GAMA, VASCO da. - Portuguese navigator, born in 1469 at Sines in the Estremadura, from a noble family which had already produced valiant men of the sea and war. Very little is known of his life prior to 1495, the year in which he was designated by John II to complete the enterprise of Bartholomew Dias, who seven years earlier had discovered the southern extremity of Africa. But even after the death of the king, the expedition was delayed; it was only in 1496 that the successor of John, Emanuel, resumed the plan: five small ships, fitted out and provisioned by the house of the Serrigi, of which a branch resided in Lisbon, set sail from Belem on the estuary of the Tagus on 25 March 1497.
Dias accompanied the little fleet as far as Cape Verde. On 22 Nov. the southern extremity of Africa was rounded, the Cabo Tormentoso of Dias, Cape of Good Hope according to the auspicious name imposed upon it by the Portuguese sovereign; on Christmas Day the shore of the country now called Natal was reached, and then the expedition continued, via Delagoa and Mozambique, as far as Mombasa, where it was received with hostility by the inhabitants influenced by the class of Arab merchants. Better were the receptions received at Melinde, from which on 24 Apr. 1498, under the guidance of a skilled local pilot, the crossing of the Indian Ocean was begun which was to lead the ships to Calicut (18 May) in the dominions of the Zamorin (Samorino). The receptions, at first favourable, later turned hostile, again through the influence of the Arabs; nevertheless the expedition was able to make a good cargo of precious goods and, departing on 5 Oct., after a difficult crossing of the ocean, touched Melinde again, doubled the Cape of Good Hope only on 20 May 1499, deviated as far as the Azores and in mid-September returned to Lisbon. The expedition, although it had suffered heavy losses (even the brother of the leader, Paulo da G., had died during the return voyage, at Terceira in the Azores), had fully achieved its objectives and received a grand and well-deserved welcome. Appointed administrator of the Indies, V. da G. in 1502 received command of a new expedition, during which, after having carried out harsh reprisals against some Portuguese officials in India, he laid the foundations for the establishment of a first Portuguese factory. But on his return he took no further interest in colonial enterprises, retiring to Évora, until John III again had recourse to him to restore Portuguese influence in India, compromised after the death of Albuquerque: he set out in 1524 at the head of a powerful fleet with the title and powers of viceroy, but a few months after his arrival he died at Cochin at Christmas 1524. His enterprise, as is well known, inspired the poem *Os Lusíadas* of Camões; it is commemorated by a great votive temple erected at Belem.
V. da G. left no personal account of his expedition: the narrative of it is derived above all from Portuguese historians, such as Barros and Castanheda. There is also the account of a Florentine gentleman who witnessed the return to Lisbon; moreover the simple but faithful logbook (roteiro) of a sailor, and some other minor sources.