"In the year 1497 the king Dom Manuel despatched four ships to make discoveries and search for spices."
— Vasco da Gama
In The Year 1497 The King
In the year 1497 the king Dom Manuel despatched four ships to make discoveries and search for spices.
About this quote
This passage comes from the opening of the Roteiro (Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499), the anonymous account of the expedition attributed by some scholars to Álvaro Velho and translated into English by E.G. Ravenstein for the Hakluyt Society in 1898. Vasco da Gama's fleet of four ships — the São Gabriel, São Rafael, Bérrio, and a supply ship — departed Lisbon under orders from King Manuel I to find a sea route to India and establish direct trade contacts, bypassing the Ottoman and Arab intermediaries who controlled the overland spice trade.
Source
Journal of the First Voyage, 1497