edition, Lisbon, 1863, p. 93, draws attention to the existence of a MS.
in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, which in his opinion furnishes
most valuable chronological information on the Portuguese voyages to
India, from 1497 to 1632. We have translated from this codex all that
refers to the first voyage of Vasco da Gama; and a perusal of the
translation will, we think, convince the reader that he has before him,
not a document based upon authentic sources, but a compilation of very
doubtful value.
We have examined three copies, or rather editions, of this _Jornal das
Viagens dos Portuguezes ás Indias_, viz.:—
1. _Bibl. Nat. Port. 8, No. 85._ This is the earliest of the three
MSS., for it only extends to the year 1608. On folio 206b is a
statement to the effect that it was copied in 1618 from a MS. in the
possession of the Conde de Vidigueira.
2. _Bibl. Nat. Port. 46._ This, formerly, bore the number 10023, and
is the MS. described by Santarem. It is identical with Port. 8, except
that its information is extended to the year 1632.
3 _British Museum Add. MSS. 20902._ This is the MS. quoted by
Dr. Walter de Gray Birch (_The Commentaries of the Great Afonso
Dalboquerque_, ii, p. xvi). It is still more recent than the preceding,
having been extended by an unknown author to the year 1653. A list of
the Viceroys up to 1610 is appended. The marginal notes are derived
from Pedro Barretto de Rezende’s _Livro das Armadas_.
THE YEAR 1497.
On the second of June, 1497, there set sail from Lisbon for the
discovery of Oriental India, Vasco da Gama, the second son of Estevão
da Gama, comptroller (veador) of the household of the King Don
Affonso V, and of Doña Isabel Sodré, his wife, as captain-major of
four vessels: himself in the _São Raphael_; Paulo da Gama, his elder
brother, in the São Gabriel; Nicolao Coelho in the _São Miguel_.
Gonçalo Nunes was captain of a vessel carrying provisions, which this
side (_antes_) the Cape of Good Hope were transferred to the other
vessels, when he returned to this kingdom [of Portugal]. And the vessel
_S. Gabriel_, in which went Paulo da Gama, being much dilapidated, so
as to be unable to continue the voyage, was broken up for the purpose
of repairing the other vessels, in a river of Cafraria, beyond the
Cape of Good Hope, which was named the river of Mercy. And Paulo da
Gama went over to the vessel of his brother, while his people were
distributed among the two vessels. Thence they continued their voyage.
Having come to an anchor at Moçambique, where the Sheikh attempted to
take the vessels by treachery, they disembarked at the island of São
Jorge, where was celebrated the first mass beyond the Cape of Good
Hope. Thence they went to Quiloa and Mombaça, and the kings of all
these islands attempted to act treacherously, but God would not permit
their success.
At Melinde the King made them honestly welcome, and gave them
trustworthy pilots, who guided them to Angediva, where they fought the
fustas of the Sabayo, the governor of Goa, over whom they gained the
victory. And thence they went to Calicut, where the Samori planned many
treacherous acts which took no effect. Thence they went to Cochim,
where the King received them well, and to Cananor, in the same manner.
There they completed the loading of the two vessels, and returned to
this kingdom, arriving safely at Lisbon on September 18th, 1499.[386]
Paulo da Gama died of an illness in the island of Terçeira, at the city
of Angra, and lies buried in the monastery of São Francisco of that
city.[387]
II.—LUIZ DE FIGUEIREDO FALCÃO, 1612.
Luiz de Figueiredo Falcão was secretary of King Philip II of Portugal
(Philip III of Spain), and is the compiler of a _Livro em que se contem
toda a Fazenda, & Real Patrimonio dos Reynos de Portugal, India, ilhas
adjacentes de sua coroa_, which was printed by order of the Portuguese
Government in 1859.
The Preface is dated “Madrid, October 20, MDC.VII”, but this is
evidently a misprint, for reference is made in it to a list of captains
who went to India since 1497 as containing information up to the year
1612; and instead of VII, we ought therefore to read XII, the date of
the book being thus 1612.
