A daring mariner, Vasco da Gama, opened the sea-gates to
the Indies. With four tiny ships he set sail from Lisbon in July, 1497 A.D.,
and after leaving the Cape Verde Islands made a wide sweep into the South
Atlantic. Five months passed before Africa was seen again. Having doubled the
Cape of Good Hope in safety, Da Gama skirted the eastern shores of Africa and
at length secured the services of a Moslem pilot to guide him across the Indian
Ocean. In May, 1498 A.D., he reached Calicut, [12] an important commercial city
on the southwest coast of India. When Da Gama returned to Lisbon, after an
absence of over two years, he brought back a cargo which repaid sixty times the
cost of the expedition. The Portuguese king received him with high honor and
created him Admiral of the Indies.
[12] Not Calcutta.
CAMOENS, 1524-1580 A.D., AND THE LUSIADS
The story of Da Gama's memorable voyage was sung by the
Portuguese poet, Camoens, in the Lusiads. It is the most successful of
all modern epics. The popularity of the Lusiads has done much to keep
alive the sense of nationality among the Portuguese, and even to-day it forms a
bond of union between Portugal and her daughter-nation across the
Atlantic—Brazil.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MARITIME ROUTE
The discovery of an ocean passage to the East came at the
right moment. Just at this time the Ottoman Turks were beginning to block up
the old trade routes. Their conquests in Asia Minor and southeastern
Europe, during the fifteenth century, shut out the Italians from the northern
route through the Aegean and the Black Sea. After Syria and Egypt were
conquered, early in the sixteenth century, the central and southern routes also
passed under Turkish control. The Ottoman advance struck a mortal blow at the
prosperity of the Italian cities, which had so long monopolized Oriental trade.
But the misfortune of Venice and Genoa was the opportunity of Portugal.
