00.02.38

This story is no fairy tale – it is recounted in an ancient mariner's diary and describes the beginning of the world as we know it. At the time it was still a dark and largely unexplored place. And 15th century Portugal was a nation at the cutting-edge of marine navigation, with an insatiable appetite for imperial expansion. In their eagerness to go where nobody had gone before they dispatched Vasco da Gama.

00.03.15

500 years ago he set sail from Portugal, destined to circum-navigate Africa and continue to India. ..."into a sea of deepness and winds still to discover". His task was to establish trading posts wherever possible and convert Muslims to Christianity. His voyage marked the beginning of Portuguese colonisation of many parts of Africa and India.

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They were met, in places, by hostile natives – Arabs, who resented the arrival of Christians on their shores.

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There were clashes of culture and faith. At times the arrogance of the Portuguese provoked battles with the Muslims, and Vasco’s men left on bad terms. The Portuguese were quick to fire their cannons, and as they sailed away, their monuments were sometimes destroyed.

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But Vasco was intrepid, and would not be deterred. With the aid of a friendly Arab pilot, he guided his ships to India. Here the Arabs had a monopoly on the spice trade, which the Portuguese were desperate to break. It meant Vasco must go on into unexplored worlds and discover where the rich spices were coming from.

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TITLES

Vasco da Gama’s VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY

00.05.22

By Carlos Brandão Lucas

00.05.28

Padrão dos Descobrimentos monument

In 1960 to commemorate five centuries since the death of Prince Henry the Navigator, Lisbon honoured the Portuguese contribution to maritime exploration.

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Portugal abounds with celebrations of this history, proud of of their role in this key event. This meeting of cultures. It was the point where for the first time mankind learned the real nature of the world on which he lived.

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Their curiosity was huge. The decks of the ships were adorned with shapes and symbols, pilots and seafarers, poets and soldiers, geographers and mathematicians. They were in search of every knowledge and the unknown world might offer answers to many important questions. As with space travel later, these journeys were hailed by the people who could not imagine what might be discovered.

00.06.38

The journeys began with Prince Henry’s barges and caravels. The winds first took them to discover Madeira, an Atlantic island. But Henry was driven to know what lay beyond the Canaries and Morocco’s feared Cape Boujdour?

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Later, these fears were conquered and the dark seas opened to reveal the Islands of Cape Verde: the year was 1460.

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Further south, it’s no longer just the lure of gold which feeds the commercial vessels. It’s the promise of the richness of a continent yet unknown.

00.07.23

Explorers’ ships arrive at the firth of Congo. Here, in the name of God, their religious fascination with the so called African heathen spawns baptisms and conversions.

00.07.43

Further on Vasco’s sailors face the darkness of the Cape which in the end will become the waves of Good Hope.

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On the other side of the Cape, the crew is exhausted. Vasco decides to rest up.

00.08.05

At around the same time, Pero da Covilhã was sent from Portugal to spy on the Orient. With the sharp sense of a merchant he notes places and spices.

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He travels to Goa and Ormuz and to Sofala to learn more about the southern seas and the coastal cities that prosper with commerce.

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Covilhã meets many different people on his mission for the King. He makes a complete report, including gold-mining in the interior.

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In Lisbon the new King Manuel is crowned, and he too has an explorer’s blood. He sends Vasco messages of encouragement and Vasco decides it’s time to set sail to “conquer” India!

00.09.02

It was the culmination of centuries of work with none more responsible than Portugal’s Prince Henry whose fascination with navigation, charts, maps and instruments long before had prepared the groundwork for this journey. He knew what he wanted to do but had not had the means to carry out his dreams.

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But how did the boats stay together through journeys lasting years, through ferocious unchartered seas?

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Old shipwrecks reveal the vessels that undertook these epic journeys. (PAUSE) They evolved from fishing boats, which worked up and down the European coasts. Their construction was similar but improved vastly with experience, both in design and woodwork. And of course the ships are well armed,. But with the dangers of mutiny, the sailors are not!

