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
He also sent a young Moor,[228] who desired to go with us to Portugal,
and whom he recommended strongly to the captain-major, saying that he
sent him in order that the King of Portugal might know how much he
desired his friendship.
[Illustration: Vasco da Gama’s Pillar at Malindi.
(_From a photograph by Sir John Kirk._)]
We remained five days at this place enjoying ourselves, and reposing
from the hardships endured during a passage in the course of which all
of us had been face to face with death.
[_Malindi to São Braz._]
[Illustration: The Figure-head of the _S. Raphael_.]
We left on Friday [January 11], in the morning, and on Saturday, which
was the 12th of the month, we passed close to Mombaça. On Sunday
[January 13] we anchored at the _Baixos de S. Raphael_,[229] where
we set fire to the ship of that name, as it was impossible for us to
navigate three vessels with the few hands that remained to us. The
contents of this ship were transferred to the two other ships. We
were here fifteen days,[230] and from a town in front of us, called
Tamugate,[231] many fowls were brought to us for sale or barter in
exchange for shirts and bracelets.
On Sunday, the 27th, we left this place with a fair wind. During the
following night we lay to, and in the morning [January 28] we came
close to a large island called Jamgiber [Zanzibar], which is peopled
by Moors, and is quite ten leagues[232] from the mainland. Late on
February 1, we anchored off the island of S. Jorge, near Moçambique and
left at once. On the following day [February 2], in the morning, we set
up a pillar in that island, where we had said mass on going out. The
rain fell so heavily that we could not light a fire for melting the
lead to fix the cross, and it therefore remained without one. We then
returned to the ships.
On March 3 we reached the Angra de São Braz, where we caught many
anchovies, seals and penguins, which we salted for our voyage. On the
12th we left, but when ten or twelve leagues from the watering-place
the wind blew so strongly from the west, that we were compelled to
return to this bay.
[_São Braz to the Rio Grande._]
When the wind fell we started once more, and the Lord gave us such a
good wind that on the 20th we were able to double the Cape of Good
Hope. Those who had come so far were in good health and quite robust,
although at times nearly dead from the cold winds which we experienced.
This feeling, however, we attributed less to the cold than to the heat
of the countries from which we had come.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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