The author had access to the original records in the India House,
and claims to have expended three years upon the compilation of his
work, which certainly contains a mass of information of the highest
interest. Nevertheless, his book is not free from errors, many of
which have already been pointed out by Cunha Rivara in an Appendix to
a translation of the _Viagem de Francisco Pyrard_, published at Nova
Goa in 1858. Texeira de Aragão (_Boletim_, Lisbon Geographical Society,
vi, p. 578) also warns against accepting without question all the
statements made by this author.
We quote the following information on Vasco da Gama’s first voyage from
a “List of Captain-majors and Captains who went to India since 1497”,
p. 137:—
1497.
In the year 1497 there departed for India Vasco da Gama, the
first discoverer, as captain-major of four vessels. He left
Lisbon on July 8th, 1497.
_São Miguel_, flagship Pilot: Pero d’Alenquer.
_São Raphael_ Captain: Paulo da Gama,
brother of Vasco da Gama.
Pilot: João de Coimbra.
_Berrio_ Captain: Nicolao Coelho.
Pilot: Pero Escolar.
A ship (_nao_) Captain: Gonçalo Nunez, a
retainer of Vasco da Gama.
She carried provisions.[388]
The _Berrio_, with her captain, returned and reached the bar of
Lisbon on July 10th, 1499.
Vasco da Gama went from India to Cape Verde, where he remained
with his brother, Paulo da Gama, who died there, and whose body
he conveyed to the island of Terçeira, and he sent one of his
servants with the _São Raphael_ to Lisbon.
Vasco da Gama himself reached Lisbon in a caravel on August
29th, two years and nearly two months after he had left that
port.
It is scarcely necessary to point out that the flagship was
the _São Gabriel_, and that Paulo da Gama came back in that vessel
and not in the store-ship. It was, indeed, Paulo’s own ship, the _São
Raphael_, which was burnt off Tangáta.
As an instance of the author’s inconsistencies, we need only quote
the following passage from a “Summary Statement of Vessels which left
Portugal for India”, p. 194:—
Between July 10th, 1499, on which day there arrived in the port
of Lisbon the ship _São Raphael_, in which Vasco da Gama had
gone to India in 1497, and 1612, there came back from India 425
vessels.
It was the _Berrio_ which came back on July 10th, the _São Raphael_
having been burnt off Mtangata; and Vasco da Gama did not go in the _S.
Raphael_, by the author’s own (erroneous) statement.
III.—PEDRO BARRETTO DE REZENDE, 1646.
Captain Pedro Barretto de Rezende, a professed Knight of the Order of
St. Benedict of Aviz, and a native of Pavia,[389] is the author of a
_Livro do Estado da India_, consisting of three Parts and an Appendix,
of which MS. copies exist in the British Museum (Sloane Collection, No.
197) and the Bibliothèque Nationale (Port. 1, and Port. 36). Part I of
this work contains a succinct account of the doings of the Viceroys of
India up to 1634, and gives portraits of all of them; Parts II and III
contain plans of the Portuguese forts between the Cape of Good Hope and
China, with descriptions; whilst the Appendix furnishes an account of
the “armadas” or fleets which were sent to India up to 1605.
Dr. Walter de Gray Birch (_Commentaries of the Great Afonso
Dalboquerque_, i, pp. vii-xiii) has given an account of the MS. of this
work existing in the British Museum.
[Illustration: Vasco da Gama as Viceroy.
(_After Correa’s portrait in the Palacio do Governo, at Goa._)]
If this valuable document should ever be printed, it will be necessary
to collate the copies existing in London, Paris, and probably also
elsewhere, for they are not in all respects identical. Port. 36 seems
to me to deserve the preference as far as respects Part I, but Part
II (the description of the forts) has been abridged, as compared with
Port. 1. The portraits in this latter are more neatly done than in
Port. 36. No reference to the source of these full-length portraits is
made by the author. They certainly differ from the portraits designed
in 1547 by a native artist under the supervision of Gaspar Correa, and
published in the Lisbon edition of his _Lendas_ (see t. iv, p. 596).
