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TIME-LIFE BOOKS, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: John L Papanek

Executive Editor Roberta Conlan

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Editorial Board: Russell B Adams, )r.,

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was also provided by: ElizabethBrown

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Michael Donath (Prague);Ann Wise

(published in Britain as

SERIESEDITOR:Tony Allan

Editorial Staff for Voyages of Discovery:

Designer:MaryStaples Writer: Christopher Farman

Researchers: Louise Tucker (principal),

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Wooldridge, |r.

Special Contributors: Iris Barry, |ohn

Cotlrell, Alan Lothian, lohnMan(text);

Sheila Corr, Timothy Eraser, Barbara Moir

Hicks, Linda Proud, Stephen Rogers search); Diane Kittower (copy); Roy Nanovic (index)

(re-CONSULTANTS

General:

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

GEORGEWINIUS,Lecturer at the Center

for the Study of the Expansion of Europe, Leiden State University, Netherlands

Italy:

PETERBURKE,Reader in Cultural History,

Cambridge, England

East in the Middle Ages The Hussite Wars:

University of Lancaster, Lancaster,

England General and India:

Mod-ern Indian History, St Catharine's

Col-lege, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England

The Americas:

WARWICKBRAY,Reader in Latin can Archaeology, Institute of Archaeol- ogy, University College, London

Ameri-Library of Congress Cataloging in

Publication Data Voyages of discovery: time Irame—AD1400-

1 500 / by the edilors of Time-Life Books

p cm.—(Time frame) Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-8094-6445-4.— ISBN 0-8094-6446-2 (hb bdg.)

1 Discoveries (in geography) 2 Geography— 15th 16th cent-

I Time-Life Books II Series.

C400.V69 1989

CIP

<=

1989 Time-Life Books Inc All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means,

including information storage and retrieval vices or systems, without prior written permis- sion irom the publisher, except that briet

de-passages may be quoted for reviews Third printing 1993 Printed in U.S.A Published simultaneously in Canada.

School and library distribution by Time-Life Education, P.O Box 85026, Richmond, Virginia

23285-5026.

TIME-LIFE IS a trademark ol Time Warner Inc.

U.S.A.

The Ocean Adventurers 8

U The Fall of Constantinople 74

5 The LastGreat Hindu Empire 122

6 Lost Empires of the Americas 140

Chronology 168

Picture Credits 170

Bibliography 171

fifteenth-century cargo ship runs before the wind The

workhors-es of Europe's Atlantic coastline, such boats contained

features—notably square-rigging to catch following

breezes—thatwerealready proving vital to Portuguese

"Said the mariners,thismuch isclear,that beyondthisCape,there isnorace ofmen

nor place of inhabitants, . while the currents are so terrible that no ship having

oncepassedtheCape,willeverbeabletoreturn." So wrotethe Portuguesehistorian

1430sapproached thesouthern limitsof theirworld— CapeBojador, a lonely, whipped knobofsand and rock on thewestern bulge ofAfrica in the territory now

wind-known asWestern Sahara Travelersfrom Europe had journeyed eastbefore,but not

tosome, unknowable.

East. Bravely settingout in the oppositedirection, they charted the outline ofmuch

unimagined vastness of the Pacific and completed the circuit of the world Thesea

Europeans In fifteenth-century Italy, theflowering ofart and learning known asthe

Renaissance began, setting man, rather than God, as the rightful focus of human

endeavor Elsewherein Europetherewere signsthattheold feudal order, supported

by theChurch,wascrumbling, threatened by men and women who in earliertimes

wouldhavemeekly acceptedtheirlot. Nowhere wasthe new mood morekeenlyfelt

tookon and, for a time, held offthecombined mightofthe Holy Roman Emperor'sarmies and a powerful papacy

Moreover,the Christiansofwestern Europeweredealtamajorblowinthefifteenth

oftheworldwhere Europe's newenergieswere not yetfelt: In India and theicas, great empires flourished in the calm before the storm that was to be whipped

Amer-up by the unforeseen eruption of the Europeans

Therewere manyreasonswhythe great discoverieswere European achievements

TheChineseandArabswere good navigators, insome respectsmore advanced thanthe Europeans, and they had wealth enough to finance lengthy voyages away from

In less than forty years—between T487 and 1522—explorers from Spain and Portugal, lured by dreams of

wealth and inspired by crusading zeal, revealed in outline six of the seven major continental landmasses.

Bartolomeu Dias's voyage around theCapeofGoodHope showedthat Africa did not extend clear to the South

Pole Vasco daCamabecamethe first European to reach India by sea Christopher Columbus, attempting to

reach the Orient by sailing westward, unwittingly discovered a wholenewworld.AndFerdinand Magellan

proved that North and South Americawerecontinents and revealed the vast extent of the Pacific.

