HISTORY
OF
MERCHANT SHIPPING
AND
ANCIENT COMMERCE.
BY
W. S. LINDSAY.
_IN FOUR VOLUMES._
VOL. II.
With numerous Illustrations.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, LOW, AND SEARLE.
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.
1874.
[_All Rights reserved._]
LONDON.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. Pages 1-48
Dom John of Portugal prosecutes his researches for India—Expedition
under Vasco de Gama, 1497—Description of the ships—The expedition sails
9th July, 1497—Doubles the Cape of Good Hope, 25th Nov.—Sights land
at Natal, 25th Dec., 1498—Meets the first native vessel and obtains
information about India—Arrives at Mozambique, 10th March—Departs
for Quiloa, 8th April—Arrives at Melinde, 29th April—Sails for
Calicut, 6th August—Reaches the shores of India, 26th August—Arrives
at Calicut—Vasco de Gama disembarks and concludes a treaty with the
king—His treachery—Leaves Calicut for Cananore—Enters into friendly
relations and leaves Cananore, 20th Nov.—Reaches Melinde, 8th Jan.,
1499—Obtains pilots and sails for Europe, 20th Jan.—Doubles the
Cape of Good Hope—Death of Paul de Gama—The expedition reaches the
Tagus, 18th Sept., 1499—Great rejoicings at Lisbon—Arrangements
made for further expeditions—Departure of the second expedition,
25th March, 1502—Reaches Mozambique and Quiloa, where De Gama
makes known his power and threatens to capture the city—His unjust
demands—Arrives at Melinde—Departs, 18th Aug., 1502—Encounter
with the Moors—Levies tribute, and sails for Cananore—Disgraceful
destruction of a Calicut ship and massacre of her crew—De Gama’s
arrangement with the king of Cananore—Departure for Calicut—Bombards
the city—Horrible cruelties—Arrives at Cochym 7th Nov., where he
loads, and at Coulam—Opens a factory at Coulam—Calicut declares
war against Dom Gama—Success of the Portuguese—Desecration of the
Indian vessels, and further atrocities—Completes his factory and
fortifications at Cananore, and sails for Lisbon, where he arrives, 1st
Sept., 1503—De Gama arrives in India for the third time 11th Sept.,
1524—His death, 24th Dec., 1524—His character as compared with that of
Columbus—Discovery of the Pacific by Vasco Nuñez de Bilboa—Voyage of
Magellan
CHAPTER II. Pages 49-87
Progress of maritime discovery—Henry VII., 1485-1509—His encouragement
of maritime commerce and treaties with foreign nations—Voyages
to the Levant—Leading English shipowners—Patent to the Cabots,
1496—Discovery of the north-west coast of America, June 21, 1497—Second
patent, Feb. 3, 1498—Rival claimants to the discovery of the North
American continent—Sebastian Cabot and his opinions—Objects of the
second expedition—Third expedition, March 1501—How Sebastian Cabot
was employed from 1498 to 1512—He enters the service of Spain,
1512—Letter of Robert Thorne to Henry VIII. on further maritime
discoveries—Sebastian Cabot becomes pilot-master in Spain, 1518,
and afterwards (1525) head of a great trading and colonising
association—Leaves for South America, April 1526, in command of an
expedition to the Brazils—A mutiny and its suppression—Explores the
river La Plata while waiting instructions from Spain—Sanguinary
encounter with the natives—Returns to Spain, 1531, and remains there
till 1549, when he settles finally in Bristol—Edward VI., A.D.
1547-1553—Cabot forms an association for trading with the north, known
as the “Merchant Adventurers”—Despatch of the first expedition under
Sir H. Willoughby—Instructions for his guidance, probably drawn up
by Cabot—Departure, May 20, 1553—Great storm and separation of the
ships—Death of Sir H. Willoughby—Success of Chancellor—His shipwreck
and death at Pitsligo—Arrival in London of the first ambassador from
Russia, Feb. 1557—His reception—Commercial treaty—Early system of
conducting business with Russia—The benefits conferred by the Merchant
Adventurers upon England—The Steelyard merchants partially restored to
their former influence—Cabot loses favour with the court, and dies at
an advanced age
CHAPTER III. Pages 88-140
Henry VIII. resolves to establish a permanent Royal Navy—Derives
his first supply of men from English fishermen—Royal fleet equipped
and despatched from Portsmouth—Its first engagement—Increase of the
French fleets—Extraordinary exertions of the English to meet the
emergency—The rapidity with which they supplied men and vessels—Outfit
of the ships—The _Great Harry_—Number and strength of the fleet at
the death of Henry VIII., 28 Jan., 1547—The _Great Michael_—Trade
monopolies—Mode of conducting business—Mistaken laws—The Bridport
petition—Chartered companies—Prices regulated by law, and employment
provided—The petition of the weavers—State of the currency, A.D.
1549—Its depreciation—Corruption of the government—Recommendation
of W. Lane to Sir W. Cecil, who acts upon it, A.D. 1551, August—The
corruption of the council extends to the merchants—Accession of
Elizabeth, A.D. 1558—War with Spain—Temporary peace with France,
soon followed by another war—Demand for letters of marque—Number
of the Royal fleet, A.D. 1559—The desperate character of the
privateers—Conduct of the Spaniards—Daring exploits and cruelty of
Lord Thomas Cobham, and of other privateers or marauders—Piratical
cruises of the mayor of Dover—Prompt retaliation of the king of
Spain—Reply of Elizabeth—Elizabeth attempts to suppress piracy,
29th Sept., 1564—Her efforts fail, but are renewed with increased
vigour, though in vain—Opening of the African slave-trade—Character
of its promoters—John Hawkins’ daring expedition—Fresh expeditions
sanctioned by Elizabeth and her councillors—Cartel and Hawkins—They
differ and separate, 1565—Hawkins reaches the West Indies with four
hundred slaves, whom he sells to much advantage, and sails for
England—Fresh expeditions, 1556—They extend their operations, 1568—The
third expedition of Sir John Hawkins departs, October 1567, and
secures extraordinary gains—Attacked by a Spanish fleet and severely
injured—Reaches England in distress—Prevails on the Queen to make
reprisals—Questionable conduct of Elizabeth—Vigorous action of the
Spanish ambassador—Prompt retaliation—Injury to English trade less
than might have been supposed—Hatred of the Catholics—Increase of the
privateers, 1570—Their desperate acts, 1572
CHAPTER IV. Pages 141-181
Certainty of war with Spain—Secret preparations for the invasion
of England, and restoration of the Catholic faith—Philip intrigues
with Hawkins, and is grossly deceived—The Spanish Armada, and
England’s preparations for defence—Destruction of the Armada,
July 19, 1588—Voyages of discovery by Johnson—Finner and Martin
Frobisher—Drake’s voyage round the world, 1577—His piratical acts and
return home, 1580—First emigration of the English to America—Discovery
of Davis’s Straits—Davis directs his attention to India—Fresh
freebooting expeditions—Voyage of Cavendish to India, 1591, which leads
to the formation of the first English India Company, in 1600—First
ships despatched by the Company—The Dutch also form an East India
Company—Extent of their maritime commerce—They take the lead in the
trade with India—Expedition of Sir Henry Middleton—Its failure and
his death—Renewed efforts of the English East India Company—They gain
favour with the Moghul Emperor of India, and materially extend their
commercial operations—Treaty between English and Dutch East India
Companies—Soon broken—Losses of East India Company—Sir Walter Raleigh’s
views on maritime commerce, 1603—His views confirmed by other writers
opposed to his opinions—The views of Tobias, 1614—His estimate of
the profits of busses—The effect of these publications—Colonising
expeditions to North America—Charles I. assumes power over the
colonies—English shipowners resist the demand for Ship-Money—Its
payment enforced by law—Dutch rivalry—Increase of English
shipping—Struggles of the East India Company—Decline of Portuguese
power in India—The trade of the English in India—Increase of other
branches of English trade—Ships of the Turkey and Muscovy Company—The
Dutch pre-eminent—The reasons for this pre-eminence
CHAPTER V. Pages 182-214
English Navigation Laws—First Prohibitory Act, 1646—Further Acts,
1650-1651—Their object and effect—War declared between Great Britain
and Holland, July 1652—The English capture Prizes—Peace of 1654—Alleged
complaints against the Navigation Acts of Cromwell—Navigation Act
of Charles II.—The Maritime Charter of England—Its main provisions
recited—Trade with the Dutch prohibited—The Dutch navigation seriously
injured—Fresh war with the Dutch, 1664—Its naval results—Action off
Harwich, 1665—Dutch Smyrna fleet—Coalition between French and Dutch,
1666—Battle of June 1 and of July 24, 1666—Renewed negotiations for
peace, 1667—Dutch fleet burn ships at Chatham, threaten London,
and proceed to Portsmouth—Peace concluded—Its effects—The colonial
system—Partial anomalies—Capital created—Economical theories the
prelude to final free-trade—Eventual separation from the mother-country
considered—Views of Sir Josiah Child on the Navigation Laws—Relative
value of British and Foreign ships, 1666—British clearances, 1688, and
value of exports—War with France—Peace of Ryswick, 1697—Trade of the
Colonies—African trade—Newfoundland—Usages at the Fishery—Greenland
Fishery—Russian trade—Peter the Great—Effect of the legislative union
with Scotland, 1707—The maritime commerce of Scotland—Buccaneers in
the West Indies—State of British shipping, temp. George I.—South Sea
Company, 1710
CHAPTER VI. Pages 215-256
English voyages of discovery, 1690-1779—Dampier—Anson—Byron—Wallis
and Carteret—Captain Cook—His first voyage, in the _Endeavour_—Second
voyage, in the _Resolution_—Third voyage—Friendly, Fiji, Sandwich,
and other islands—His murder—Progress of the North American
colonies—Commercial jealousy in the West Indies—Seven Years’
War, 1756-1763—Its effect on the colonies—Unwise legislative
measures—Effect of the new restrictions—Passing of the Stamp
Act—Trade interrupted—Non-intercourse resolutions—Recourse to
hostilities—Position of the colonists—Fisheries—Shipping of North
American Colonies, A.D. 1769—Early registry of ships not always
to be depended on—Independence of United States acknowledged, May
24, 1784—Ireland secures various commercial concessions—Scotch
shipping—Rate of seamen’s wages—British Registry Act, Aug. 1,
1786—American Registry Act—Treaty between France and England,
1786—Slave-trade and its profits—Trade between England and America
and the West Indies re-opened—Changes produced by the Navigation
Laws consequent on the separation—New disputes—English Orders in
Council—Negotiations opened between Mr. Jay and Lord Grenville—Tonnage
duties levied by them
CHAPTER VII. Pages 257-289
Great Britain, A.D. 1792—War with France, Feb. 1, 1793—Commercial
panic—Government lends assistance—High price of corn—Bounties granted
on its importation—Declaration of Russia, 1780—Confederacy renewed when
Bonaparte had risen to power—Capture of merchant vessels—Do “free ships
make free goods?”—Neutral nations repudiate the English views—Their
views respecting blockades—Right of search—Chief doctrines of the
neutrals—Mr. Pitt stands firm, and is supported by Mr. Fox—Defence
of the English principles—Nelson sent to the Sound, 1801—Bombardment
of Copenhagen—Peace of Amiens, and its terms—Bonaparte’s opinion
of free-trade—Sequestration of English property in France not
