Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
new found land west of it to Spain and instructed John's captains
to confine their activities to the east. The Portuguese king imme-
diately protested that the demarcation would interfere with nav-
igation on the Orient route, for Portuguese ships now stood well
out into the Atlantic after leaving the Cape Yerde Islands to avoid
the south-east trade winds. In 1494 the concerned parties met at
Tordesillas in north-west Spain and agreed on a compromise: Al-
exander's line was moved a further 270 leagues to the west. This
treaty, which set the pattern of European 'armchair colonisation' for
centuries to come, proved remarkably effective as far as Atlantic ex-
ploration was concerned. But what would happen when Portuguese
and Spanish conquistadores, expanding their legitimate spheres of
influence, met at the backside of the world? With their imperfect
grasp of terrestrial measurement they could not accurately continue
the line of Tordesillas through eastern lands and seas. The result was
a free-for-all.
All that lay in the future in 1495 when John II died, to be suc-
ceeded by Manuel 'the Fortunate'. The new king completed John's
plans for a major expedition to the Indian Ocean and, in the summer
of 1497, Vasco da Gama sailed out of the Tagus with four prime ships.
He returned twenty-six months later with half his fleet and less than
a third of his crew but what a voyage he had accomplished! Soon all
Europe was excited by his discoveries - gold mines in East Africa,
'Christian' princes in India, markets brimming with gems and spices.
Manuel himself, writing to Rome, announced his intention of wrest-
ing control of the Orient trade from the Muslims and awarded him-
self a title appropriate to his grand design: 'Lord of Guinea and of the
conquest of the navigation and commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia
and India'.
2
Da Gama, Diaz and the other brave captains of their generation
were Magellan's boyhood heroes. He watched their ships entering
and leaving port, saw them received at court with all the pomp and
