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Updated: May 29, 2025
A large caravel and a smaller barque, which were bound for Mina under the command of Bartholomew Diaz, sailed in company with Gama's fleet. On the following Saturday, the ships were in sight of the Canaries, and passed the night windward of Lancerota.
This happened at Mozambique, at Quiloa, and at Mombasa, and it was not till he arrived at Melinda that he was enabled to obtain provisions and a pilot, Malemo Cana, an Indian of Guzerat, who was quite familiar with the voyage to Calicut. Under his guidance Gama's fleet went from Melinda to Calicut in twenty-three days.
So, up to the present time, in spite of many temptations to dispose of it, they have made the ownership of Delagoa Bay an article of their national religion. But their national religion does not require of them to improve their property. And to-day it is much as it was when the sails of Da Gama's fleet first stirred its poisonous vapors.
So within twelve years from the time of Vasco da Gama's voyage the foundations of the Portuguese empire in the East had been firmly laid an empire which, however, existed merely as a great trading concern in which Dom Manoel was practically sole partner and so soon became the richest sovereign of his time.
Vasco da Gama's wish was to keep close hauled; but at night, when he was asleep, the pilot kept away, hoping thus to ease the ship and more quickly to get sight of land. As the admiral carried a huge lantern at the poop, the others followed, each showing a light one to another.
The overseer said that the King sent these things for Vasco da Gama's own use, and that when he went away he would send more for his King. Other presents were returned, and everything appeared to go on smoothly.
He had very little idea as yet of the firmness of Gama's character. Some armed boats were sent to surprise the ships, but the Portuguese, having received secret intelligence from the admiral of all that had happened, were on their guard, and their enemies dared not use open force.
This request was favourably received, and friendly relations were maintained, in spite of the Moorish intrigues, until the 10th of August, 1498. On that day Diaz went to announce Gama's impending departure to the king, reminding him of his promise to send an embassy to Portugal, and asking him to allow Gama a specimen of each of the productions of the country.
The great maritime discoveries at the close of the fifteenth century had enured quite as much to the benefit of the Flemings and Hollanders as to that of the Spaniards and Portuguese, to whom they were originally due. Antwerp and subsequently Amsterdam had thriven on the great revolution of the Indian trade which Vasco de Gama's voyage around the Cape had effected.
The Mamluk sultan took toll on every bale of goods that passed between Europe and India in the palmy days that preceded Vasco de Gama's discovery of the Cape route in 1497. It was an immense monopoly, extortionately used, and it was not resigned without a struggle.
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