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Vasco’s fleet boasts four ships: the Sao Raphael, Sao Gabriel, Berrio and the Sao Martin.

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Vasco finally resumes his journey and puts to sea in a caravel, three small barges with square sails.

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Vasco's men are rested and ready to seek out India. The ships are weighed down with all that will be needed, packed into every free corner.

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Back in Portugal news of the journey was always scarce and the people waited with baited breath.

00.11.00

Images of the Jerónimo Monastery

But from Lisbon’s Jerónimo Monastery the religious hierarchy did not look so favourably on the voyage. A year before, King Manuel had asked the highest Catholic authority, the Santa Fe, for permission to build a monument to for the Voyage. Permission was given but the monks were afraid man was stepping outside the narrow confines God had set for his existence.

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According to Portuguese literature, vigils, prayers and promises took place before such trips. And many from the religious establishment cursed the “glory of power and greed” manifested with the boarding of a ship designed to set sail for places where God might not even exist. But amid supplications and tears, the sailors’ sins are forgiven.

00.12.06

PTC Carlos B. Lucas

“How do we know about the trip that took Vasco da Gama to India. We usually turn to the 16th century chroniclers, people such as Damião de Gois, Fernão de Castanheda, João de Barros. But all of them drunk from the same fountain. This was the anonymous account of one man, who himself experienced the trip from the inside”.

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The anonymous account which documented Vasco’s journey comes from a diary, said by some to have been penned by a Alvaro Velho. Seventy nine pages of meticulous notes. A living document of what happened on land and at sea, which takes an interest in people and their customs. This will be our guide on our Great Voyage!

00.13.05

“We leave Restelo, on a Saturday, eight days into the month of July, 1497. And Lord God help us to get there, in His name.”

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His diary speaks of the legend that has it that all the Gods of Olympia meet to decide on the trip’s destiny.

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Venus wishes for the Portuguese to spread their faith across the globe. But some of the Council disagree…

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Bacchus thinks of himself as Lord of India. He wants the fleet to be ship-wrecked. Won over by Venus’ reasoning, Jupiter drops the golden statue of victory at her feet. In the end, Mercury, lighter than wind, will take the vessels to their goal - while Fame crowns the Portuguese Coat of Arms.

00.13.58

By the wishes of the mythological gods, the trip would proceed. Vasco da Gama would fulfil the King’s dream.

00.14.08

The account says little about the fleet’s first days, apart from to note that the Captain’s brother travels on board, a certain Paulo da Gama,

On “a Saturday” - a week after departure- “We sighted Canary Island” . It was the 15^th July.

00.14.28

“On the route to Cape Verde, we find our first port. On Thursday we arrived at Santiago Island, where we disembarked at Santa Maria beach, with much pleasure and fun”.

00.14.43

Praia is today a city of intense life. But when the India-bound fleet disembarked here, the place was almost uninhabited. It was an ideal port for a fleet such as this, although it called for some caution. Previously, Christopher Columbus cast anchor here to get supplies of meat, water and wood.

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By the time Vasco da Gama disembarks at Santiago much further South, the first settlers have already established at Ribeira Grande. The world’s colonisation is in full swing.

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The Rosary church, more comfortable and bigger, it has already replaced the primitive chapel of the Holy Spirit built by the very first explorers. And in typical Christian fashion of the day, the missionaries are are already busy saving souls.

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The town - today known as Cidade Velha - then had a town council and was starting to build a hospital. It evokes the strategic importance of this port: a passage from Europe to Africa.

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Settlers had colonised other parts of the Cape Verde islands, but they later abandon their villages, leaving their churches to wrack and ruin. The rough land and hard life had proved too much for them.

00.16.34

Vasco's sailor writes “Three days into August we set an easterly course”. This is the start of a long swing they will make through the open waters away from the shores of Africa. Then a south-east wind catches the sails, and there in the middle of the Ocean, they sight whales “a good eight hundred leagues into the high sea” .