Lord Stanley (_Vasco da Gama_, p. ix) says that Correa’s portraits are
“better” than those in Rezende’s work. All that we can say is that
they are not worse. Our full-length portrait is from a MS. of Barretto
de Rezende in the Bibliothéque Nationale, as reproduced in Charton’s
_Voyageurs anciens et modernes_. The small oval portrait is from a
copy of Correa’s painting which was made by order of D. Francisco, da
Assumpção de Brito, who was installed Archbishop of Goa in 1774. It
was first published in 1817 in a work entitled _Retratos e Elogios de
Varões e Donas_.
FIRST VOYAGE, 1497; FOUR SAILS.
King John II of Portugal having died without a legitimate son, Dom
Manuel was proclaimed King on October 27th, 1495; and as this fresh
dignity entailed that he should prosecute the undertakings initiated by
his predecessors, he proposed to himself to go on with the discovery of
Oriental India by sea, which, seventy-five years before, had been set
going.
In 1496 he had many councils on this affair, and in consequence of
the resolutions arrived at he agreed (_assentou_) to despatch on this
enterprise one Vasco da Gama, and forthwith arranged for the fleet to
be sent, the work upon which was carried on with such expedition that
rigging and all was ready by Saturday, July 8th, 1496.
The fleet (_armada_) only included three ships of from 100 to 320 tons,
and there went in them, between sailors and soldiers, 260 persons. In
addition there was a ship carrying provisions.
The flag-ship, in which Vasco da Gama, the captain-major, embarked,
was called the _São Gabriel_, and Pero de Alemquer was the pilot. The
second ship was called the _São Raphael_; Paulo da Gama, the brother of
said Vasco, was captain, and João de Coimbra, pilot.
The third vessel was called the _Berrio_; Nicolao Coelho was her
captain and P^o. Escolar her pilot.
Gonsalo Nunes, a retainer (_criado_) of Vasco da Gama, was captain of
the cargo-ship (_nao_); only provisions went in her. These, as also the
crew, having been transferred to the other ships at the Cape of Good
Hope, they set fire to her.
They set sail from the bar of Lisbon on July 8th, 1497, arrived at
Moçambique on March 1st, 1498, made Mombasa on Palm Sunday, the 7th of
April,[390] and Melinde on the 15th of the same month.
There he took pilots to guide him to India, and on May 16th of the
same year, ’498,[391] he made the land at a port on the coast of
Mallavar (Malabar), in the kingdom of the Samorim, two leagues below
Callecut, which is the principal city and capital of that kingdom.
There he remained seventy-four days, in the course of which, induced
thereto by the Moors who live in that country, he practised upon us a
thousand deceits. But having discovered that for the sake of which he
had been sent, namely, India, of which he was able to take home such
good intelligence, he determined to return to Portugal, and set sail on
August 29th of this same year, namely, ’498. At the Anjediva islands
he careened the ships and took in water, and there he took a Jew who,
by order of Sabayo, the King of Goa, had visited him, it being the
intention, immediately after the return of this Jew, to send a fleet
against him (Vasco da Gama).
Vasco da Gama departed thence and made the coast of Melinde. Wishing to
depart thence for this kingdom, the ship _São Raphael_, in which was
his brother, was lost on the same shoals on which she had already once
grounded on the way out to India. The loss of this ship did not give
much concern to Vasco da Gama, for he was short of men, and those in
her were distributed among the two other vessels. He passed Moçambique,
doubled the Cape of Good Hope on March 20th, 1499; when near the Cape
Verde Islands a severe storm separated the two vessels, namely, that
in which he (Vasco) was from her consort in which was Nicolau Coelho,
who, leading, lost sight of Vasco da Gama, and reached the bar of
Lisbon[392] on July 10th of said year.
