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.”
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]
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.”
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]
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.