00.17.00

“And on that very same day we spied many birds, flying against the wind.”

The ships have drifted off course and are close to the shores of Brazil.

The rounded sails tell us the Portuguese are already well versed in the south Atlantic winds. Now, with the wind sitting fair, the fleet turns in the direction of southern Africa.

00.17.25

“on Tuesday 7th November we saw a low land in a wide bay”

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To verify their whereabouts, the captain sends Pero de Alenquer ashore in a canoe to see if ” he could find good place to land...”

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“ He found the land very good and clean and sheltered from all winds.. the bay lies facing east-west.”

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“On Wednesday we dropped anchor in the Bay...where we stayed for eight days cleaning the ships, mending the sails and gathering wood”".

The longest and most famous Atlantic cro-ssing had truly begun!

00.18.10

St Helena is the first point in Southern Africa where the fleet docked, still bound for India.

00.18.18

Did the sailors disembark here? Can we be sure they put down on this beach, this exact spot? Where the diaries fail to inform us we can be reasonably confident the geography today would not have differed then. There’s no proof Vasco walked these shores but deductions are not hard to make.

00.18.40

Prof. Eric Axelson

Nobody knows but there is one obvious place Vasco would have taken shelter for his vessels. And the best place where he would have found the best shelter would have been Stompneus Bay. It is an enormous bay. There’s a little cape that juts out and that would have given shelter from a northerly or a northwesterly wind. But it was November. Most of the winds were from the southeast. But they would have had to take precautions and taken shelter in the reefs and little islands around Stompneus Bay.

00.19.24

The diary’s author notes: ”In this land there were dark-brown men who eat nothing but whales, gazelle meat and herbal roots...they wore skins which covered their nature...”

00.19.37

The men are “Koi-Koi”. An ethnic group which in time will interbreed with other peoples and take on new ways of life.

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Whilst the scout is exploring Santa Helena, Vasco da Gama’s men explore a “ river that lays four leagues to the south-east”. They name it the Santiago river. Today we know it as the Great Berg river, full of boats and waterway bustle.

00.20.12

The river comes “from the interior and its mouth is like a catapult - its depth two to three arms”. Alvaro Velho, observes its banks and notes that “ the birds in this land are like the ones in Portugal: sea-gulls, turtle doves, larks and many other species”...

00.20.32

But Vasco’s men get into a battle with the natives.

00.20.37

“On Thursday, 16th, the ships were fitted and clean. We departed, ignorant of how far we were from the Cape of Good Hope”

00.20.50

The pilot had rounded the Cape with Bartholomew Dias a decade before. But still there are doubts. “the most we could be is thirty leagues away from the Cape” he muses, as they snake their way towards India around land and over seas!

00.21.13

then - “ south-east winds took us along - and on Saturday afternoon we spied the Cape of Good Hope”. It's 18th November, 1497.

00.21.30

The Cape had the most terrible of reputations. Down the ages the sailors have always feared it. Chronicles have painted this emerald green sea with the black shades of the night - a locked door through which ships must pass. And as Vasco’s neared the Cape his men were tense and not a little afraid.

00.22.56

But without any sudden surprises Vasco da Gama passed the Cape... “On a Wednesday, 22 November, we round the Cape and head along the coast, sailing with a fair wind”

00.22.16

Cape Point is Africa’s true extremity. A meeting point of two oceans. The Atlantic and the Indian ocean.

00.22.32

Indifferent to past and future discoveries and conquests, the water here is a paradise of nature and colour.

00.22.48

Men were making of the seas a road that would bring two worlds closer. The powerful and dangerous oceans paradoxically the key to unlocking the worlds secrets. The fish relinquishing their mastery of the water world to man’s lust for knowledge and control.

00.23.12

Bartholomeu Dias had no fond memories of the people of this place. But who lived in Sao Braz??