Vasco da Gama only arrived on August 29th in a caravel, for his
brother, Paulo da Gama, being very ill, he went from the island of
São Thiago to that of Terçeira, allowing his ship to be taken to Lisbon
by João de Sá.
And Vasco da Gama buried his brother, whose death much afflicted
him, in the island of Terçeira, and after that landed at Lisbon on
August 29th, as stated above, or two years after he had started on his
discovery.
From the _Livro das armadas e capitaes que forão a India_, which, as
already stated, forms an Appendix to Rezende’s _Livro do estado da
India_, we take the following:—
_Vasco da Gama, captain-major, 1497._
He departed on July 8th, by order of King Dom Manuel, with four
ships to discover India, viz.:
Vasco da Gama in the _S. Gabriel_.
Paulo da Gama, his brother, in the _S. Raphael_.
Nicolao Coelho in the ship _Berrio_.
Gonçalo Nunes in a store-ship.
The people and provisions in the ship of Gonçalo Nunes were distributed
among the other ships after the Cape of Good Hope had been passed, and
beyond the Aguada (watering-place) of S. Braz, and this ship, having
been stripped, was set on fire.
The ship of Paulo da Gama stranded on the voyage home to Portugal on
the shoals between Guilva [Kilwa] and Mombaça, and these shoals were
named after the _S. Raphael_ which had now run aground upon them. Her
people were distributed among the two companion-ships.
APPENDIX D.
[Illustration: THE “SÃO GABRIEL”.
(_From a Model designed by Captain A. A. Baldaque da Silva, drawn by
Herbert Johnson._)]
VASCO DA GAMA’S SHIPS AND THEIR EQUIPMENT.
All authorities agree that the fleet, or armada, fitted out for Vasco
da Gama’s voyage numbered four vessels, but they are not agreed as to
the names which these vessels bore. We are not, however, likely to
be misled if we accept the unanimous testimony of the author of our
_Roteiro_, of João de Barros, Lopez de Castanheda, Pedro Barretto de
Rezende, and Manuel Faria y Sousa: according to whom the names of the
ships and of their principal officers were as follows:—
_S. Gabriel_ (flag-ship).—Vasco da Gama, captain-major; Pero
d’Alenquer, pilot; Gonçalo Alvarez, master; Diogo Dias, clerk.
_S. Raphael._—Paulo da Gama, captain; João de Coimbra pilot;
João de Sá, clerk.
_Berrio._—Nicolau Coelho, captain; Pero Escolar, pilot; Alvaro
de Braga, clerk.
_Store-ship._—Gonçalo Nunes, captain.
Correa and the unknown author of the _Jornal das Viagens_ (p. 145) call
the “Berrio” _S. Miguel_, and make the _S. Raphael_ the flag-ship;
whilst L. de Figueiredo de Falcão (p. 147) substitutes a _S. Miguel_
for the _S. Raphael_. It is just possible that the vessel popularly
called _Berrio_, after its former owner, had been re-christened _S.
Miguel_.
The _Berrio_ was one of those swift lateen-rigged vessels for which
Portugal was famous from the thirteenth to the beginning of the
sixteenth century, and which, after the _barinel_[393] had been
discarded, were exclusively employed in the exploration of the African
coast. Their burthen did not exceed 200 tons, and they had two or three
masts, and occasionally even four.[394] The _Berrio_ is stated to have
been a vessel of only 50 tons. She was named after her former owner and
pilot,[395] of whom she was purchased expressly for this voyage.
[Illustration: A Caravel.
(_After a Painting of the sixteenth century, in the Monastery of the
Mother of God at Lisbon._)]
The store-ship was of more considerable size. Sernigi (p. 123) says
she measured 110 tons; Castanheda credits her with 200. She may have
been a so-called _caravela redonda_, that is a caravel which carried
square sails on the main and fore-masts and triangular ones on the
mizzen-mast and the bowsprit. This vessel was purchased of Ayres
Correa, a shipowner of Lisbon.
