While Cabot was returning from his first voyage to North America, one of the most famous and most epoch-making expeditions of discovery of modern times was fitted out in Portugal. On July 24, 1497, Vasco da Gama set sail from the Tagus in the hope of reaching India _via_ the Cape of Good Hope. His squadron consisted of three ships, named the _San Gabriel_, the _San Raphael_, and the _Birrio_, together with a transport to carry stores. There is a painting in existence at Lisbon of the _San Gabriel_, which is supposed to be authentic. It represents her as having a high poop and forecastle, very like the caravel _Santa Maria_. She had four masts and a bowsprit. The latter and the fore and main masts were square-rigged. The _San Gabriel_ was, however, a much larger vessel than the _Santa Maria_. She is said to have been constructed to carry 400 pipes of wine. This would be equivalent to about 400 tons measurement, or, from 250 to 300 tons register.[15] The other two ships selected were of about the same dimensions, and of similar equipment and rig, in order that, in the event of losses, or accidents, each of the ships might make use of any of the spars, tackle, or fittings belonging to the others. It may here be mentioned that the ships reached Quilimane, on the east coast of South Africa, on January 22, 1498. After many visits to East African ports, during which they satisfied themselves that the arts of navigation were as well understood by the Eastern seamen as by themselves, they set sail for India early in August, and after a voyage of twenty, or, as some say, twenty-three days, they sighted the coast, and shortly afterwards arrived in Calicut, nearly fourteen months after they started from Lisbon. About this time the Memlook Sultans of Egypt absolutely cut off the trade which had been carried on for centuries between the Italian Republics and the Malabar coast of India _via_ the overland route and the Red Sea. It was this fact that gave the discovery of the sea-route to India such enormous importance, and, ultimately, it was one of the causes of the commercial downfall of the Italian Republics. The Cape route became the great high-road of commerce to the East, and remained so down to the present reign, when the re-establishment of the overland route, and, eventually, the successful cutting of the Suez Canal, restored commerce to its old paths.