00.23.23

It’s said that the primitive inhabitants took shelter in caves, in caverns by the shore.

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But the account of the Voyage brings them alive: “ on a Saturday [ 2 December] two hundred black men arrived, both heavy and slight...

they brought around twelve animals, bulls and cows and four or five lambs”..

00.23.51

The Portuguese smoke and dance with the natives, who

“ danced like black people”, “played the flute, in a very nice way for black people of whom music is not expected”.

For a journey that seems to have made many enemies along the way the diarist was exceptionally complimentary...“They danced and played well”.

00.24.13

They carried sticks adorned with foxes tails”.

00.24.17

They had bulls as big as the ones from Alentejo”.

00.24.24

People of “ the same kind as those of Santa Helena”- noted Alvaro Velho. In fact they were also Koi-Koi.

00.24.33

Next to this statue of Vasco, this tree is believed to be the first post office in southern Africa. Sailors on their way to India would post their news on it!

00.24.47

Again Vasco’s men leave on bad terms, and Vehlo notes: “Whilst we were in this creek we put up a cross.. which some of the black people knocked down when we left”.

00.25.02

On South Africas Wild Coast Vasco’s navigator Bartholomeu Dias is celebrated in the Mossel Bay museum. His 1488 caravel has been reproduced. Here history honours the Great Voyage.

00.25.25

And today along Vasco’s route men have retained a fascination for challenging the waves in a ghostly legacy to Vasco’s first triumph.

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“In this creek there is a small island ...and on this small island there are many seals, as big as huge bears, and they roar like lions”...

“ It was here, that we went one day to have fun and we shot at them”...

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...there are also some birds of the same size as ducks which do not fly as they have no feathers in their wings...we called them sotilicairos, they bray like donkeys and we killed as many as we wanted...”

00.26.14

Even for the age it was a bloody way to have some sport!

00.26.27

At last...” after we had all that we needed.., on Friday, 8 December, Day of Our Lady’s Conception , ... we set sail and continued on the way... and on the next Tuesday, the day before Santa Luzia’s Day, we braved a great tempest. And we lost the boat Nicolau Coelho.” Until that is the wind brought it back!

00.26.53

On False Island stands a replica of the last landmark left by Bartolomeu Dias on the Eastern coast of Africa: The Sao Gregório Monument.

00.27.03

It was as far as Dias had managed to get 10 years before. Though many believe he was ordered to go further a terrible storm is suspected of forcing him to return exhausted. Now 10 years later Vasco was to at last move that journey forwards.

00.28.20

10th January 1498. Vasco da Gama’s fleet reaches the coast of Mozambique known as Aguada of Good Peace, a place to stop for drinking water.

00.28.35

It had been six months of sailing since they left the Tagus river behind. Then, according to Alvaro Velho “ we caught sight of a small river where we found many black men and women”.

They sent a delegate from the ship to talk with the people. Velho described him as an experienced scout.

00.28.58

The meeting went well. The people were helpful... celebrations were held!

00.29.06

In today’s Mozambique the festivities are little changed from what they were then, their dances, the music, the wooden instruments... all are very similar to those described in Velho’s accounts.

00.29.30

“These men wear animal feathers around their bodies” - wrote the 16th century Jesuit André Fernandes.

00.29.38

“The peoples’ dances represent war scenes”.

00.29.44

“And going round on foot, they dance with a wonderful lightness”.

00.30.01

When Vasco da Gama passed the shores of a River, Alvaro Velho noted: “this land is very populated and the houses are made of straw”.

00.30.13

further on we come across another echo:

“In big calabashes they brought sea water to make salt”.

00.30.25

Fashioned as in the old times, these bows no longer serve the same purpose.

00.30.34

In a place where good winds forced the crew to hurry on before they had filled up with enough water Velho describes multitudes of humanity ; “there were more women than men because where twenty men would come, forty women would come too”

00.30.55

These people - notes the author - adorn themselves with copper ornaments “they wore so many on their arms and legs ... that is why we named this the Copper River ... and here, we stayed for five days”.