The _S. Gabriel_ and _S. Raphael_ were specially built for this
voyage. Bartholomeu Dias, who superintended their construction,
discarded the caravel in which he himself had achieved his great
success, in favour of square-rigged vessels of greater burthen, which,
although slower sailers and less able to ply to windward, offered
greater safety and more comfort to their crews. He took care, at the
same time, that the draught of these vessels should enable them to
navigate shallow waters, such as it was expected would be met with in
the course of the voyage. The timber for these two vessels had been cut
during the last year of the reign of King John, in the Crown woods of
Leiria and Alcacer. The vessels having been completed, the King ordered
them to be equipped by Fernão Lourenço, the factor of the house of
Mines, and one of the most “magnificent” men of his time.[396]
No contemporary description or picture of these vessels has reached
us, but there can hardly be a doubt that their type[397] is fairly
represented on a painting made by order of D. Jorge Cabral, who was
Governor of India from 1549 to 1550. This painting subsequently became
the property of D. João de Castro. A copy of it was first published
by the Visconde de Juromenha, who took it from a MS. dated 1558.[398]
The fine woodcut in W. S. Lindsay’s _History of Merchant Shipping_
(II, p. 5), from an ancient picture which also belonged to D. João de
Castro, seems to be derived from the same source, but as the vessel
carries the flag of the Order of Christ at the main, and not the Royal
Standard, it cannot represent the flag-ship. At all events, it is not
more authentic than either of the ships delineated in the drawing first
published by Juromenha.
[Illustration: The supposed Armada of Vasco da Gama.
(_From a Painting made by order of Jorge Cabral (1549-50.))_]
Authorities differ very widely as to the tonnage of these two vessels.
Sernigi (see p. 123) says they were of 90 tons each, thus partly
bearing out Correa, who states that the _three_ ships (including the
_Berrio_) were built of the same size and pattern.[399] D. Pacheco
Pereira[400] states that the largest of them did not exceed 100 tons;
J. de Barros gives them a burthen of between 100 and 120 tons; whilst
Castanheda allocates 120 tons to the flag-ship and 100 to the _S.
Raphael_.
But whilst the authorities quoted dwell upon the small size of the
vessels which for the first time reached India from a European port,
and even give reasons for this limitation of burthen,[401] there is
some ground for believing that the tonnage of Vasco da Gama’s ships,
expressed according to modern terminology, was in reality much greater
than is usually supposed. Pedro Barretto de Rezende (p. 151) may
therefore have some justification when he states that these vessels
ranged from 100 to 320 tons. Mr. Lindsay (_loc. cit._) would go even
further. The _S. Gabriel_, according to him, was constructed to carry
400 pipes, equivalent to 400 tons measurement, or about 250 to 300 tons
register. He adds that Sr. E. Pinto Bastos agrees with him.[402]
In considering this question of tonnage, it must be borne in mind that
“ton”, at the close of the fifteenth century, was a different measure
from what it is at present. We learn from E. A. D’Albertis[403] that
the _tonelada_ of Seville was supposed to afford accommodation for two
pipes of 27½ arrobas (98 gallons) each, and measured 1.405 cubic
metres, or about 50 cubic feet. The _tonel_ of Biscay was 20 per cent.
larger. According to Capt. H. Lopez de Mendonça, the _tonel_ at Lisbon
measured 6 palmos de goa in length (talha), and 4 such palmos in
breadth and height (parea), that is, about 85 cubic feet.[404] This,
however, seems excessive, for my wine merchant tells me that two butts
of sherry of 108 gallons each would occupy only 75 cubic feet. At
any rate, these data show that the ton of the fifteenth century was
considerably larger than the ton measurement of the nineteenth.