raised—All claims remain unanswered—Restraint on commerce—French
spies sent to England to examine her ports, etc.—Aggrandisement of
Bonaparte—Irritation in England—Bonaparte’s interview with Lord
Whitworth—The English ministers try to gain time—Excitement in
England—The King’s message—The invasion of England determined on—War
declared, May 18, 1803—Joy of the shipowners—Preparations in England
for defence—Captures of French merchantmen—Effect of the war on
shipping—Complaints of English shipowners—Hardships of the pressing
system—Apprentices—Suggestions to secure the Mediterranean trade, and
to encourage emigration to Canada—Value of the Canadian trade
CHAPTER VIII. Pages 290-319
Mr. Fox tries to make peace with France, 1806—Napoleon’s
Proclamation—English Order in Council, April 8, 1806—Berlin Decree,
Nov. 10, 1806—Its terms, and the stringency of its articles—Napoleon’s
skill and duplicity—Russian campaign conceived—Berlin Decree
enforced—Increased rates of insurance—English Orders in
Council, 1807—Preamble of third Order in Council—Terms of this
Order—Neutrals—The Orders discussed—Embargo on British ships in
Russia—Milan Decree, Dec. 17, 1807—Preamble and articles—Bayonne
Decree, April 17, 1808—Effect of the Decrees and Orders in Council in
England—Interests of the shipowners maintained—Napoleon infringes his
own decrees—_Moniteur_, Nov. 18, 1810—Rise in the price of produce and
freights, partly accounted for by the Orders in Council—Ingenuity of
merchants in shipping goods—Smuggling—Licence system in England—Cost of
English licences—Their marketable value—Working of the licensing system
in England—Simulated papers—Agencies for the purpose of fabricating them
CHAPTER IX. Pages 320-344
Effect of the Orders in Council on American trade, A.D. 1810—Complaints
of the Americans against England—Policy of Napoleon towards
neutrals—Non-intercourse Act—Secret terms with America—Partiality
of the United States towards France—Contentions at home respecting
the Orders in Council—Declaration of war with America—Motives of the
Americans—England revokes her Orders in Council—Condemnation of the
conduct of the United States—Impressment of American seamen—Fraudulent
certificates—Incidents of the system—War with America—Necessity of
relaxing the Navigation Laws during war—High duties on cotton—Great
European Alliance—Napoleon returns to Paris—Germans advance to the
Rhine—Treaty of Chaumont—The Allies enter Paris—End of the war by the
Treaty of Paris, 1814—Napoleon’s escape from Elba—His landing in France
and advance on Paris—British troops despatched to Belgium—Subsidies
to European Powers—Fouché—Last campaign of Napoleon, and defeat at
Waterloo—Reflections
CHAPTER X. Pages 345-380
United States of America—Her independence recognised,
1783—Commercial rights—Retaliatory measures—Threatening attitude
of Massachusetts—Constitution of the United States—Good effects
of an united Government—Maritime laws and laws respecting
Neutrals—Feeling on both sides the water—Treaty between Great Britain
and United States—The right to impose a countervailing tonnage duty
reserved—Difficulty of the negotiation—Remarkable omission respecting
cotton—Indignation in France at the Treaty—The French protest against
its principles—Interest of England to have private property free
from capture at sea—Condemnation of ships in the West Indies and
great depredations—Outrages on the Americans—Torture practised by
French cruisers—The advantages of the war to the Americans—Impulse
given to shipping—Progress of American civilisation—Advances of
maritime enterprise—Views of American statesmen—The shipwrights
of Baltimore seek protection—Great Britain imposes countervailing
duties—Effect of legislative measures on both sides—Freight and duty
compared—Conclusions drawn by the American shipowners—Alarm in the
United States at the idea of reciprocity—Objections to the British
Navigation Act—Threatened destruction to American shipping—Popular
clamour—Opinions in Congress—Great influence of the shipowners—Early
statesmen of the United States—Their efforts to develop maritime
commerce—First trade with the East—European war of 1803—Its effect on
their maritime pursuits
CHAPTER XI. Pages 381-407
A special mission sent to England—Concessions made in the Colonial
trade—Blockades in the Colonies, and of the French ports in the
Channel—The dispute concerning the trade with the French Colonies—What
is a direct trade?—Reversal of the law in England—Effect in
America—Instructions to Commissioners—Proceedings of the shipowners of
New York—Duties of neutrals—Views of the New York shipowners—Conditions
with respect to private armed vessels—Authorities on the
subject—Negotiations for another treaty—Circuitous trade—Commercial
stipulations—Violation of treaties—Complaints of the Americans
against the French—Language of the Emperor—Bayonne Decree, April
17, 1808—American Non-intervention Act, March 1, 1809—Intrigues in
Paris against England—Hostile feelings in United States against
England—Diplomatic proceedings in Paris—Convention with Great
Britain—Retaliatory Acts to be enforced conditionally—Hostile
legislation against Great Britain—Bonds required—Treaty negotiations
renewed—Dutch reciprocity—Bremen reciprocity
CHAPTER XII. Pages 408-442
Earliest formation of wet docks and bonded warehouses—System of
levying duties—Opposition to any change—Excise Bill proposed, 1733—but
not passed till 1803—Necessity of docks for London—Depredations
from ships in London—The extent of the plunder—Instances of
robberies—Scuffle hunters—“Game” ships—Rat-catchers—River-pirates—Their
audacity—Light-horsemen—Their organisation—“Drum-hogsheads”—Long-shore
men—Harbour accommodation—Not adequate for the merchant shipping—East
and West India ships—Docks at length planned—West India
Docks—Regulations—East India Docks—Mode of conducting business at
the Docks—London Docks—St. Katharine’s Docks—Victoria and Millwall
Docks—Charges levied by the Dock Companies—Docks in provincial
ports, and bonded warehouses—Liverpool and Birkenhead Docks—Port of
Liverpool, its commerce, and its revenue from the docks—Extent of
accommodation—Extension of docks to the north—Hydraulic lifts and
repairing basins—Cost of new works—Bye-laws of the Mersey Board—The
pilots of the Mersey—Duties of the superintendents—Conditions of
admission to the service—Pilot-boats and rates of pilotage
CHAPTER XIII. Pages 443-488
East India Company—Early struggles—Rival company—Private
traders—Coalition effected—Their trade, 1741-1748, and
continued difficulties up to 1773—Their form of charter—Rates
of freight—Gross earnings—Evidence of Sir Richard Hotham before
the Committee of Inquiry—The effect of his evidence—Reduction of
duties, August 1784—Extent of tea trade—Opposition of independent
shipowners—India-built ships admitted to the trade—Board of Control
established, 1784—Value of the trade, 1796—Charter renewed,
with important provisions, from 1796 to 1814—Restrictions on
private traders—East India Company’s shipping, 1808-1815—The
trade partially opened—Jealousy of free-traders—Efforts of
the free-traders at the out-ports—Comparative cost of East
India Company’s ships and of other vessels—Opposition to the
employment of the latter—_Earl of Balcarras_—Her crew—Actions
fought by the ships of the Company—Conditions of entering the
service—Uniforms—Discipline—Promotion—Pay and perquisites—Abuse
of privileges—Direct remuneration of commanders—Provisions and
extra allowances—Illicit trade denounced by the Court, and means
adopted to discover the delinquents—Connivance of the officers of
the Customs—Pensions, and their conditions—Internal economy of the
ships—Watches and duties—Amusements—Gun-exercise—Courts-martial—Change
in the policy of the East India Company—Results of free-trade with
India, and of the Company’s trading operations—China trade thrown open,
1832-1834—Company abolished, 1858—Retiring allowances to commanders and
officers—Compensations and increased pensions granted—Remuneration of
the directors—Their patronage
CHAPTER XIV. Pages 489-538
Progress of shipping—_Thetis_, West Indiaman—A “Free-trader”—Internal
economy—Provisioning and manning—Shipping the crew—Crimps and
agents—Duties on departure of ship—Watches—Duties of the Master—Who
has control over navigation—Making and shortening sail—Tacking,
etc.—Ordinary day’s work, how arranged—Right of the Master over
the cabin—Authority and usages in the English, Dutch, and Prussian
marine—Danish and Norwegian system—Duties of Chief Mate—His duties in
port—Tacking “’bout ship”—Reefing topsails—Log-book—Mate successor in
law to the Master—Mode of address to Chief and Second Mates—Duties of
Second Mate—Ordinary day’s work—Care of spare rigging—Stores—Third
Mate—His general duties—Carpenter—Sail-maker—Steward—Cook—Able seamen,
their duties—Division of their labour—Duties of ordinary seamen—Boys or
apprentices—Bells—Helm—“Tricks” at the helm—Relieving duty—Orders at
the wheel—Repeating of orders at wheel—Conversation not allowed while
on duty—Colliers.
APPENDICES.
PAGE
Appendix No. 1 541
Appendix No. 2 555
Appendix No. 3 557
Appendix No. 4 559
Appendix No. 5 561
Appendix No. 6 563
Appendix No. 7 564
Appendix No. 8 570
Appendix No. 9 572
Appendix No. 10 576
Appendix No. 11 578
Appendix No. 12 583
Appendix No. 13 585
Appendix No. 14 586
Appendix No. 15 588
Index 593
[Illustration:
THE
LIVERPOOL AND BIRKENHEAD
DOCKS.
_Published by Sampson Low, Marston, Low & Searle,
Crown Buildings 188 Fleet Street, London._
_Engraved by Edw^d. Weller. Red Lion Square_]
MERCHANT SHIPPING.
CHAPTER I.
Dom John of Portugal prosecutes his researches for
India—Expedition under Vasco de Gama, 1497—Description of
the ships—The expedition sails 9th July, 1497—Doubles the
Cape of Good Hope, 25th Nov.—Sights land at Natal, 25th Dec.,
1498—Meets the first native vessel and obtains information about
India—Arrives at Mozambique, 10th March—Departs for Quiloa,
8th April—Arrives at Melinde, 29th April—Sails for Calicut,
6th August—Reaches the shores of India, 26th August—Arrives
at Calicut—Vasco de Gama disembarks and concludes a treaty
with the king—His treachery—Leaves Calicut for Cananore—Enters
into friendly relations and leaves Cananore, 20th Nov.—Reaches
Melinde, 8th Jan., 1499—Obtains pilots and sails for Europe, 20th
Jan.—Doubles the Cape of Good Hope—Death of Paul de Gama—The
expedition reaches the Tagus, 18th Sept., 1499—Great rejoicings
at Lisbon—Arrangements made for further expeditions—Departure of
the second expedition, 25th March, 1502—Reaches Mozambique and
Quiloa, where De Gama makes known his power, and threatens to
capture the city—His unjust demands—Arrives at Melinde—Departs,
18th Aug., 1502—Encounter with the Moors—Levies tribute, and
sails for Cananore—Disgraceful destruction of a Calicut ship,
and massacre of her crew—De Gama’s arrangements with the king
of Cananore—Departure for Calicut—Bombards the city—Horrible
cruelties—Arrives at Cochym 7th Nov., where he loads, and at
Coulam—Opens a factory at Coulam—Calicut declares war against Dom
Gama—Success of the Portuguese—Desecration of the Indian vessels,
and further atrocities—Completes his factory and fortifications
at Cananore, and sails for Lisbon, where he arrives, 1st Sept.,
1503—De Gama arrives in India for the third time, 11th Sept.,
1524—His death, 24th Dec., 1524—His character as compared with
that of Columbus—Discovery of the Pacific by Vasco Nuñez de
Bilboa—Voyage of Magellan.