00.31.07

Vasco’s ships struggled up the Mozambican coast. The winds were not in their favour and for many weeks progress was slow. Portugese historians would like us to believe that their are few who could not admire da Gama’s journey but today many in Africa would disagree. Modern Africans see da Gama’s trips as white man’s dreams.

00.31.34

Though the white colonial Mozambican governent was still celebrating the navigator’s glory in 1951. A statue was erected in Vasco honour.

00.31.45

Today, he does not number among Mozambique’s heroes, and the monument has come off its pedestal.

00.31.54

It stands abandoned at the side of the road.

00.32.07

The ship’s diarist records “In the sea... we saw a river with a wide mouth... and on a Thursday night we went through.” The fleet is now navigating close to Quelimane, a branch of the Zambezi river. The captain called it the “River of Favourable Omens” but what would those omens would those be?

00.32.35

Velho wrote “ the land is very low and wet and has big trees which grow close to one another...and the people in this land live off them”.

00.32.57

It emerged the “good omens” would come when “we heard that in another place there was ships as big as ours”.

00.33.07

“We stayed in this river thirty two days...and they brought us what they had in their rafts”...

00.33.17

The natives bring them water and fowl in exchange for gifts, it's a positive union. For Vasco and his men it was a chance to get well earned rest.

00.33.28

Mr Arrano Fijamo

- Inhabitant of Quelimane-

Vasco da Gama’s passage through Quelimane was not recorded nationally. No one knew how to write. History reached us in the traditional way. We learnt the concrete facts at school. School told us about Vasco da Gama. But we knew that he had passed though here. Vasco da Gama did not pass through here on purpose. It just happened! He saw this entrance, and he came in. It wasn’t a historical moment because he didn’t intend to visit Quelimane. He just arrived and left. But did the population get together to see Vasco da Gama? - NO! People remembered him, but news of him didn’t reach everyone in Quelimane!

00.34.27

24th February 1498...

“leaving the coast... we went eastwards”

00.34.36

“And on a Thursday, 1st march, we saw islands and land”..

00.34.43

On the following day “Nicolau Coelho entered the creek, took a wrong turn and found low water”...

00.34.51

“Turning back to the ships that were behind him, he saw sailing ships, one of which welcomed with pleasure the captain and his brother”..

00.35.07

The vessels weighed anchor. In front of them stood the island!

00.35.12

the Island of Mozambique... it lies in ruins of the past! But then it was more of a civilised society than any other the fleet has yet encountered.

00.35.24

Inside this warehouse lies a dead captain.

00.35.34

Here, Vasco da Gama is a lifeless statue waiting to be resurrected.

00.35.43

It's said that the political will is there, but the materials are lacking.

Maybe one day he will return to the island’s former Sao Paulo Square.

00.35.57

When Vasco da Gama arrives in Mozambique, the Island has links with a commercial network in the booming gold business. It comes from the African interior to enrich merchants who navigate between the cities of the coast. Most of them are Muslims.

00.36.22

“the people in this land belong to the Mafamede sect “ - says Alvaro Velho. “ they have red hair and speak like the moors”.

00.36.32

Today, the voice of Islam echoes around the island’s large mosque. Just as it did in the 15th century.

00.36.42

When Vasco da Gama inquired about a certain Christian King, he was told “ he is deep in the interior of the land” .

The natives despise Christians, and another battle ensues.

00.36.56

The diary reads, “ In this place and this island there was a man who was called the Sultan .. and he sent the captain many things - but that was while he thought we were Turks or moors from other parts”.

00.37.12

“ And when they found out we were Christians they ordered that we be captured and killed, but the pilot we had with us discovered everything” Vasco da Gama and his crew were saved by the ship's pilot who outwitted the locals. It was just another of the very close calls Vasco's men faced on their journey.