Two attempts have been made recently by distinguished officers of the
Portuguese Navy, Captains Joào Braz d’Oliveira[405] and A. A. Baldaque
da Silva,[406] to reconstruct Vasco da Gama’s flagship, or rather to
design a ship of a type existing at the close of the fifteenth century,
and answering as nearly as possible to the scanty indications to be
found within the pages of the historians of this memorable voyage. In
this reconstruction good use has been made of an early manuscript on
shipbuilding by Fernando Oliveira (_O livro da fabrica das Nãos_),
which Captain Lopez de Mendonça proposes to publish.
The designs produced by the two naval officers differ widely in several
respects, and more especially as regards the relation between the
total length of the ship and the breadth of beam. In Captain B. da
Silva’s ship the beam is equal to one-third of the length, whilst the
proportion in Captain J. Braz d’Oliveira’s ship is as one to five. The
former of these ships is broad-beamed, as befits the period, whilst the
latter is almost as slim as a modern clipper. It must be remembered
that, until comparatively recent times, it was held that the length
of a sailing ship should not exceed four times the breadth of beam;
and this maxim was undoubtedly acted upon by the shipbuilders of the
fifteenth century.
Captain Baldaque da Silva’s design of the _S. Gabriel_ has been
embodied in a model, and from a photograph of this model Mr. Herbert
Johnson has produced the illustration placed in front of this Appendix.
The dimensions of the ship designed by Captain Baldaque da Silvia are
as follows:—[407]
Length over all 84.1 feet.
Water-line (when laden) 64.0 ”
Keel 56.7 ”
Breadth of beam 27.9 ”
Depth 17.1 ”
Draught, abaft 7.5 ”
” forward 5.6 ”
Metocentric height above the water-line
(laden) 7.4 ”
Displacement 178 tons.
Tonnage 4,130 cubic feet, or 103 ”
This, as I learn from a private letter of Captain B. da Silva, is
supposed to be the gross under-deck tonnage, but on calculating the
tonnage according to the Builders’ Old Measurement Rule, I find it
to amount to 230 tons of 40 cubic feet each, whilst the “expeditive”
method practised at Venice[408] during the fifteenth century yields 896
botte of 28 gallons, or about 250 toneladas.
The ship was flat-bottomed, with a square stern and bluff bow, the
latter ornamented with a figure of her patron saint. Wales were placed
along the sides to reduce her rolling when going before the wind.
Formidable “castles” rose fore and aft, having a deep waist between
them. These “castles,” however, had not then grown to the portentous
height attained at a subsequent period, when they rendered it difficult
to govern the ship in a gale, and it often became necessary to cut down
the foremast and dismantle the forecastle to enable them to keep her
head to the wind.
These “castles” were in reality citadels, and enabled the crew to make
a last stand after the vessel had been boarded. A notable instance of
this occurred in the course of the fight with the _Meri_ in 1502.[409]
The captain was lodged in the castle rising upon the quarter-deck,
the officers were accommodated in the room below his and in the
forecastle, whilst the men had their quarters beneath the gang boards
which ran along the top-sides from castle to castle. The men were
each allowed a locker, to contain such goods as they might obtain by
barter with the natives. Ladders led from the main deck up to the
fighting decks (_chapitéo de ré_ and _de vante_) of the two castles,
and these were defended against boarders by nettings. The tiller of the
rudder entered the battery abaft the captain’s apartments, where also
stood the binnacle. The armament consisted of twenty guns. The lower
battery of the “castle” rising on the quarter-deck was armed with eight
breech-loaders made of wrought-iron staves, held together by hoops and
mounted on forked props. The upper battery held six bombards, and the
forecastle the same number.[410] We may at once state that the men
carried no firearms. Their arms included cross-bows, spears, axes,
swords, javelins, and boarding-pikes. Some of the officers were clad in
steel armour, whilst the men had to be content with leather jerkins and
breast-plates.
Amidships stood the _batel_, or long boat, in addition to which there
was available a yawl rowed with four or six oars.