Vasco da Gama Meets the Samorim of Calicut, 1498

Vasco da Gama at the court of the Samorim of Calicut. Vasco da Gama (1460s-1524) was a Portuguese explorer. On da Gama's first voyage, in 1497, he led a fleet of four ships with a crew of 170 men from Lisbon. The distance traveled in the journey around Africa to India and back was greater than around the equator. The fleet arrived in Kappadu near Calicut, India in May 1498. He was celebrated for opening a direct sea route to Asia and for Portugal's success as an early colonizing power. Following his initial voyage, the Portuguese crown realized that securing outposts on the eastern coast of Africa would prove vital to maintaining national trade routes to the Far East. Setting out in April 1524, with a fleet of fourteen ships, he took as his flagship carrack Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai on her last journey to India. After a troubled journey he arrived in India in September.

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