Columbus's success impelled the rival exploring nations, Spain and Portugal, to divide the undiscovered

world By the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, Portugal agreed to restrict its claims to the east, and Spain to the

west, of a line370leagues (about 1,250 miles)beyondtheCapeVerde Islands.Nooneknewthen that South

America bulged east of the demarcation—a fact that later allowed Portugal to claim Brazil.Noother country

recognized the treaty, but thetwonations' naval supremacy enabledthemto enforce it for almost a century.

PacificOcean

PHILIPPINES

necessary mixture of motivation and technical ability to realize the voyages These

Europe in the early fifteenth century provided a good foundation for expansion.Commercially, ithad motivesforseekingnewtrade routes.Although itwasa largely

almost a century, from about 1250 on, several European explorers had trekked

overland throughcentralAsia,which wasthenunified under Mongol rule,searching

cut off In the Eastthe Mongol Empire, which had guaranteed the peace that made

such journeys possible, had collapsed By the end of the fifteenth century, at the

western limits of Asia, the Ottomans, who were fierce proponents of Islam, had

carved out anexpansionist and virulently anti-Christian nation from the ruinsofthe

ByzantineEmpire Theold channelsoftradethatpassedfrom AsiatotheMiddleEast

Muslim intermediaries

Although the Asia trade was quite small in comparison with the cargo-loads of

commerce, it had always been associated with bigprofits. Therewas much money

Europeans were meat eaters by preference, but supply was seasonal A shortage of

winterfoddermade it essential thatmany cattle be slaughtered in the autumn The

semimystical reverence

Although the range ofcommodities handled by the spice merchantswas huge one popular handbook listed 288 substances, including sugar, waxes, gums, cos-

intheMoluccas, partofpresent-dayIndonesia.Bythemiddleofthefifteenthcentury,

Europe had a growing population and thus an expanding market for most goods,

goods came to be carried by boat—by Chinese junks toMalaya, and then by Arab

oftheMediterranean Onlythendidthecommoditiesreach thehandsofEuropeans,

viamerchants fromGenoa and Venice, who had dominatedthetradefor500years

sixty-eight in Cairo and nearly double that in Venice —almost a fiftyfold increase.

theunknown Tothosefew interested inthe matter, theworld beyondthe BlackSea,

letalonebeyondtheSaharaoracross the Atlantichorizon,wasa mystery.Ithad been

accepted by scholars since classical times that the earth was spherical What it

Moreaccurate information, obtained byfirsthandobservation, wasavailable: The

verysuccess had spawnedapocryphal imitations, drawing on nothing more

which weretrue.A bookofpure fantasy, such as the popularand widelytranslated

evidence asMarco Polo'ssober narrative,despite Mandeville'sfar-fetched accounts

of headless peoples with eyes and mouths in their shoulders and men with ears

hangingdown to their knees

However, the writings ofthe greatArab traveler ibn-Battuta, who journeyed from

his home in Morocco via India to the Far East in the mid-fourteenth century, were

was a "green sea ofdarkness," an unnavigable, nightmarish world

enough to boil it.

Ptolemy, in the second century AD. His text, summarizing the

un-ndingofthe earth at the height of the Roman Empire,

also described a system of references based on a globe

ac-companiedthetext ItshowedthecontinentsofEurope,

became increasingly distorted the farther they got

fromtheMediterranean regionthat Ptolemy,aGreek

This intricate Portuguese astrolabe was a

fifteenth-century marine adaptation of an ancient device used for

measuring the angle of an object above the horizontal.

With it, a mariner could discover his north-south

On one side (left) wasamovablepointer. Whenthe

astrolabewas hungvertically from its ring, the

read off its elevation in degrees The mariner could then

refer to a set of tables—engraved on the reverse side

(below) in this case—that related the angle of elevation

to the date, time of day, and therefore the latitude.

thesame size in the Southern Hemisphere.

Despite its errors, Ptolemy's map was nonetheless a huge improvement on

wisdom and knowledge oftheclassical worldat atimewhen Europewas beginning

sawtherestoftheworldasaccessiblebut alsohadamodel againstwhichtheycouldcomparetheir discoveries

prac-tical results In many ways, thiscoastal stripoffewer than a million people, most of

enter-prise. But it hadsome advantages Itsposition onthe outeredge ofEurope hadgiven

Europe, Portugal's seafarers were safely removed from any direct threat from the

Italians, who dominated theeastern Mediterranean

The motives thatdrove thesailors and rulers ofthis hardscrabble little country to

unprecedented feats of discovery were mixed Certainly the desire for knowledge

played a part. Of more immediate importance was the search for wealth through

unquestioned dogma, kings and common sailors alike believed it tobe their sacred

tothe pagansof distant lands.When Vascoda Gamafirst arrived in India, oneofhis

crew members was askedwhy theEuropeans had journeyed sofar. "We come," he

The Portuguese broughtto their self-elected task ajauntyambitionthatwasideally

individu-alists who wereeagerto make their mark on theworld'sstage

The Portuguese epic The Lusiads, written in the

braggadocio that accompanied their feats:

"They were men of no ordinary stature,

every kind . achieving immortality

through their illustrious exploits."

