Gaspar Correa

Alvaro Velho

Ernst Georg Ravenstein

King Manuel of Portugal chose Vasco da Gama to open up the sea route to the east to India just as Columbus had opened up the sea route to the west a few years earlier.In 1497 Vasco da Gama set off for India with a fleet of ships including the São Gabriel, the São Rafael, and the Bérrio, on what was to become one of the most important voyages of all time. Vasco da Gama's momentous voyage continued despite treachery, mutiny, warfare and scurvy, which resulted in the considerable loss of lives. Vasco da Gama certainly possessed the courage, ambition, pride and an unwavering steadfastness of purpose necessary for such a voyage. He was not averse to barbarity in the treatment of his enemies. He ordered the upper and lower lips of one of his enemies to be cut off, so that all his teeth showed, and then replaced his enemies ears with those of a dog. On another occasion a large number of his prisoners were hung to the yards of the ships and, after taking them down, he had their hands, feet and heads cut off filling up one of his enemies ships with them.Vasco da Gama's voyage was to irreversibly changed the course of human history and establish Vasco da Gama's place in history for ever more.Included in its entirety is the Roteiro, which is the only first hand account of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama, and further descriptions written by Gaspar Corrêa, King Manuel, Girolamo Sernigi, and three Portuguese accounts, as well as the original descriptions of Vasco da Gama's second and third voyages.

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