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]
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.
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.
Arrives at Calicut.
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.
and concludes a treaty with the king.