00.37.45

PTC

Carlos B. Lucas

Wednesday, 4th April 1498...

Vasco da Gama’s fleet has already left the coast of Mozambique and was navigating in the waters of Tanzania. Around mid-day, they found “ a thick land, but with big prairies”. Then, the pilots, probably Arabs who had sailed with Vasco da Gama since Mozambique, told him that the “island of Christians” - was left behind them, three leagues behind. They spent the whole day trying to reach it, but that wasn’t possible because - - “the westerly winds were very strong”.

00.38.26

This island, which Vasco da Gama only reached during his second future Voyage, is Quiloa. On his first voyage Vasco sailed straight past.

00.38.49

In Quiloa stands today an abandoned tower. But these rocks evoke greed and conquests. They speak of Vasco da Gama’s second Voyage (in 1502-3) and of the dues he extorted from the local king. They remind us of the destruction of the town by Francisco de Almeida, in 1505. He had orders to build a fortress and win from the Muslims the gold that came from Sofala. In the name of Santiago!

00.39.20

Today as with so much of their former territory the Portuguese abandoned Quiloa.

00.39.28

During the 19th century the Fortress was rebuilt by the Arabs of Oman, on top of the original walls. But that is a different history.

00.39.38

Back on Vasco’s voyage...” We were heading northwest when in the afternoon we saw land”...it was the island of Zanzibar. The pilots announced a village of Christians and one of moors. But this time the captain was not keen to explore the land.

00.39.56

6th April.

00.40.00

“ two hours before the morning the ship Sao Rafael ran aground two leagues distant from firm land”.

00.40.07

“ and because it ran aground they shouted to the others that were coming behind. As soon as they heard the shouts, they fired their canon and got out the canoes”.

00.40.19

“As soon as the tide was low, the ship was on dry land and along with the canoes, many anchors were put in the water”.

00.40.27

“ And when the tide of the new day started it finally washed the ships away, which amused us very much...”

00.40.35

“ towards the prairies there is are mountains ... “ the Mountains of Sao Rafael”. On the way back from India “we set fire to the ship Sao Rafael- since it was impossible for three ships to sail with so few people”..

Scurvy had taken its toll!

00.40.53

7 April.

The fleet will moor in front of Mombassa.

00.41.01

The Jesus fortress reminds us of Mombassa’s significance on the route to India. In the 12th century the geographer Al Idrisi spoke of a merchant city on an island. That was Mombassa!

00.41.18

But here the fleet faces disaster... The diary reads:

“going in to moor the captain’s ship wouldn’t turn around and was blowing over”... Amid cries and agitation the ship Sao Gabriel was saved by dropping iron into the sea.

00.41.39

On abother dramatic occasion “two men went to the King to confirm they came in peace..and the King sent the captain as many samples of cloves and pepper as they could carry”.

00.41.52

Despite the offering “our people suspected betrayal” And the truth was just so. “That night two rafts loaded with men came to the ship Berrio and started cutting its chain cables.” The plot was discovered. The crew attack and the Arabs flee. They head further north, towards Malindi.

00.42.13

But if the fleet could dock today, as they did five hundred years ago, the captain’s messengers would see in the Mombassa of today another “River of Favourable Omens”. A river that is overflowing with an Islamic wave...telling us that the east is getting closer.

00.42.41

With a bird’s eye view of Porto Velho, we take our leave of Mombassa.

00.42.47

Vasco sailed next to Malindi.

00.42.57

We can assume that the captain had some political skills, to take advantage of the conflict between Malindi and Mombassa.

00.43.00

“We remained at this town for nine days and from here we left to a town that is called Calicut, of which the King of Malindi had heard”.

Now the fleet was to be guided by a skilled local pilot.

00.43.20

PTC Carlos B. Lucas

Well,-It has to be said - Malindi was a city of great attraction to the Voyage of Vasco da Gama. Especially if we take into account what had happened in Mozambique and what happened more recently, in Mombassa. In fact, Vasco da Gama made close friendships here, or at least a close allies and Portugal continued to exploit those allies for many years.