[Sidenote: Dom John, of Portugal, prosecutes his researches for India.]
While the Spaniards under Columbus were prosecuting their researches
for India among the islands and along the coasts of a new-found world,
Dom John, of Portugal, was vigorously following up the voyages of
discovery which Prince Henry had commenced in the early part of the
fifteenth century. “He had heard,” remarks Gaspar Correa,[1] “from a
Caffre or Negro king of Benin, who in 1484 took up his quarters in
Lisbon, many marvellous things about India, and its affairs.” But
though this sable monarch spoke of “Prester John,” he does not appear
to have had any idea of the position of the golden land, over which he
was the traditional ruler. Dom John, however, resolved to ascertain
this fact, and despatched “secretly two young men of his equerries, to
learn of many lands, and wander in many parts, because they knew many
languages.”
“The king,” continues Correa, “promised them a large recompense for
their labour, and for such great services as they would be rendering
him; and for as long as they should continue in this service, he
would take good care for the support of their wives and children.” He
directed them to separate and to go by different roads, giving to each
of them letters of acknowledgment of the recompense which he promised
them if they returned alive, or to their sons and widows if they should
die in this service. He likewise ordered a plate of brass like a medal
to be given to each of them, bearing an inscription engraved in all
languages, with the name of ‘_The King Dom Joam of Portugal, brother
of the Christian King_,’ which they might show to Prester John, and to
whomsoever they thought fit.[2]
[Sidenote: Expedition under Vasco de Gama, 1497.]
[Sidenote: Description of the ships.]
The celebrated expedition of Vasco de Gama which followed this inquiry
is generally described as consisting of three vessels, one of 120 tons,
another of 100 tons, and the third somewhat less.[3] Correa says
they were all very similar in size and equipment, in order that each
ship might avail itself of any part of the tackle and fittings; and
he describes their outfit and cargoes as follows: “The king ordered
the ships to be supplied with double tackle and sets of sails, and
artillery and munitions in great abundance; above all, provisions, with
which the ships were to be filled, with many preserves and perfumed
waters, and in each ship all the articles of an apothecary’s shop for
the sick; a master, and a priest for confession. The king also ordered
all sorts of merchandise of what was in the kingdom and from outside of
it, and much gold and silver, coined in the money of all Christendom
and of the Moors. And cloths of gold, silk, and wool, of all kinds and
colours, and many jewels of gold, necklaces, chains, and bracelets, and
ewers of silver and silver-gilt, yataghans, swords, daggers, smooth
and engraved, and adorned with gold and silver workmanship. Spears and
shields, all adorned so as to be fit for presentation to the kings and
rulers of the countries where they might put into port; and a little of
each kind of spice. The king likewise commanded slaves to be bought
who knew all the languages which might be fallen in with, and all the
supplies which seemed to be requisite were provided in great abundance
and in double quantities.”
[Illustration: SAN GABRIEL.]
Such was the equipment of De Gama’s ships for this perilous and unknown
voyage; and, though a man of indefatigable energy, he had to accomplish
a task of an extraordinary character; no less than the discovery of
a land of which nothing was known, but the vague idea that it lay
beyond distant seas “where there would not be navigation by latitude
nor charts, only the needle to know the points of the compass, and the
sounding plummets for running down the coast.”[4]
On the Sunday fixed for the purpose of offering prayers before the
departure of this memorable expedition, the king, with his nobles and
most of the leading families of Lisbon, assembled in that beautiful
cathedral which still adorns the northern bank of the Tagus, to hear
mass from the Bishop Calçadilha, who with deep solemnity offered up
prayers, beseeching God “that the voyage might be for His holy service,
for the exaltation of His holy faith, and the good and honour of the
kingdom of Portugal.” At the conclusion of mass, the king stood before
the curtain where Vasco de Gama and his brother Paulo de Gama placed
themselves, with the captains of the expeditions, on their knees, and
devoutly prayed that they might have strength of mind and body to carry
out the wishes of the king, to increase the power and greatness of his
dominion, and to spread the Christian religion into other and far
distant lands.
[Sidenote: The expedition sails 9th July 1497.]
[Sidenote: Doubles the Cape of Good Hope, 25th Nov.]
[Sidenote: Sights land at Natal 25th Dec.]
With these professed objects and amid splendid demonstrations, in which
the whole population of Lisbon took part, Vasco de Gama set sail on the
9th of July 1497. Favoured by a northerly wind and fine weather, the
expedition reached St. Iago, Cape Verde Islands, in thirteen days from
the time of its departure. Having replenished his stock of provisions,
De Gama shaped his course to the south, and on the 4th of November
anchored in the bay of St. Helena, on the west coast of Africa. Though
aided by the skill and knowledge of Pedro d’Alemquer, Dias’s pilot, it
was not until the 22nd November that he succeeded in doubling the now
famous Cape of Good Hope, entering on the 25th the bay to the eastward
of it, which Dias had named San Bras. Here he encountered one of those
storms so frequent on the Agulhas banks, which Correa graphically
describes.[5] The ships were in imminent danger, the crews mutinied and
resolved to put back; and the fine weather, as had been anticipated,
did not restore either contentment or resignation. At length on Sunday,
the 17th of December, they passed the Rio do Iffante, the limit of
the discoveries of Dias, and on the 25th of that month sighted land.
In commemoration of the birthday of Christ, De Gama gave to this spot
the name of Costa de Natal. Continuing his course along the coast to
the north-east, he arrived on the 22nd of January, 1498, at a river
which he named the Rio de Bons Sinaes[6] (now called the Quillimane),
where he was detained for a month, owing to an outbreak of scurvy
among the crew. His ships, too, had suffered so severely, that they
had to be careened and thoroughly caulked, and many of the ropes
and shrouds replaced by others, to provide which the transport, as
unworthy of repair, was broken up, and the best of her spars and stores
appropriated to the equipment of the other vessels.
[Sidenote: Meets the first native vessel, and obtains information about
India.]
When the ships were repaired “they sailed with much satisfaction along
the coast, keeping a good look-out by day and night,” and at length
fell in with a small native vessel, in which there was an intelligent
Moor. From this man, whom the captain-major luxuriously entertained, a
great deal of information was obtained as to the character and habits
of the people on the coast; and, when spices were presented to him,
he intimated that he knew where they could be obtained abundantly.
Ultimately the Moor, who appears to have been a trader or broker in the
produce of the East, agreed to conduct De Gama to Cambay of which he
was a native, asserting that it was a rich country, and “the greatest
kingdom in the world.”
[Sidenote: Arrives at Mozambique, 10th March.]
Having arrived at the island of Mozambique, which was then in the
territory of the king of Quiloa, Vasco de Gama sent the Moor on shore
with a scarlet cap, a string of small coral beads, and other presents,
to conciliate the natives, and induce them to visit his ships. The
sheikh of the district was naturally suspicious at first of the
strangers, whom he took for Turks, the only white men known to him
who had ships unlike the trading vessels of India. When, however, he
was satisfied of their friendly intentions, he paid the Portuguese
ships a visit in great state; but, on being shown samples of the
merchandise brought to exchange for the produce of the East, though
making many professions of assistance and friendship, he seems to have
treacherously designed obtaining unlawful possession of them. In this
scheme, however, he was frustrated by the Moor, who, faithful to his
new friends, revealed the plot to De Gama, who was thus enabled to
proceed in safety on his voyage.
[Sidenote: Departs for Quiloa, 8th April.]
From Mozambique the expedition proceeded to Quiloa, described as an
important city, trading in “much merchandise,” which came from abroad
in a great many ships from all parts, especially from Mecca. Here were
“many kinds of people,” including Armenians, who “called themselves
Christians” like the Portuguese; here also pilots could be obtained for
Cambay. But the sheikh of Mozambique, frustrated in his treacherous
designs, had anticipated the arrival of the expedition, by sending a
swift boat to inform his chief, the king of Quiloa, that the strangers
“were Christians and robbers who came to plunder and spy the countries,
under the device that they were merchants, and that they made presents
and behaved themselves very humbly in order to deceive, and afterwards
come with a fleet and men to take possession of countries; and,
therefore, he knowing that, had wished to capture them, and they had
fled from the port.” This king appears to have been as treacherous as
his sheikh; but though after sending many presents, he endeavoured,
by means of false pilots, to run De Gama’s ships on the shoals at the
entrance of his port, his plan signally failed.
[Sidenote: Arrives at Melinde, 29th April.]
Soon after leaving Quiloa, the expedition fell in with a native vessel,
which conducted them in safety to Melinde, described as a city on the
open coast, containing many noble buildings, surrounded by walls, and
of a very imposing appearance from the sea. Here they anchored in front
of the city, “close to many ships which were in the port, all dressed
out with flags,” in honour of the Portuguese, whose reputation for
wealth and power had spread along the coast to such an extent as to
induce the king’s soothsayer to recommend that they should “be treated
with confidence and respect, and not as Christian robbers.” Large
supplies of fresh provisions were sent on board of the vessels; and the
king having spoken with his “magistrates and counsellors,” resolved
that they should be received in a peaceable and amicable manner,
because “there were no such evil people in the world as to do evil to
any who did good to them.”
The king having arranged to visit the Portuguese ships, Vasco de Gama
received him with royal honours, presenting him with many articles
of European manufacture, which were highly prized. After frequent
interchanges of civilities, the king informed De Gama that Cambay, of
which he was in search, did not contain the produce he desired, for it
was not of the growth of that country, but was conveyed thither “from
abroad, and cost much there.” “I will give you pilots,” he added, “to
take you to the city of Calicut, which is in the country where the
pepper and ginger grows, and thither come from other parts all the
other drugs, and whatever merchandise there is in these parts, of which
you can buy that which you please, enough to fill the ships, or a
hundred ships if you had so many.”[7]
[Sidenote: Sails for Calicut, 6th Aug.]
