The _Berrio_ was one of those swift lateen-rigged vessels for which Portugal was famous from the thirteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century, and which, after the _barinel_[393] had been discarded, were exclusively employed in the exploration of the African coast. Their burthen did not exceed 200 tons, and they had two or three masts, and occasionally even four.[394] The _Berrio_ is stated to have been a vessel of only 50 tons. She was named after her former owner and pilot,[395] of whom she was purchased expressly for this voyage. [Illustration: A Caravel. (_After a Painting of the sixteenth century, in the Monastery of the Mother of God at Lisbon._)] The store-ship was of more considerable size. Sernigi (p. 123) says she measured 110 tons; Castanheda credits her with 200. She may have been a so-called _caravela redonda_, that is a caravel which carried square sails on the main and fore-masts and triangular ones on the mizzen-mast and the bowsprit. This vessel was purchased of Ayres Correa, a shipowner of Lisbon. The _S. Gabriel_ and _S. Raphael_ were specially built for this voyage. Bartholomeu Dias, who superintended their construction, discarded the caravel in which he himself had achieved his great success, in favour of square-rigged vessels of greater burthen, which, although slower sailers and less able to ply to windward, offered greater safety and more comfort to their crews. He took care, at the same time, that the draught of these vessels should enable them to navigate shallow waters, such as it was expected would be met with in the course of the voyage. The timber for these two vessels had been cut during the last year of the reign of King John, in the Crown woods of Leiria and Alcacer. The vessels having been completed, the King ordered them to be equipped by Fernão Lourenço, the factor of the house of Mines, and one of the most “magnificent” men of his time.[396] No contemporary description or picture of these vessels has reached us, but there can hardly be a doubt that their type[397] is fairly represented on a painting made by order of D. Jorge Cabral, who was Governor of India from 1549 to 1550. This painting subsequently became the property of D. João de Castro. A copy of it was first published by the Visconde de Juromenha, who took it from a MS. dated 1558.[398] The fine woodcut in W. S. Lindsay’s _History of Merchant Shipping_ (II, p. 5), from an ancient picture which also belonged to D. João de Castro, seems to be derived from the same source, but as the vessel carries the flag of the Order of Christ at the main, and not the Royal Standard, it cannot represent the flag-ship. At all events, it is not more authentic than either of the ships delineated in the drawing first published by Juromenha. [Illustration: The supposed Armada of Vasco da Gama. (_From a Painting made by order of Jorge Cabral (1549-50.))_]