESTOWED UPON VASCO DA GAMA, 1499-1524.[473]
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]
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