Towards the close of May, 1498, the expedition was again ready to
sail, but finding they had little chance of successful progress, De
Gama resolved to wait till the change of the monsoons. The interval
was spent in a more thorough repair of their ships. The pilots whom
the king had furnished appear to have been well skilled in their
profession, and were not surprised when Vasco de Gama showed them the
large wooden astrolabe he had brought with him, and the quadrants of
metal with which he measured at noon the altitude of the sun. They
informed him that some pilots of the Red Sea used brass instruments
of a triangular shape and quadrants for a similar purpose, but more
especially for ascertaining the altitude of a particular star, better
known than any other, in the course of their navigation. Their own
mariners, however, they explained, and those of India were generally
guided by various stars both north and south, and also by other notable
stars which traversed the middle of the heavens from east to west,
adding that they did not take their distance with instruments such as
were in use amongst the Red Sea pilots, but by means of three tables,
or the cross-staff, sometimes described as Jacob’s staff. In those days
the seamen of the eastern nations were, indeed, as far advanced in the
art of navigation as either the Spaniards or the Portuguese, having
gained their knowledge from the Arabian mariners, who, during the
Middle Ages, carried on, as we have seen, an extensive trade between
the Italian republics and the whole of the Malabar coast.
[Sidenote: Reaches the shores of India, 26th August.]
After a passage of twenty (or twenty-three) days, Vasco de Gama first
sighted the high land of India, at a distance of about eight leagues
from the coast of Cananore. The news of the strange arrival spread
with great rapidity, and the soothsayers and diviners were consulted,
the natives having a legend, “that the whole of India would be taken
and ruled over by a distant king, who had white people, who would do
great harm to those who were not their friends;”[8]—a prophecy which
has been remarkably fulfilled, not merely by the Portuguese, but more
especially as regards the government of India by the English people.
The soothsayers, however, added that the time had not yet arrived for
the realisation of the prophecy.
[Sidenote: Arrives at Calicut.]
[Sidenote: Vasco De Gama disembarks,]
On the arrival of the expedition at Calicut,[9] multitudes of people
flocked to the beach, and the Portuguese were at first well received;
for the king, having ascertained the real wealth of the strangers, and
that Vasco de Gama had gold, and silver, and rich merchandise on board,
to exchange for the pepper, spices, and other produce of the East,
immediately sent him presents of “many figs, fowls, and cocoa-nuts,
fresh and dry,” and professed a desire to enter into relations with
the “great Christian king,” whom he represented. Calicut, the capital
of the Malabar district, was then one of the chief mercantile cities
of India, having for centuries carried on an extensive trade with
Arabia and the cities of the West, in native and Arabian vessels.
Hence among its merchants were many Moors,[10] who, holding in their
hands the most profitable branches of the trade, naturally “perceived
the great inconvenience and certain destruction which would fall upon
them and upon their trade if the Portuguese should establish trade in
Calicut.”[11] These men therefore took counsel together, and at length
succeeded in persuading the king’s chief factor, and his minister of
justice, that the strangers had been really sent to spy out the nature
of the country, so that they might afterwards come and plunder it at
their leisure. But, as Correa remarks, “it is notorious that officials
take more pleasure in bribes than in the appointments of their
offices,” so the factor and the minister did not hesitate to receive
bribes, both from the Moors and from the strangers, and recommended
the king, whose interests were opposed to his fears, to open up a
commercial intercourse with Vasco de Gama. Accompanied by twelve men,
of “good appearance,” composing his retinue, and taking with him
numerous presents, De Gama at last presented himself on shore. The
magnificent display of scarlet cloth, the crimson velvet, the yellow
satin, the hand-basins and ewers chased and gilt, besides a splendid
gilt mirror, fifty sheaths of knives of Flanders, with ivory handles
and glittering blades, and many other objects of curiosity and novelty,
banished, at least for the time, any doubts in the mind of the Malabar
monarch with regard to the honest intentions of the strangers.
[Sidenote: and concludes a treaty with the king.]
Having concluded a treaty, whereby it was stipulated that the
Portuguese should have security to go on shore and sell and buy as they
pleased, and that they should be placed in all respects on the same
footing as other foreign merchants, the king added his desire that the
stranger should be treated “with such good friendship as if he was own
brother to the king of Portugal.”[12]
[Sidenote: His treachery.]
De Gama was fully satisfied with the arrangement, and had he been
dealing with the king only, it seems probable that everything would
have gone on well; the more so as the Malabar monarch was already
realising large profits from the new trade. But the merchant Moors
were less easily satisfied. They knew from the covetous character
of the king that so long as the Portuguese were willing to buy, he
would continue to supply whatever they required, and that thus the
market would be stripped of the articles best adapted for their annual
shipments to the Red Sea. They felt that “whenever the Christians
should come thither, he would prefer selling his goods to them to
supplying cargoes for the Moors;” and that, in the end, they would
be “entirely ruined;” a plea, indeed, repeatedly used in many other
countries whenever competition first made its appearance. The Moors
further argued that the Portuguese could not be merchants, but “evil
men of war,” for they paid whatever price was demanded for the produce
they required, and made no difference between articles of inferior and
superior qualities. But the king refused to listen to their complaints
until he had obtained all he desired from the strangers; then, giving
heed to the reports of the Moors, and to the entreaties of his factor
and minister, who had been doubly bribed, he turned round upon Gama,
and by stratagem endeavoured to capture him and his ships. Finding it
unsafe to remain any longer in port, the expedition, although only half
laden, prepared to take its departure from Calicut, after a sojourn
of about seventy days, the captain-major remarking that he was “not
going to return to the port, but that he would go back to his country
to relate to his king all that had happened to him; that he should
also tell him the truth about the treachery of his own people with the
Moors; and that, if at any time he should return to Calicut, he would
revenge himself upon the Moors.”[13]
[Sidenote: Leaves Calicut for Cananore.]
Terrified by this threat of revenge, the king repented, and believing
that the expedition would proceed to Cananore, wrote a letter to the
king of that place giving him an account of all that had taken place
and of his ill-treatment of the Portuguese, and, at the same time,
entreating him to induce De Gama to return to his country, that he
might “see the punishment he would inflict on those who were in fault,
and complete the cargo of his ships.” The Portuguese, however, had
seen enough of the fickle ruler of Calicut, and declined to accede
to his urgent entreaties to return. In the king of Cananore they
found a monarch equally disposed to trade, and one who, at the same
time, having consulted his soothsayers, had decided that it would be
alike profitable and politic to enter into commercial relations with
strangers who could, if they pleased, destroy their enemies at sea or
ruin their trade on land. How they were received and how they conducted
their trade with this monarch is told at much length by Correa, in
his quaint and graphic relation of the incidents of this remarkable
voyage.[14]
[Sidenote: Enters into friendly relations,]
Suffice it to state that, after many fine speeches on both sides, the
king swore eternal friendship with the Christian king of Portugal, and
as a trustworthy proof of their oaths, presented to De Gama a sword,
with a hilt enamelled with gold, and a velvet scabbard, the point of
which was sheathed with that precious metal.
Abundant presents followed these solemn pledges—pledges made only to be
broken; while gifts of golden collars, mounted with jewels and pearls,
and chains of gold, and rings set with valuable gems, were offered to
and accepted by the Portuguese as tokens of a friendship which was
to last “for ever,” but which in a few years afterwards they rudely
destroyed. “A factory,” said the king, “you may establish in this
country; goods your ships shall always have of the best quality, and
at the prices they are worth.” But as the sequel shows, in the case
alike of the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English, around the factory
there arose fortifications, and from these there went forth, not merely
traders to collect the produce of the country, but conquerors to
overthrow ancient dynasties, and claim as their own the land to which a
few years before they had been utter strangers.[15]
[Sidenote: and leaves Cananore, 20th Nov.]
[Sidenote: Reaches Melinde, 8th Jan., 1499.]
Having fully completed their cargoes, the Portuguese ships took their
departure from Cananore on the 20th of November, 1498, but finding
that the monsoons were not then sufficiently set in to be favourable
for the homeward voyage, they anchored at “Angediva,”[16] an island
on the coast of Malabar, where there were good water springs, and
where they “enjoyed themselves much.” After remaining there ten
days, they departed on their voyage to Melinde. They were, however,
delayed for a time by corsairs, fitted out at Goa, in the hope that
the Portuguese ships might be captured by stratagem, a hope which was
rudely demolished; the fleet of “fustas” were entirely destroyed, and
Vasco de Gama arrived, homeward bound, without further molestation or
misfortune, safely at the African port (Melinde), on the 8th January,
1499.
Having been received with great rejoicings, De Gama, in reply to the
affectionate welcome of the king, made a glowing speech, in which by
the way he remarked that “the king, our sovereign, will send many ships
and men to seek India, _which will be all of it his_, he will confer
great benefits on his friends, and you will be the one most esteemed
above them all, like a brother of his own; and when you see his power,
then your heart will feel entire satisfaction.”
[Sidenote: Obtains pilots, and sails for Europe, 20th Jan.]
A letter, written “on a leaf of gold,” was then prepared for the
king of Portugal, in which all that had taken place at Melinde was
mentioned, with many requests that the Christian sovereign would
send his fleets and men to his ports. Rich presents were at the same
time placed in the charge of De Gama to be delivered on the part
of his majesty of Melinde to the king and queen of Portugal; while
presents of a similar kind, and scarcely less valuable, were given
to De Gama and his officers. In return for these handsome gifts, De
Gama, “desiring that the king of Portugal should excel all others in
greatness,” ordered to be put into the boats ten chests of different
sorts of uncut coral, a considerable quantity of amber, vermilion, and
quicksilver; numerous pieces of brocade, velvet, satin, and coloured
damasks, with many other things which he considered it was “not worth
while to take back to Portugal, as of little value there.” The king,
besides furnishing him with pilots, presented to them various things
that might be useful or pleasant on the voyage; such as jars of ginger,
preserved with sugar, for the captain-major, and for Paul de Gama,
“which they were to eat at sea when they were cold,” and two hundred
cruzados in gold, “to be distributed among their wives.” Thus enriched
and replenished, the expedition set sail for Europe on the day of St.
Sebastian, the 20th of January, 1499.[17]
[Sidenote: Doubles the Cape of Good Hope.]
Having shaped a course along the coast, the captains gave orders to
note with care the various headlands, and every conspicuous landmark,
especially the outlines and marks presented by the land when seen
astern of the vessels, and also to note down the names of the towns and
the rivers, and their position from the more conspicuous headlands,
for the guidance of future voyagers. With a fair wind, and under the
direction of the native pilots, who were familiar with the navigation,
the expedition passed swiftly through the Mozambique channel, and
without calling at any place, rounded, in fine weather, the dreaded
Cape of Good Hope, and saw “the turn which the coast takes towards
Portugal with shouts of joy, and prayers and praises for the benefits
that had been granted to them.”
[Sidenote: Death of Paul de Gama.]
“When it was night,” continues Correa in his narrative, “the Moorish
pilots took observations with the stars, so that they made a straight
course. When they were on the line they met with showers and calms, so
that our men knew that they were in the region of Guinea. Here they
encountered contrary winds, which came from the Straits of Gibraltar,
so that they took a tack out to sea on a bowline, going as close to the
wind as possible. They sailed thus, with much labour at the pumps, for
the ships made much water with the strain of going on a bowline, and in
this part of the sea they found some troublesome weed, of which there
was much that covered the sea, which had a leaf like _sargarço_,[18]
which name they gave to it, and so named it for ever. Our pilots got
sight of the north star at the altitude which they used to see it in
Portugal, by which they knew they were near Portugal. They then ran due
north until they sighted the islands, at which their joy was unbounded,
and they reached them and ran along them to Terceira, at which they
anchored in the port of Angra, at the end of August. There the ships
could hardly keep afloat by means of the pumps, and they were so old
that it was a wonder how they kept above water, and many of the crews
were dead, and others sick, who died on reaching land. There also Paul
de Gama died, for he came ailing ever since he passed the Cape; and off
Guinea he took to his bed, and never again rose from it.”[19]
[Sidenote: The expedition reaches the Tagus 18th Sept, 1499.]