00.43.42

When Vasco da Gama returned from India the following year, he erected a monument here to strengthen that friendship. But it’s important to note that when the Arab pilot came aboard, he taught Vasco da Gama new methods of navigation.

00.44.00

He learnt for example to use the Kamal, a nautical instrument that was not known to the Portuguese navigators and with which it is possible to read the stars at night in a different way.

00.44.14

From here he embarked on the final stage to India and from here headed towards Calicut”.

00.44.22

The journey to the coast of Malabar took twenty days. They land here, Kapad beach, near Calicut. But what were the Portuguese looking for in India?

The answer is clear in Vehlo’s account:

“We came looking for spices and Christians”.

00.44.39

Christians in the East!

Yes, Christians had started to arrive in the 5th century, from Persia. They brought with them very individual rites and for centuries they maintained the legend of Sao Tome - according to which the apostle Sao Tome would spread evangelism throughout southern India.

00.45.01

During the 12th century the news that Christians existed on that side of the world reached Europe. Many travellers wanted to find out for themselves, like Marco Polo. And these were the Christians that Vasco da Gama discovered. Whom he had sought since the Eastern coast of Africa.

00.45.28

But would these people be able to unite with King Manuel against the Muslims - as the King so strongly desired?

00.45.45

Time proved that they wouldn't be. The years revealed that the Christians of Sao Tome - as they are still called today were small communities. Poor with much faith but little strength and no power.

00.46.05

These are the people that every year, a week after Easter, scale the sacred mountain of Malayatur, near Cochin. And there they devoutly celebrate the scenes of the story, or rather the legend, of the Apostle Sao Tome.

00.46.25

The word of Christ had reached India in the 5th century. The religion had penetrated the most diverse corners of the globe. Through a river of a thousand divinities Christiaity, so far from home, had still made its mark long before Vasco ever appeared on the scene. In itself it presents a real question mark over Vasco’s claims to have discovered the region.

00.46.55

“ on the twenty eight day of the month of May, the captain went to talk to the King... he took with him thirteen of his men” accompanied by two hundred men of the land, armed with swords and shields..

“and there we went, together, on the way to Calicut” - writes Alvaro Velho.

00.47.17

After “ we passed a river ... they took us to a big church”

Some say it was this temple in Puthur “of the stature of a monastery”

here, Vasco da Gama prayed. Would he have mistaken the statue of a Goddess-mother with the image of Our Lady? Or was his prayer simply a clever diplomatic gesture?

00.47.39

It’s hardly surprising considering that Puthur is a temple dedicated to the Goddess Durga.

00.47.45

“ Many other saints had teeth so big that would be a inch outside their mouths”. - This was the Goddess Kali.

00.47.54

Vasco da Gama might have been present at a party such as this, dedicated to Kali.

00.48.06

Behind this ritual there is a belief: that life is full of suffering and illusions - we see just the visible face of reality. Only the rituals allow to leave an illusionary world and reach intimacy with the gods! That is reality! It is conquered with great explosions of colour and noise which stimulate the senses and transform happiness into a liberating strength. Would Vasco have absorbed the meaning?

00.48.38

Calicut at last! And the moor of Tunis said: “ Many thanks you should give God for having brought you to this land where there are so many riches.”

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“We passed through a big yard to go where the King was”

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The captain said he “ was the ambassador of the King of Portugal, lord of much land and very rich in everything.. and that the king, whose name was Manuel, ordered him to build three ships and made him captain, to come and discover this land. Not because he needed gold or silver, but because he knew there existed Christian like himself. And that for sixty years European kings sent ships to try and discover these Christians. He told how King Manuel had told him not to return to Portugal until he found this King of the Christians”

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Was the Samorim the Christian king that Vasco da Gama sought ?

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Calicut then was very different

During the time of Vasco da Gama there were other lords in power.

