A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco Da Gama 1497-1499

This is the voice of someone who was there. Alvaro Velho, a Portuguese sailor aboard one of history's most consequential expeditions, left this account of Vasco da Gama's groundbreaking voyage to India. The narrative begins on July 8, 1497, as four ships depart from Restello carrying fewer than 170 men into the unknown. What follows is a relentless chronicle of survival: storms that shatter masts, a becalmed Atlantic that stretches into despair, the desperate killing of cattle for fresh water, and the constant dread of the Cape of Good Hope, that "Cape of Storms" which had claimed so many before them. The journal captures extraordinary moments of cultural collision: the mysterious "Christians" da Gama encounters on the East African coast, the hostile reception at Mombasa, and finally the triumphant arrival in Calicut, India. This is not heroic mythology but raw, often unflattering testimony: men starving, mutinous, driven by the promise of spices and religious crusade. It offers an intimate window into how Europeans first breached the boundary between their world and Asia, initiating transformations in commerce, faith, and power that would reshape the globe.