The death of Paul de Gama was a source of the greatest grief to his
brother Vasco. His body was buried in the monastery of St. Francis with
much honour, and amidst the lamentations of the crews, and the chief
inhabitants of the island, who followed it to the grave. The crews
having, chiefly by death, been reduced to fifty-five, and many of the
men being in a weak state, the government officers of Terceira sent an
extra supply of seamen on board, to navigate the ships to Lisbon, for
which port the expedition sailed as soon as the vessels had received
the necessary refit, reaching the Tagus on the 18th of September, 1499,
after an absence of two years and eight months, on one of the most
remarkable and interesting voyages on record.
But the news of the arrival of the fleet at Terceira had preceded its
actual arrival at Lisbon, more than one adventurer having started
thence while De Gama was detained, so as to secure the reward for
bringing the first good tidings to the king, then at Cintra.
It spread, indeed, far and wide. Another road had been discovered to a
country which, famed for its riches, had been the envy of the Western
nations from the earliest historic period, as well as the dream of the
youth of every age and land since the days of Solomon and Semiramis.
Well might Lisbon be in a state of the greatest ecstasy when the
tidings of the great discovery reached its people. They were indeed
tidings of the highest importance, not merely to them, but to the
people of every maritime and commercial city of Europe.
[Sidenote: Great rejoicings at Lisbon.]
The information reaching the king at midnight, he resolved to start
with his retinue early in the morning for Lisbon, to receive further
intelligence, and to welcome the ships on their entry into the Tagus.
There the glad tidings were confirmed. The king waited at the India
House until the ships arrived at the bar, where there were boats with
pilots, who brought them into port, decorated with numerous flags, and
firing a salute as they anchored. When Vasco de Gama landed on the
beach before the city, he was received by “all the nobles of the court,
and by the Count of Borba and the Bishop of Calçadilha; and he went
between these two before the king, who rose up from his chair, and did
him great honour,” conferring upon him the title of “Dom,” with various
grants and privileges, and creating him high admiral, an office which
the Marquis of Niza, his lineal descendant, holds to this day. “Then
the king mounted his horse, and went to the palace above the Alcasoba,
where his apartments then were, and took Vasco de Gama with him, who,
on entering where the queen was, kissed her hand, and she did him great
honour.”[20]
While rewards were freely bestowed upon all persons who had taken part
in the expedition, costly offerings were made to the monastery of
Belem, with gifts to numerous churches, as also to various holy houses
and convents of nuns, that “all might give thanks and praises to the
Lord for the great favour which He had shown to Portugal.” The king,
with the queen, went in splendid state and in solemn procession from
the cathedral to St. Domingo, where Calçadilha preached on the grandeur
of India, and its “miraculous discovery.”
[Sidenote: Arrangements made for further expeditions.]
Soon afterwards the king arranged to send another fleet, consisting
of large and strong ships of his own, with great capacity for cargo,
which, if navigated in safety, “would bring him untold riches.” All
these matters his majesty talked over very fully with Vasco de Gama,
who was to proceed as captain-major, if he pleased, in any fleet fitted
out from Portugal to India, with power to supersede all other persons,
and to appoint or discharge at his will the captains or officers of any
of the vessels belonging to every expedition for India that might be
equipped from the Tagus.
Indeed, the first expedition had yielded such immense profits, that
arrangements for various others were readily entered into without
delay. Correa states that a quintal of pepper realised eighty cruzados,
cinnamon one hundred and eighty, cloves two hundred, nutmegs one
hundred, ginger one hundred and twenty, while mace sold for three
hundred cruzados the quintal.[21] So great were the profits, that when
the accounts of the cost of the expedition were made up, by order
of the king, and added to the prices paid for the merchandise when
shipped, it was found that “the return was fully sixty-fold.”
[Sidenote: Departure of the second expedition, 25th March, 1502.]
The second expedition, however, under Vasco de Gama’s direct control,
was destined for other and less laudable objects than commerce.[22]
Dom Manuel had resolved to punish “the treachery of the king of
Calicut.” Ten large ships were therefore prepared, fitted with heavy
guns and munitions of war of every kind then known, besides abundance
of stores, and with these, and five lateen-rigged caravels, Dom Vasco
set sail for India on Lady-day, the 25th March, 1502, to wreak his
sovereign’s “vengeance” on those contumacious kings of the East who had
not treated his subjects with the respect which he felt was due to the
representatives of “a great Christian monarch.” In this instance, as
has been the case before and since in numerous other instances, solemn
prayers were offered that the depredations about to be committed in the
name of God and under the banner of a Christian king might be attended
with success. “I feel in my heart,” exclaimed De Gama, addressing his
sovereign, “a great desire and inclination to go and make havoc of him
(the king of Calicut), and I trust in the Lord that He will assist me,
so that I may take vengeance of him, and that your highness may be much
pleased.” But though “vengeance is _Mine_, saith the Lord,” has been
the text of every Christian church from the earliest ages, a solemn
mass and numerous prayers were offered in the cathedral, at which the
king was present and all his court, to invoke Heaven to strengthen the
arm of Dom Gama in his openly-avowed mission of vengeance.
In the fifteen sail of vessels composing the second expedition, there
were “eight hundred men at arms, honourable men, and many gentlemen of
birth, with the captain-major and others, his relations and friends,
with the captains.”[23] Each soldier had three cruzados a month, and
one for his maintenance on shore, besides the privilege of shipping on
his own account two quintals of pepper, at a nominal rate of freight,
and subject only to a small tax, “paid towards the completion of the
monastery at Belem.” Considerably greater space was allowed in the ship
to the masters, pilots, bombardiers, and other officers, a practice
which prevailed to our own time in the ships of the English East India
Company.
“When the fleet was quite ready to set sail from the river off Lisbon,
after cruising about with a great show of banners, and standards, and
crosses of Christ on all the sails, and saluting with much artillery,
they went to Belem, where the crews were mustered, each captain with
his crew, all dressed in livery and galas, and the king was present,
and showed great favour and honour to all.”[24] Here the fleet lay
for three days, and when the wind became fair, the king went in his
barge to each ship, dismissing them with good wishes, the whole of the
squadron saluting him with trumpets as they took their departure.
[Sidenote: Reaches Mozambique and Quiloa, where De Gama makes known his
power,]
With the exception of some sickness, when crossing the equator in the
vicinity of Guinea, of which one of the captains and a few of the men
died, the expedition had a favourable passage round the Cape of Good
Hope, but immediately afterwards encountered a heavy gale, which lasted
for six days. During this storm most of the vessels were dispersed
and one of them lost, though her crew and cargo were saved. When the
weather moderated, each ship, in accordance with previous instructions,
steered for Mozambique as the appointed rendezvous, where they again
assembled under the captain-major, some of them, however, having
joined company before reaching that place. Here the sheikh, who does
not appear to have been the same person who held that office on Gama’s
first expedition, sent to the ships presents of cows, sheep, goats,
and fowls, for which, however, the captain-major paid, and ordered
a piece of scarlet cloth to be given to him. From Mozambique the
expedition proceeded to Quiloa, but remembering the treachery of the
king of that place, De Gama, after he had moved his fleet within range
of the town, sent the following message to his sable majesty: “Go,” he
said to an ambassador whom the king had sent on board, “go and say to
the king that this fleet is of the king of Portugal, lord of the sea
and of the land, and I am come here to establish with him good peace
and friendship and trade, and for this purpose let him come to me to
arrange all this, because it cannot be arranged by messenger. And in
the name of the king of Portugal, I give him a safe conduct to come and
return, without receiving any harm, even though we should not come to
an agreement; and if he should not come, I will at once send people on
shore, who will go to his house to take and bring him.”[25]
[Sidenote: and threatens to capture the city.]
The king, on receipt of this apparently friendly, but very peremptory
message, was with his chiefs amazed and greatly alarmed. Having held
a council, he despatched a reply to the captain-major, that he would
send him a signed paper to the effect that he and his crew might land
freely, if no injury were done to him or the city. De Gama, however,
resolved to put pressure upon the king; who, over persuaded by a crafty
and rich Moor, ventured on board the ship of the Portuguese admiral,
with large, and, so far as we can judge, true professions of friendship
and amity.
But the captain-major required something more than this. “If,” said
he, “the king of Quiloa became a friend of the king, his sovereign, he
must also do as did the other kings and sovereigns who newly became his
friends, which was that each year he should pay a certain sum of money
or a rich jewel, which they did as a sign that by this yearly payment
it was known that they were in good friendship.”[26] In a word, that he
should subject himself and his dominion to the government of Portugal.
The African king seems to have clearly understood and felt the force of
this plausible mode of abdicating his sovereign rights, for he replied,
“That to have to pay each year money or a jewel was not a mode of good
friendship, because it was tributary subjection, and was like being a
captive; and, therefore, if the captain-major was satisfied with good
peace and friendship without exactions, he was well pleased, but that
to pay tribute would be his dishonour.” The captain-major, however,
cared little for anything except submission. “I am the slave of the
king, my sovereign,” he haughtily replied, “and all the men whom you
see here, and who are in that fleet, will do that which I command; and
know for certain, that if I chose, in one single hour your city would
be reduced to embers; and if I chose to kill your people, they would
all be burned in the fire.” Thus the Western nations, under the plea
of peace and friendship, and on the pretence at first of only desiring
to establish factories for the purposes of peaceful and mutually
beneficial commerce, became lords of the East, and for centuries
exercised a dominion founded on despotism and injustice over its
native sovereigns. The king of Quiloa might remonstrate as he pleased,
submission was his only course. “If I had known,” he replied, with
great warmth and energy, “that you intended to make me a captive, I
would not have come, but have fled to the woods, for it is better to be
a jackal at large than a greyhound bound with a golden leash.”[27] “Go
on shore and fly to the woods,” said the now exasperated representative
of the Christian king—“go on shore to the woods, for I have greyhounds
who will catch you there, and fetch you by the ears, and drag you to
the beach, and take you away with an iron ring round your neck, and
show you throughout India, so that all might see what would be gained
by not choosing to be the captive of the king of Portugal.” And this
Christian speech was accompanied with an order to his captains “to go
to their ships, and bring all the crews armed, and go and burn the
city.”
[Sidenote: His unjust demands.]
As De Gama refused to grant the king even one hour for consultation,
he submitted, and this submission, having been ratified on a leaf of
gold, and signed by the king and all who were with him, presents were
exchanged, while the rich Arab, whose treachery soon afterwards became
known, was left on board, by way of security for the delivery of other
articles which had been promised; but the king sent word that Mahomed
Arcone “might pay himself, since he had deceived him.” On receipt of
this information the captain-major became very angry with the rich
Moor, and ordered him and the Moors who had accompanied him to be
“stripped naked, and bound hand and foot, and put into his boat, and
to remain thus roasting in the sun until they died, since they had
deceived him; and when they were dead he would go on shore and seek
the king, and do as much for him, lading his ships with the wealth of
the city, and making captive slaves of its women and children.” It was
not, however, necessary to carry into effect these terrible threats.