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By the 12th century Muslims in this mosque, Mochundi, were already reciting the verses of the Koran.

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Mochundi is the oldest mosque in Calicut.

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We now understand what it all means: the Muslim community in the harbour of the spices was extremely important during the time of the Great Voyage. This influence grew from the arrival of the first Islamic merchants in late 12th century.

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United by religious devotion, and the profits of commerce, the Muslims put up a front which collided with the interests of Lisbon.

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An old economic and religious conflict was being stirred up!

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And so it was, that contrary to what Vasco da Gama’s men had hoped for Velho had to accept “ this city is not of Christians”

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“ Spice Street” in Calicut. It probably looks very much the same as it did 500 years ago. The smells the same, the hawkers shouting the same. An excited air of prosperity and commerce.

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The Arab merchants held the monopoly on spices. The interference of the Portuguese proved to be cause for confrontation during 1498. And it was cause for further violence throughout the years of the Oriental Empire. The spice trade had come into existance long before the might and power of Europe’s kings had managed to get this far. It's perhaps proof of our material desires being stronger than political. When Vasco reached here spices from India were reaching Europe through non European traders.

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The diary continues: “ As we had found and discovered what we came for ... soon we set sail and went on our way to Portugal…it was the 29th August 1498".

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In 1502 Vasco da Gama arrives once again in Calicut. He comes this time as an Admiral, bringing weapons, soldiers and ships. He terrifies, kills, Destroys. taking his his revenge for the humiliations of the first trip. But the Samorim does not give in to the “diplomacy” of fire.

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1512 is the year of Afonso Albuquerque. He makes an alliance with the new Samorim and builds a fortress.

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In 1524 Vasco da Gama returns to India. He has on his mind to bring the sea of spices to order. As Viceroy, he wants now to put an end to the “great thefts in the justice and the treasury of the King”. But his time runs out. Three months after his arrival, the Admiral will die in Cochim on Christmas eve.

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It is said that he died in this house.

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He was buried here, in Sao Francisco church.

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Now, calmed by the years, the passions, plots and winds which drove that Great Voyage of 1498 are well behind.

But was it all worth it?

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Prof. K.J. John

Yes, of course it was. However, the arrival of the Portuguese marks the colonialist period in India. I am not talking about the worst aspect of colonialism because that has already been written by historians. But the historians that studied the Portuguese era in India, were mainly Dutch end English. And they are not like the Catholicism brought by Portugal. Because of that the positive impact of the Portuguese in India was never brought about. So, our recent studies have shown that in the cultural milieu of the people of Kerala, the impact of the Portuguese is prevalent even today, especially amongst the Christian communities living in coastal areas.. In our food habits. In our daily life, our social life, everywhere - the Portuguese culture is still very much present. For example, I am sitting in a chair and we say “cadeira” just like the Portuguese “cadeira”.

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We use a table and we say “mesa” just like the Portuguese. We call “janela” for a window. This way, the Portuguese influence in our daily life is very visible. In other words: the Portuguese presence is obvious in the lives of the people of the Eastern coast of India.

The arrival of the Portuguese marked the beginning a social change. I would say - definitely - the process of Westernisation, which brought about major social changes in India, was initiated by the Portuguese. They understood the caste system that existed in Kerala. And this caste system wasn’t only the practice of Hindus but also of the Portuguese Christians. The Portuguese wanted to eliminate this negative social aspect of the Christians’ lives. All this came thanks to the arrival of the Portuguese to this area of the coast.

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And Vasco da Gama’s arrival marks the beginning of the great social changes that has taken place in day to day life.

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Vasco da Gama’s Voyage marked the beginning of the colonial era in the Orient. But it is also true that the route past the Cape of Good Hope - marked the beginning of the new “Sea age”. Vasco was the fulcrum about and colonisation and international developement wheeled. Whether judged good or bad few people have had the same influence on all our lives as Vasco Da Gama.

ENDS

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