No More Learning

It was on the 8th of July when Gama left the Tagus. The flag ship was
commanded by himself, the second by his brother, the third by Coello,
and the store ship by Gonsalo Nunio. Several interpreters, skilled in
Arabic, and other oriental languages, went along with them. Ten
malefactors (men of abilities, whose sentences of death were reversed,
on condition of their obedience to Gama in whatever embassies or dangers
among the barbarians he might think proper to employ them), were also on
board. The fleet, favoured by the weather, passed the Canary and Cape de
Verde islands, but had now to encounter other fortune. Sometimes stopped
by dead calms, but for the most part tossed by tempests, which increased
in violence as they proceeded to the south. Thus driven far to sea they
laboured through that wide ocean which surrounds St. Helena, in seas,
says Faria, unknown to the Portuguese discoverers, none of whom had
sailed so far to the west. From the 28th of July, the day they passed
the isle of St. James, they had seen no shore, and now on November the
4th they were happily relieved by the sight of land. The fleet anchored
in the large bay,[54] and Coello was sent in search of a river where
they might take in wood and fresh water. Having found one, the fleet
made towards it, and Gama, whose orders were to acquaint himself with
the manners of the people wherever he touched, ordered a party of his
men to bring him some of the natives by force, or stratagem. One they
caught as he was gathering honey on the side of a mountain, and brought
him to the fleet. He expressed the greatest indifference about the gold
and fine clothes which they showed him, but was greatly delighted with
some glasses and little brass bells. These with great joy he accepted,
and was set on shore; and soon after many of the blacks came for, and
were gratified with, the like trifles; in return for which they gave
plenty of their best provisions.
None of Gama's interpreters, however,
could understand a word of their language, or obtain any information of
India. The friendly intercourse between the fleet and the natives was,
however, soon interrupted by the imprudence of Veloso, a young
Portuguese, which occasioned a skirmish wherein Gama's life was
endangered. Gama and some others were on shore taking the altitude of
the sun, when in consequence of Veloso's rashness they were attacked by
the blacks with great fury. Gama defended himself with an oar, and
received a dart in his foot. Several others were likewise wounded, and
they found safety in retreat. A discharge of cannon from the ships
facilitated their escape, and Gama, esteeming it imprudent to waste his
strength in attempts entirely foreign to the design of his voyage,
weighed anchor, and steered in search of the extremity of Africa.

In this part of the voyage, says Osorius, "The heroism of Gama was
greatly displayed. " The waves swelled up like mountains, the ships
seemed at one time heaved up to the clouds, and at another precipitated
to the bed of the ocean. The winds were piercing cold, and so boisterous
that the pilot's voice could seldom be heard, and a dismal darkness,
which at that tempestuous season involves these seas, added all its
horrors. Sometimes the storm drove them southward, at other times they
were obliged to stand on the tack and yield to its fury, preserving what
they had gained with the greatest difficulty.

"With such mad seas the daring Gama fought
For many a day, and many a dreadful night,
Incessant labouring round the stormy Cape,
By bold ambition led. "

THOMSON.

During any interval of the storm, the sailors, wearied out with fatigue,
and abandoned to despair, surrounded Gama, and implored him not to
suffer himself, and those committed to his care, to perish by so
dreadful a death. The impossibility that men so weakened could endure
much longer, and the opinion that this ocean was torn by eternal
tempest, and therefore had hitherto been, and was impassable, were
urged. But Gama's resolution to proceed was unalterable. [55] A
conspiracy was then formed against his life.