The Moor sent to fetch from his house a ransom, valued at 10,000
cruzados (£1,000 sterling), which he gave with other perquisites to the
“Christian” ambassador, who immediately afterwards pursued his voyage
to Melinde.
[Sidenote: Arrives at Melinde.]
On arriving in sight of the port, the king, who had already received
the news, was prepared with “much joy to welcome his great friend Dom
Vasco de Gama;” while the fleet anchored amidst a salvo of artillery.
The king with haste embarked in a barge which he had ready, to visit
and pay his respects to the captain-major, “bringing after him boats
spread with green boughs, accompanied by festive musical instruments;
and De Gama, as soon as he was aware that it was the king, went to
receive him on the sea, the two at once embracing and exchanging many
courtesies.”[28]
[Sidenote: Departs 18th Aug., 1502.]
An exchange of presents continued for the three days the fleet
remained at Melinde, and much rejoicing and festivity prevailed.
Fresh provisions of every kind were sent in abundance for each of
the vessels, as also tanks for water, which the king of Melinde had
prepared in anticipation of the arrival of the expedition, with pitch
for the necessary repairs to the ships, and coir sufficient for a
fresh outfit of hawsers and cordage for the whole expedition. On the
day of departure the king went on board, and gave De Gama a valuable
jewelled necklace for his sovereign, worth three thousand cruzados, and
others of not much less value for himself, with various other gifts,
among which were a bedstead of Cambay, wrought with gold and mother of
pearl, a very beautiful thing, and he gave him letters for the king,
and a chest full of rich stuffs for the queen, with a white embroidered
canopy for her bed, the most delicate piece of needlework, “like none
other that had ever been seen.”[29]
[Sidenote: Encounter with the Moors.]
Soon after their departure the expedition fell in with five ships,
which had been fitting out in the Tagus for India when Vasco de Gama
sailed, and which had been placed under the command of his relation
Estevan de Gama. The combined fleets proceeding on their voyage, called
at the “port of Baticala,[30] where there were many Moorish ships
loading rice, iron, and sugar, for all parts of India.” The Moors,
on the approach of the Portuguese, prepared to offer resistance to
them entering the harbour, by planting some small cannon on a rock
which was within range of the bar. The boats, however, belonging to
the Portuguese ships made their way into the harbour without damage,
although amid showers of stones from the dense mass of people who had
collected to resist their approach, until they reached some wharves,
which had been erected for the convenience of loading the vessels
frequenting the port. The Moors then fled in great disorder, leaving
behind them a large quantity of rice and sugar, which lay on the wharf
ready for shipment, and the Portuguese returned to their boats in order
to proceed to the town, which was situated higher up the river. On
their way, however, a message was sent from the king of Baticala to
say that, though he “complained of their carrying on war in his port,
without first informing themselves of him, whether he would obey him or
not, he would do whatever the captain-major commanded.” Upon which De
Gama replied, “that he did not come with the design of doing injury to
him, but when he found war, he ordered it to be made; for this is the
fleet of the king of Portugal, my sovereign, who is lord of the sea of
all the world, and also of all this coast.”[31]
[Sidenote: Levies tribute, and sails for Cananore.]
In this spirit the trade between Europe and India, by way of the Cape
of Good Hope, was opened by the Portuguese. It was thus continued by
them and the Dutch for somewhere about a century, and perpetuated in
the same domineering manner by the servants of the English East India
Company, even until our own time.[32] To the demand for gold or
silver, the king of Baticala could only reply that he had none. His
country was too poor to possess such treasure, but such articles as
his country possessed he would give as tribute to Portugal; and having
signed the requisite treaty of submission, he despatched in his boats
a large quantity of rice and other refreshments for the fleet, on the
receipt of which the captain-major set sail for Cananore.
[Sidenote: Disgraceful destruction of a Calicut ship, and massacre of
her crew.]
On the passage the expedition encountered a heavy storm, and sustained
so much damage, that it was necessary to anchor in the bay of Marabia
for repairs. Here they fell in with a large Calicut ship from Mecca,
laden with very valuable produce, which the captain-major pillaged, and
afterwards burned, because the vessel belonged to a wealthy merchant
of Calicut, who he alleged had counselled the king of that place
to plunder the Portuguese on their previous voyage. Nor were these
Christian adventurers satisfied by this act of impudent piracy; they
slaughtered the whole of the Moors belonging to the ship, because they
had stoutly resisted unjust demands, the boats from the fleet “plying
about, killing the Moors with lances,” as they were swimming away,
having leapt from their burning and scuttled ship into the sea.[33]
On the arrival of the expedition at Cananore, De Gama related to
the king how gratified his sovereign had been by the reception which
his fleet had formerly received, and presented him with a letter and
numerous presents. He then narrated the course of retaliation which he
intended to pursue with the king of Calicut, expressing a hope that the
merchants of Cananore would have no dealings with those of Calicut,
for he intended to destroy all its ships, and ruin its commerce. This
vindictive policy seems to have gratified the jealous Cananore king,
for “he swore upon his head, and his eyes, and by his mother’s womb
which had borne him, and by the prince, his heir,” that he would assist
the captain-major in his work of revenge by every means in his power.
Upon which De Gama “made many compliments of friendship to the king
on the part of the king his sovereign, saying that kings and princes
of royal blood used to do so amongst one another; and maintained good
faith, which was their greatest ornament, and was of more value than
their kingdoms.”[34]
[Sidenote: De Gama’s arrangements with the king of Cananore.]
Having arranged how the king of Calicut and his subjects were to be
disposed of, his majesty of Cananore returned to his palace, and
matured with his council the measures to be taken so as to carry out
wishes of his friend and ally the king of Portugal. In matters of
trade it was agreed that a fixed price should be set upon all articles
offered for sale, and that there should be no bargaining between the
buyer or seller for the purpose of either lowering or raising prices.
The chief merchants of the city and natives of the country were to
arrange with the factors from the ships what the prices were to be,
and these “should last for ever.” A factory was to be established where
goods were to be bought and sold; and all these things were written
down by the scribes, so as to constitute an agreement, which both
parties signed. When completed, De Gama took counsel with his captains,
and settled that two divisions of the fleet should cruise along the
coast, “making war on all navigators, except those of Cananore, Cochym,
and Coulam,”[35] while the factors should remain on shore, with a
sufficient number of men to buy and gather into their warehouse at
Cananore, “for the voyage to the kingdom, much rice, sugar, honey,
butter, oil, dried fish, and cocoa-nuts, to make cables of coir and
cordage.”
[Sidenote: Departure for Calicut.]
[Sidenote: Bombards the city.]
[Sidenote: Horrible cruelties.]
Having arranged all these matters to the satisfaction of everybody
at the place, except the Moorish merchants, who were “very sad” when
they saw their ancient trade by the Red Sea passing into the hands of
strangers, Dom Gama sailed with his combined fleet for Calicut, where,
on arrival, he found the port deserted of its shipping, the news of
his doings at Onor and Baticala having reached the ears of the people
of Calicut; the king, however, sent one of the chief Brahmins of the
place, with a white flag of truce, in the vain hope that some terms
of peace might be agreed upon. But the captain-major rejected every
condition, and ordering the Indian boat to return to the shore, and the
Brahmin to be safely secured on board of his ship, he bombarded the
city, “by which he made a great destruction.” Nor was his vengeance
satisfied by this wanton destruction of private property, and the
sacrifice of the lives of many of the inhabitants of the city; while
thus engaged “there came in from the offing two large ships, and
twenty-two sambacks and Malabar vessels from Coromandel, laden with
rice for the Moors of Calicut:” these he seized and plundered, with
the exception of six of the smaller vessels belonging to Cananore. Had
the acts of this representative of a civilised monarch been confined
to plunder, and the destruction of private property at sea and on
shore, they might have been passed over without comment as acts of too
frequent occurrence; but besides this, they were deeply dyed with the
blood of his innocent victims. The prayers he had offered to God with
so much solemnity on the banks of the Tagus proved, indeed, a solemn
farce; his own historian adding the shameful statement, that after
the capture of these peaceable vessels, “the captain-major commanded
them” (his soldiers) “to cut off the hands, and ears, and noses of all
the crews of the captured vessels, and put them into one of the small
vessels, in which he also placed the friar, without ears, or nose, or
hands, which he ordered to be strung round his neck with a palm-leaf
for the king, on which he told him to have a curry made to eat of what
his friar brought him.”[36]
Perhaps no more refined acts of barbarity are to be found recorded
in the page of history than those which Correa relates with so much
simplicity of his countryman; they would seem, indeed, to have been
almost matters of course in the early days of the maritime supremacy of
the Portuguese, and may in some measure account for the unsatisfactory
condition into which that once great nation has now fallen. Supposing,
however, the exquisite barbarism of sending to the king the hands,
ears, and nose of his ambassador, _to whom Dom Gama had granted a safe
conduct_, not enough to convey to the ruler of Calicut a sufficiently
strong impression of the greatness, and grandeur, and power, and
wisdom, and civilisation of the Christian monarch, whose subjects he
had offended, the captain-major ordered the feet of these poor innocent
wretches, whom he had already so fearfully mutilated, “to be tied
together, as they had no hands with which to untie them; and in order
that they should not untie them with their teeth, he ordered them” (his
crew) “to strike upon their teeth with staves, and they knocked them
down their throats, and they were thus put on board, heaped up upon the
top of each other, mixed up with the blood which streamed from them;
and he ordered mats and dry leaves to be spread over them, and the
sails to be set for the shore, and the vessel set on fire.”[37]
[Sidenote: Arrives at Cochym, 7th Nov., where he loads,]
In this floating funeral pile eight hundred Moors, who had been
captured in peaceful commerce, were driven on shore as a warning to
the people of Calicut, who flocked in great numbers to the beach to
extinguish the fire, and draw out from the burning mass those whom
they found alive, over whom “they made great lamentations.” When the
friar reached the king with his revolting message, and deprived of
his hands, ears, and nose, an object of the deepest humiliation, he
found himself in the midst of the wives and relations of those who
had been so shamefully massacred, bewailing in the most heart-rending
manner their loss, and imploring the king to render them aid and
protection from further injury. Although the king’s power was feeble
compared to that of the Portuguese, with their trained men of war, and
vastly superior instruments of destruction, the sight of his faithful
Brahmin, _whom he had despatched in good faith_ to offer any conditions
of peace which Dom Gama might demand, led him to resolve with “great
oaths” that he would expend the whole of his kingdom in avenging the
terrible wrongs which had been inflicted upon his people. Summoning
to his council his ministers and the principal Moors of the city, he
arranged measures for their protection from the even still greater
dishonour and ruin which was threatened with awful earnestness by their
invaders. The Moors, with one voice, “offered to spend their lives and
property for vengeance.” In every river arrangements were made for the
construction of armed proas, large rowing barges and sambacks, and as
many vessels of war as the means which their country afforded could
produce. But long before this fleet was ready, Dom Gama had sailed with
his expedition for Cochym, where he arrived on the 7th of November,
having on his passage done as much harm as he could to the merchants of
Calicut, many of whose vessels he fell across in his cruise along the
coast.
