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Updated: May 16, 2025
On the 9th of March, 1500, a fleet of thirteen vessels left Rastello, under the command of Pedro Alvarès Cabral; on board, as a volunteer, was Luiz de Camoens, who in his poem the "Lusiad," was to render illustrious the valour and adventurous spirit of his countrymen. But little is known of Cabral, and nothing of the reason which had gained him the command of this important expedition.
The ship was accordingly steered in and brought up opposite Rastello, at the mouth of the river Tagus. The oldest mariners who came off assured Columbus that they had never known so temptestuous a winter, and had been watching his vessel with the greatest anxiety since she had first been seen.
This departure from Rastello must have been a singularly moving scene; all, whether actors or spectators, mingling their chants, their cries, their adieux and their tears, while the sails, filled by a favourable breeze, bore away Gama and the fortune of Portugal towards the open sea.
He immediately dispatched a courier to the King and Queen of Spain with the tidings of his discovery, and requested permission of the King of Portugal to go up to Lisbon, fearing that the inhabitants of Rastello, when they heard of her rich freight, might be tempted to rob her. The King of Portugal, who was some distance from the capital, at once invited Columbus to visit him.
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