https://www.ibiblio.org/britishraj/Jackson9/chapter06.html
> The voyage which the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama made to India at the close of the fifteenth century has frequently been mentioned in the preceding volumes, especially in the sixth; a brief selection from the contemporary accounts of it may therefore be welcomed here. This celebrated voyager, whom King Manuel of Portugal commissioned with the command of a Portuguese fleet for an expedition to the East, set sail from Lisbon in the summer of 1497, and after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, arrived on May 20, 1498, at Calicut in Malabar, on the southeast coast of India. Through the favour of the Zamorin, or native ruler of the place, he was able to establish, between the Indian states and his own country, a series of friendly relations for trade and commerce, which proved of the greatest importance to Portugal. …
> Vasco da Gama said to the king: “Sire, you are powerful and very great above all the kings and rulers of India, and all of them are under your feet. biy sovereign, the great King of Portugal, having heard of your grandeur, and it is spoken of throughout the world, had a great longing to become acquainted with you and to contract friendship with you as with a brother of his own, and with full and sincere peace and amity to send his ships with much merchandise, to trade and buy your merchandise, and above all pepper and drugs, of which there are none in Portugal; and with this desire he sent fifty ships with his captain-major; and he sent me to go on shore with his present and message of love and friendship, which I have presented to you, because I have been separated from the rest of my company by storms. …
> Vasco da Gama then kissed the letter and placed it upon his eyes, and upon his head, and gave it to the king with his knee on the ground; the king took it and placed it on his breast with both hands, showing marks of friendship, and opened it and looked at it, then gave it to the overseer of the treasury, telling him to get it translated. The king then said to Vasco da Gama that he should go and rest, and that he would see the letter and answer it; and that he should ask the overseer of the treasury for whatever merchandise he wished to put on board, and he would give it him; also whatever he required for the ships; and that he should send all his people to the city to amuse themselves, and to buy whatever they liked, for no one would do them any harm. …
Totoros__Neighbor on
I like the stories of Vasco da Gama’s expedition.
Like the fact there was a guy who saw the Portuguese and asked them in Spanish “how did you get in here?”
Or the fact that initially the Portuguese thought Indians were Christians and gods statues represented their saints
2 Comments
https://www.ibiblio.org/britishraj/Jackson9/chapter06.html
> The voyage which the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama made to India at the close of the fifteenth century has frequently been mentioned in the preceding volumes, especially in the sixth; a brief selection from the contemporary accounts of it may therefore be welcomed here. This celebrated voyager, whom King Manuel of Portugal commissioned with the command of a Portuguese fleet for an expedition to the East, set sail from Lisbon in the summer of 1497, and after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, arrived on May 20, 1498, at Calicut in Malabar, on the southeast coast of India. Through the favour of the Zamorin, or native ruler of the place, he was able to establish, between the Indian states and his own country, a series of friendly relations for trade and commerce, which proved of the greatest importance to Portugal. …
> Vasco da Gama said to the king: “Sire, you are powerful and very great above all the kings and rulers of India, and all of them are under your feet. biy sovereign, the great King of Portugal, having heard of your grandeur, and it is spoken of throughout the world, had a great longing to become acquainted with you and to contract friendship with you as with a brother of his own, and with full and sincere peace and amity to send his ships with much merchandise, to trade and buy your merchandise, and above all pepper and drugs, of which there are none in Portugal; and with this desire he sent fifty ships with his captain-major; and he sent me to go on shore with his present and message of love and friendship, which I have presented to you, because I have been separated from the rest of my company by storms. …
> Vasco da Gama then kissed the letter and placed it upon his eyes, and upon his head, and gave it to the king with his knee on the ground; the king took it and placed it on his breast with both hands, showing marks of friendship, and opened it and looked at it, then gave it to the overseer of the treasury, telling him to get it translated. The king then said to Vasco da Gama that he should go and rest, and that he would see the letter and answer it; and that he should ask the overseer of the treasury for whatever merchandise he wished to put on board, and he would give it him; also whatever he required for the ships; and that he should send all his people to the city to amuse themselves, and to buy whatever they liked, for no one would do them any harm. …
I like the stories of Vasco da Gama’s expedition.
Like the fact there was a guy who saw the Portuguese and asked them in Spanish “how did you get in here?”
Or the fact that initially the Portuguese thought Indians were Christians and gods statues represented their saints