Cochym, like Cananore, had resolved from the first to court the
friendship of Portugal. Its rulers conceived it more to their interests
to submit to the conditions of Dom Gama, however humiliating, than
to resist his assumed authority. Consequently when his fleet made
its appearance, the king of Cochym was ready to receive him with
every honour; and when his boat, with its canopy of crimson velvet,
very richly dressed, approached the shore, the king, accompanied by
his people, came to the water-side to meet him, prepared to secure
his friendship by any submission, however abject. Numerous rich and
valuable presents having been interchanged, arrangements were made to
provide the cargo the captain-major required, on similar conditions to
those which had been entered into at Cananore.
[Sidenote: and at Coulam.]
When the queen of Coulam, a neighbouring and friendly state, where the
pepper was chiefly produced, heard of the wealth which the king of
Cochym and his merchants were making by their commercial intercourse
with the Portuguese, she sent an ambassador to Dom Gama to entreat him
to enter into similar arrangements with herself and her people, saying
that “she desired for her kingdom the same great profit, because she
had pepper enough in her kingdom to load twenty ships each year:” but
Dom Gama was a diplomatist, or at least a dissembler, as well as an
explorer. To fall out with the king of Cochym did not then suit his
purpose, which he would very likely have done had he allowed the queen
of Coulam to share in the lucrative trade without his sanction; but he
nevertheless appears to have made up his mind to reap the advantage
of the queen’s trade under any circumstances. Consequently, he sent
word to the queen “that he was the vassal of so truthful a king, that
for a single lie or fault which he might commit against good faith,
he would order his head to be cut off; therefore he could not answer
anything with certainty, nor accept her friendship, nor the trade which
she offered, and for which he thanked her much, without the king (of
Cochym) first commanded him.”[38]
[Sidenote: Opens a factory at Coulam.]
After this palaver he recommended that she should ask the king of
Cochym’s permission to open up commercial intercourse with the
Portuguese, an arrangement he was not likely to assent to, as besides
curtailing his profits, he would lose the revenue he derived from the
queen’s pepper, which now passed through his kingdom for shipment. The
king was naturally perplexed and “much grieved, because he did not wish
to see the profit and honour of his kingdom go to another.” So after
talking the matter over with De Gama’s factor, he resolved to leave it
entirely in the hands of the captain-major, and informed the queen’s
messenger that the matter was left altogether to his good pleasure, no
doubt himself believing that the trade would be therefore declined. But
the king of Cochym had made a sad mistake, for the Portuguese navigator
was a diplomatist far beyond the king’s powers of comprehension; to
his discomfiture and amazement Gama informed the ambassador of Coulam
“that he was the king’s vassal, and in that port was bound to obey him
as much as the king his sovereign, and, therefore, he would obey him in
whatever was his will and pleasure; and since the queen was thus his
relation and friend, he was happy to do all that _she_ wished!”[39]
Consequently he despatched two of his ships to load pepper, at “a river
called Calle Coulam,” sending the queen a handsome mirror and corals,
and a large bottle of orange-water, with scarlet barret-caps for her
ministers and household, and thirty dozen of knives with sheaths for
her people. Soon afterwards he established a factory in her kingdom.
While Dom Gama was employed loading his ships with the produce of
India for Portugal, the king of Calicut had prepared a fleet which he
hoped would capture and destroy the fleet of the Christian monarch who
had done his people such grievous wrongs. It consisted of “several
large ships, and sambacks, and rowing barges, with much artillery
and fighting men, and two captain-majors.” But the king of Calicut,
either anxious to avoid war, or to obtain information of the condition
and power of the vessels then under Dom Gama, sent a confidential
Brahmin to Cochym, with a letter to the captain-major, in which, after
stating the force now at his command, he expressed a wish that there
should be “no more wars nor disputes”[40] between them, and that he
would make compensation for the injury his people had sustained on
the previous voyage; but the Brahmin received no better reception
than his predecessor had done. He was tied to the bits, or framework
that surrounds the main-mast; an iron shovel, full of embers, was put
“close to his shins, until large blisters rose upon them, whilst the
interpreter shouted to him to tell the truth,” as to whether the king
his master meant what he said in the letter he had addressed by him
to Dom Gama; but as he would not speak, “the fire was brought closer
by degrees, until he could not bear it,” and when he had told all
he knew, the captain-major “ordered the upper and lower lips of the
Brahmin to be cut off, so that all his teeth showed; and he ordered the
ears of a dog on board the ship to be cut off, and he had them fastened
and sewn with many stitches on the Brahmin, instead of his, and he sent
him in the Indian boat to return to Calicut!”[41]
[Sidenote: Calicut declares war against Dom Gama.]
The king, as well he might, when his mutilated and insulted ambassador
presented himself, at once ordered his fleet to proceed in search of
the Portuguese, and to intercept them on their way from Cochym back
to Cananore, where they had gone to fill their ships with the ginger
which had been collected for them at that place. Dom Gama’s departure
was, however, delayed for a few days. He had to permanently establish
his factory at Cochym, and make arrangements for its protection
during his absence, and for the purchase and storage of produce ready
for the ships which would annually be despatched to India from the
Tagus. He had also to found a Portuguese colony, the first colony
of Europeans in India, for which purpose he “left carpenters, and
caulkers, blacksmiths, turners, and cordage-makers, who were to refit
the ships which had to remain at Cochym,” as well as other “workmen and
men-at-arms,” in all sixty persons, to whom “the factor was to give
their pay, and a cruzado per month for their maintenance.”
[Sidenote: Success of the Portuguese.]
[Sidenote: Desecration of the Indian vessels,]
When Dom Gama had completed his arrangements at Cochym, he sailed for
Cananore. The king of Calicut with his fleet lay in wait for him.
“Coming along the coast with a light land breeze, there were so many
sail” that the Portuguese did not see the end of them. In the van
there might be as many as “twenty large ships, with many fustas and
sambacks.” These Dom Gama ordered his caravels, each of which carried
thirty men with four heavy guns below, and six falconets, and ten
swivel-guns on deck, to attack, which they did with great vigour, and
soon brought down the mast of the flag-ship of the Moors, killing many
of the crew, and sinking three of the large vessels. Amid this havoc,
Dom Gama himself bore down with the rest of his fleet, and, as the wind
freshened, he came with great force through the midst of his opponents,
“doing wonders” with his artillery, and firing both broadsides as he
passed, shattering them both in hull and rigging, and leaving the
Calicut fleet almost a helpless mass.
[Sidenote: and further atrocities.]
But conquest and submission were not enough for this Portuguese
marauder. His fiendish spirit of revenge seems to have had no limits.
He “sent the boats with falconets and swivel-guns, and in each boat
twenty armed men, with crossbow-men, to go to the ships which were
becalmed, and shoot at them above, and kill the crews. This they did,
so that the Moors threw themselves into the sea, and went swimming
round the ships.” Gama then “sent his boat to the ships and caravels,
to tell the crews to flock to the Moorish ships and plunder them, and
set them on fire.”[42] After which he proceeded on his course for
Cananore, “giving the Lord great praise and thanks for the great favour
which He had shown him.”[43]
[Sidenote: Completes his factory and fortifications at Cananore, and
sails for Lisbon,]
Having finished his work of colonization and horrible cruelty, Dom
Gama, concluding that his heavy guns were not likely to be again
required on his homeward voyage, left them at Cananore, and completed
his cargoes, set sail for Portugal. He did not, however, forget
before he took his departure, to induce the king to send his masons
to erect a high stone wall round the Portuguese settlement, where the
guns were deposited, having a strong gate, of which the king was to
keep the key, “so that the Portuguese should remain at night shut in
under his key.”[44] The king was “much pleased with this arrangement,
and promised the captain-major that it would be done at once; for
he thought that the captain-major did it with the desire that the
Portuguese should remain subject to him.” Poor innocent-minded,
good-natured king!
[Sidenote: where he arrives, Sept. 1, 1503.]
Having called at Melinde for a day, to take in a fresh stock of sheep,
fowls, and water, Dom Gama proceeded on his course with a fair wind,
and “without even meeting with any storm or hindrance, but only winds
with which all his sails served.”[45] On the 1st of September, 1503, he
reached Lisbon, anchoring “before the city,” with “ten ships laden with
very great wealth, after leaving such great services accomplished in
India.”
When the king of Portugal heard the news of Dom Gama’s arrival he was
greatly rejoiced, and sent the captain of his guard to bid him welcome,
he himself proceeding on horseback with many people to the cathedral,
“to give much praise to the Lord before the altar of Saint Vincent,” an
example which the captain-major and all his captains soon afterwards
followed; when prayers were ended, he kissed the hand of the king, who
bestowed many favours upon the officers and crews of the ships, while
granting to Dom Gama and his heirs “the anchorage dues of India,” and
conferring upon him and his descendants the title of the “admiral of
its seas for ever.”
[Sidenote: Dom Gama arrives in India for the third time, 11th Sept.,
1524.]
The re-discovery of the route to India by way of the Cape of Good
Hope, proved an immense source of wealth to Portugal. The profits of
her merchants on the products of the East were enormous, and for many
years, as regarded the rest of Europe, this trade was kept a close
monopoly. Lisbon then became the entrepôt which the Italian republics
had so long held for the spices and other produce of India; and the
palaces of her traders with that country, which still adorn, even amid
their decay, and, in too many instances, their ruins, the banks of the
Tagus, testify to the wealth of their original owners and occupants.
Though Dom Gama now desired to remain at home to reap the fruits of his
discovery and enjoy the rewards and honours conferred upon him by his
sovereign, the state of affairs in India too soon required his presence
in that country. The example he himself had set of tyranny formed the
basis for a despotic rule on the part of the Portuguese governors or
factors, which at even this early stage required a remedy, and no
one was considered so competent to correct this evil as its author.
Consequently, according to the testimony of Correa, “on the 11th
September, 1524, there arrived at the bar of Goa, Dom Vasco de Gama, as
Viceroy of India.”
From the same source we learn that the viceroy was on this occasion
accompanied by his two sons, Dom Estevan de Gama, who was
captain-major of the expedition, and afterwards governor of India,
and Dom Paulo de Gama, who unfortunately lost his life in a war with
Malacca. The viceroy had now another object to serve than that of
trade. He was to be the future ruler of India, and, as such, a regal
display became necessary to give the natives a proper impression
of his greatness and power. Correa remarks (p. 381) that he “was
served by men bearing maces, by a major-domo, and two pages with gold
neck-chains, and many esquires.” All the forms of kingly state appear
to have been adopted. He had “rich vessels of silver and rich tapestry
of Flanders; and for the table at which he sate, brocade cloths;” he
had also a “guard of two hundred men with gilt pikes, clothed with
his livery,” and an army of “brilliant soldiery.” Nor was he without
kingly power, and even something more. While his rule extended over
“all persons who might be found eastward of the Cape of Good Hope,” he
himself established laws[46] “that, under _pain_ of _death_ and loss
of property, no one should navigate without his license.” Every person
likewise who came to India, even with a commission from the king of
Portugal, was liable to be dismissed without compensation or appeal,
should he not, in the opinion of the viceroy, prove competent for the
office to which he had been nominated.
