Monument to the Cross of Vasco da Gama at the, South Africa The expedition set sail from Lisbon on 8 July 1497. It followed the route pioneered by earlier explorers along the coast of Africa via and the Islands. After reaching the coast of present-day, da Gama took a course south into the open ocean, crossing the and seeking the South Atlantic that had discovered in 1487. This course proved successful and on 4 November 1497, the expedition made landfall on the African coast. For over three months the ships had sailed more than 10,000 kilometres (6,000 mi) of open ocean, by far the longest journey out of sight of land made by that time.
By 16 December, the fleet had passed the (, South Africa) – where Dias had anchored – and sailed into waters previously unknown to Europeans. With Christmas pending, da Gama and his crew gave the coast they were passing the name, which carried the connotation of 'birth of Christ' in Portuguese. Mozambique Vasco da Gama spent 2 to 29 March 1498 in the vicinity of Mozambique Island.controlled territory on the East African coast was an integral part of the network of trade in the Indian Ocean. Fearing the local population would be hostile to Christians, da Gama impersonated a and gained audience with the Sultan of. With the paltry trade goods he had to offer, the explorer was unable to provide a suitable gift to the ruler. Soon the local populace became suspicious of da Gama and his men. Forced by a hostile crowd to flee Mozambique, da Gama departed the harbor, firing his cannons into the city in retaliation.
Dec 16, 2005 - Vasco da Gama was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the European Age of Discovery, and the first person to sail directly.
Mombasa In the vicinity of modern, the expedition resorted to, looting Arab merchant ships that were generally unarmed trading vessels without heavy cannons. The Portuguese became the first known Europeans to visit the port of from 7 to 13 April 1498, but were met with hostility and soon departed. Pillar of Vasco da Gama in, in modern-day, erected on the return journey Vasco da Gama continued north, arriving on 14 April 1498 at the friendlier port of, whose leaders were having a conflict with those of. There the expedition first noted evidence of Indian traders. Da Gama and his crew contracted the services of a pilot who used his knowledge of the winds to guide the expedition the rest of the way to, located on the southwest coast of India. Sources differ over the identity of the pilot, calling him variously a Christian, a Muslim, and a.
One traditional story describes the pilot as the famous Arab navigator, but other contemporaneous accounts place Majid elsewhere, and he could not have been near the vicinity at the time. None of the Portuguese historians of the time mentions Ibn Majid. Vasco da Gama left Malindi for India on 24 April 1498. Calicut, India.