[Sidenote: His death, 24th Dec., 1524.]
Such stringent laws may have been necessary from the state of things
which then existed in India. That he was strict in his administration,
even to tyranny, over his own people, cannot be doubted; and it is
well known that his brief rule was embittered by his hostile relations
with his predecessors, whom he accused of various mal-practices, and
ordered to be sent back to Lisbon. In the midst of these difficulties
he was seized with a fatal illness; and having, as Correa states, “set
his affairs in order, like a good Christian, with all the sacraments
of the church, and ordered that his bones should be conveyed to the
kingdom of Portugal, he died on Christmas Eve, 24th December, 1524.”
[Sidenote: His character, as compared with that of Columbus.]
Although the first voyage of Dom Gama may be read with satisfaction, no
language can be found sufficiently strong to denounce his subsequent
career, and especially his diabolical conduct towards the Moors and
natives on his second expedition to India.[47] And to that conduct,
too faithfully adopted by his successors, may in a great measure be
attributed the loss, as well as the gain, of the Portuguese empire in
the East. But though Dom Gama was a man of no mean abilities, and of
indomitable courage, who evidently thoroughly understood his profession
as a seaman, he cannot for an instant be compared, either as an
individual or as a navigator, with his great contemporary Columbus. Dom
Gama, in his voyage to India, had with him pilots who had frequently
sailed along the western shores of Africa, and one, at least, who had
doubled the Cape of Good Hope under Bartholomew Dias, while the crews
of his ships consisted of his own countrymen, and partly, too, of his
own dependants. But Columbus was a stranger among strangers; and the
seamen who manned his vessels were altogether devoid of confidence in
a commander into whose service they had been forced by the imperative
order of their sovereigns. His voyages of discovery lay across unknown
seas, amid a wilderness of waters, which both ancient and modern
mariners had alike portrayed in the most gloomy colours; and so far
from having the benefit of the services of any pilot who had ever
attempted to navigate that then mysterious ocean, most persons in his
service considered the voyages on which he was about to embark as alike
visionary and dangerous.
[Sidenote: Discovery of the Pacific, by Vasco Nuñez de Bilboa.]
While the Portuguese were prosecuting their valuable discoveries in the
East, the Spaniards were following up their less lucrative but more
important researches to the West. In their voyages to the Caribbean
Sea, and along the shores of the Mexican Gulf, they had heard rumours
of great seas still further to the West; but it was not until 1513, a
few years after a small colony had been established at Darien, that
one of their countrymen, Vasco Nuñez de Bilboa, discovered the Pacific
Ocean. The discovery was hailed with great joy by the Spaniards, who,
having been restricted by the Pope to confine their researches to the
West, now hoped to find within the prescribed limits another road to
that far-famed Cathay, which had proved such a vast source of wealth to
their rivals the Portuguese.
[Sidenote: Voyage of Magellan.]
It was not, however, until Magellan [Fernando de Magalhaens], a
Portuguese by birth but in the service of the King of Spain, discovered
the straits which bear his name that the Spaniards were enabled to
derive any advantages from this great addition to their knowledge.
Furnished by the King of Spain with five small vessels, the largest
of which was only one hundred and thirty tons, their crews in all
amounting to only two hundred and thirty-four men, this daring
adventurer and most intrepid mariner set sail in September 1519 from
S. Lucar for the Brazils, anchored at Rio, and thence pursued his way
over these unknown seas to the south, until he reached the straits,
where he encountered very severe weather. After many difficulties
and great hardships he reached that beautiful and fertile group of
islands in the Pacific which he named the Ladrones. Thence proceeding
to the Philippines, Magellan, a navigator second only to Columbus, and
superior in many respects to Vasco de Gama, unfortunately lost his
life in an engagement with the natives. But in November, 1521, the
expedition reached the Moluccas, the object of their search. Thence,
but greatly reduced in strength and number, they steered for the Cape
of Good Hope, which they doubled on the 6th of May, 1522, and anchored
at St. Lucar on the 6th of September of that year, having been the
first to accomplish a voyage round the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] As is well known, there is considerable variation in the dates
assigned to different portions of Vasco de Gama’s voyages by different
writers. It has been thought, on the whole, best on this occasion
to follow those given by Gaspar Correa, whose narrative has been
translated from the Portuguese and edited for the Hakluyt Society
by the Hon. H. E. J. Stanley (now Lord Stanley of Alderley): Lond.
1869. Correa states that he went to India sixteen years after it was
discovered, which would be therefore in 1514, and that he had access
to the Journals of Joam Figueira, a priest who accompanied De Gama in
his first voyage. Correa, when in India, was secretary to the governor,
Alfonzo d’Albuquerque; and died at Goa, some time before 1583.
[2] The two young men were named, respectively, Pero de Covilhan, and
Gonsalvo de Pavia. Though accounts differ, they seem to have travelled
together by Venice, Alexandria, and Cairo, to Mecca, where they
separated. One of them (and here again accounts vary) went on to Aden,
Cananore, Calicut, and Goa (Mr. Stanley and Mr. Major think this was
Covilhan), the other to Abyssinia. It is certain that Pavia died soon
afterwards, probably at Cairo; and that, by the agency of a Spanish
Jew, Covilhan was able to send home word that India could be reached
by sea by continuing the coasting voyage from Guinea round the Cape to
Sofala. Mr. Major, therefore (p. 339), is justified in stating that
to him belongs the honour of the _theoretical_ discovery of the Cape.
His report to the king, however, did not reach Portugal till shortly
after Bartholomew Dias and Joam Infante had started, in August 1486.
Covilhan, on his way home, went to Abyssinia, and was detained there
for the rest of his life (33 years).
[3] The author is of opinion that the vessels engaged under Vasco de
Gama were, as in the case of Columbus, much larger than historians
have represented, though very much alike, as Correa describes,
especially in the size of their yards and sails. Unable to find any
work which furnished an illustration of any kind of these vessels,
he applied to his friend Mr. Edward Pinto Basto, of Lisbon, for
information on the subject. After considerable research, (for which
he is greatly indebted,) Mr. Basto furnished the author with the
drawing—see following page—which in his letter he describes as a
“sketch representing the _San Gabriel_ passing the Cape of Good Hope
on November 25th, 1497. This sketch,” he remarks, “is copied from an
original picture in Lisbon that belonged to D. Ioam de Castro, and I
have no doubt,” he adds, “that it is a correct representation of Gama’s
ship. I have spoken,” he continues, “to the Marquis of Nisa, whom you
know, and who is the lineal descendant of the renowned navigator, and
he confirms that opinion. The expedition,” he adds, “sailed from Lisbon
(Belem) on July 9th 1497. It consisted of the _San Gabriel_, commanded
by Vasco de Gama; _San Raphael_, commanded by his brother Paulo de
Gama; _Birrio_, under charge of Nicolas Coelho; and a transport which
was a storeship to carry provisions, called a naveta.” Mr. Pinto
Basto confirms the opinion the author entertained with regard to the
dimensions of these ships. “The _San Gabriel_,” he says, “had a high
poop and forecastle. The tonnage in those days was calculated by the
number of pipes of wine the vessel could carry. The _San Gabriel_
was constructed to carry 400 pipes,” equivalent to about 400 tons
measurement, or about from 250 to 300 tons register, which is much more
likely to have been the size of the vessels engaged on so distant and
hazardous an expedition than those which historians describe. It should
be added that Correa calls De Gama’s ship the _Sam Rafael_.
[4] Correa, p. 33.
[5] Correa, pp. 55-57.
[6] Ibid. p. 74. Note.
[7] Correa, p. 128.
[8] Correa, p. 146.
[9] Our calico (in French, _calicot_) derives its name from Calicut, as
muslin from Mosul, &c.
[10] It should be remembered that with most of our early writers and
navigators “Moor” was a generic name for Muhammedan. The governor of
Calicut is called by the Portuguese “Zamorin,” a corruption, probably,
of “Samudri-Rajah.”
[11] Correa, p. 156.
[12] Correa, p. 176.
[13] Correa, p. 222.
[14] Correa, p. 225, _et seq._
[15] Ibid., p. 232.
[16] Correa, p. 239. The termination of the name (like Laccadive,
Maldive, &c.) shows it to have been an island, but its exact situation
has not been determined.
[17] Correa, p. 259.
[18] Sargarço (or as it is more usually written Sargaço) is the
Portuguese name for what is known (botanically) as the “Nasturtium
aquaticum.”—Linschoten, Hist. Orient., pt. iii. p. 34.
[19] Correa, pp. 264-5.
[20] Correa, p. 269.
[21] A cruzado is worth about 2s.; a quintal equivalent to 128 lbs.
[22] Cabral was originally selected to command this expedition; but
the king, having some doubts of his ability, though on his previous
voyage to India in 1500-1 he had discovered the Brazils, gladly availed
himself of De Gama’s expressed desire to take charge of it; another
fleet was to be despatched in the following year (Correa, p. 279).
There were two grievances against the king of Calicut, the original one
of De Gama, and his subsequently similar treatment of Cabral.
[23] Correa, p. 282.
[24] Ibid. p. 283.
[25] Correa, p. 292.
[26] Correa, p. 294.
[27] Correa, pp. 295-6.
[28] Correa, p. 303.
[29] Ibid., p. 306.
[30] The names “Baticala” and “Cochym” have been retained as those used
by Correa; the more modern names are “Batticola” and “Cochin.”
[31] Correa, p. 311.
[32]
“Degenerate trade, whose minions could despise
The heart-born anguish of a thousand cries;
Could lock with impious hands its teaming stores,
Whilst famished nations died along its shores;
Could mock the groans of fellow men, and bear
The curse of kingdoms peopled with despair;
Could stamp disgrace on man’s polluted name,
And barter with their gold eternal shame.”—CAMPBELL.
[33] Correa, p. 315.
[34] Correa, pp. 321-2.
[35] Correa, p. 324.
[36] Correa, p. 331.
[37] Correa, pp. 331-2.
[38] Correa, p. 349.
[39] Ibid., p. 352.
[40] Correa, p. 358.
[41] Correa, pp. 363-4.
[42] Correa, pp. 371-2.
[43] Ibid., p. 373.
[44] Correa, p. 373.
[45] Ibid., p. 377.
[46] Correa, p. 397.
[47] The Popish nations of the south of Europe have, throughout all
history, been remarkable for atrocities of cruelty found among no
other races. But neither the cruel persecution of the Jews by the
_soi-disant_ deliverers of the Holy City, nor the greatly exaggerated
crimes of the Hindus and Muhammedans, who may at least have believed
they were ridding their native land of robbers and oppressors by the
Indian mutiny of 1856-7, can compare with the cruelties of Vasco
de Gama, or with the atrocities of the mob at Palermo during the
insurrection of 1849.