Moreover, these were inhabitants

of a proud, self-assertive nation

indepen-dence Portugal traced its

Moors who then ruled most

PILLARS OF PORTUGUESE SUCIETY

white-robed Cistercian

Christianity that infused

Portuguese society and

sanctified the aggressive

Portugalfrom 1438to1481,wasalso

conti-nent by campaigning against the Muslim

rulersofMorocco.Hissuccesses,which

himthe nickname "the African." To give

Cathe-dral.Theworkofalocal artistnamed Nuno

homage before twin images of Saint

overseas expansion

Soldiers served as a

re-minder that Iberian kings

had wrested their lands

sance to the Christian

saint to recall their

influ-ence as bankers, artisans,

and physicians.

Although the nobleswere

traditionally volatile, these aristocrats venerating a

second image of Saint cent suggest a lough and

Vin-was notuntil 1249, however,thatthe lastMoors weredriven outand thenation was

—

unknown world beyond

The outward urgewas broughtintosharpfocus byone man: Prince Henry Henry

financedand inspired Portugal's explorersbetween 1419 and hisdeath in 1460 His

biographerZurara, notingthat"thenoblespiritofthisprince .wasever urginghim

both to begin and to carry out very great deeds," gave a number of reasons for his

Anotherwas adesireto determinethe exact extentofthe Muslim domains in Africa

lay beyondthem; if so, it mightbe possibletotradewith themorevento unitewith

Thiselement inthe prince's thinkingwas no doubt influenced byapopular legend

were hidden from other men," and he was keen tofulfill the dictates ofthe stars.

Despite the nickname of "the Navigator" that was conferred on him by later

hedidany such thing.He wasascetic: Henever marriedandalwaysworea hairshirt

beneath his princely clothing in order to chastise the flesh His portrait suggests a

his bitter hostility toward the Muslim powers, he showed a crusading zeal more

Whilestill a young man, Henry had acquired the power and opportunity togive

expression to hisambitions, in 1411, Portugal finally made peacewithCastile With

were still entrenched not only in the caliphate of Granada on the nation's

Portuguese kingset his sights on Ceuta, a rich port guarding the African sideofthe

strait, and gave to Henry, his third son, the task of organizing the building and

young prince gained firsthand experience of the practical business of organizing

Henry accompanied the fleet, and his valor in the ensuing action won him the

governorshipofthe Algarve, Portugal'ssouthernprovince In 1420,when hewasstill

menskilled inoceanic navigation.Atfirst,thesewereall in short supply.There was,

time been just a pilot, making his way along coastlines by the process known as

"capingand kenning"—steeringfrom cape to cape with the aid ofthe informationhislookout could "ken"fromthemasthead.To aid himin histask, he might seekthe

equipment thatdemanded considerableexpertise if itwasto provide accurate data

measurement was hardtoachieve onboard a pitchingship, even ifthe weatherwas

measure the angle: two degrees for a finger above the horizon, eight for a wrist,

comparing local time with the time at some known point, and that in turn requires

an accurateclock Nosuchreliablechronometerexistedinthefifteenthcentury.The

(The open-sea techniqueof allowing a knotted rope to be pulled overboard by the

which experiencewas all.

Mediterraneanand Atlanticcoastal needs, and each region had itsowntraditions In

theMediterranean, besides the lightweight wargalleys still powered by oarsmen as

hadbeen doneinthedaysofancientRome, twotypesof sailingboatwereused; huge

merchantmenofupto 1 ,100tonsandsmaller,two-orthree-mastedvessels ofaround

275 tonsthatwere equipped with oarsto helpmaneuver in andoutofharbors Both

were cumbersome. Square sails, loosely hauled as they were at the time, forced

support whenthe ships were beached for overhauling And with either side rudders

orungainly stern rudderscurved tofit theshapeofthe hull,the vesselswere slowto

respond to steering

whenlateen-rigged, the caravel—up to sixty-five feet long with a 130-ton

capacity—had its mast forward The only cabin spacewasin the

main-stern: Thebowwaskept clear to allow the heel of

mainmast amidships and

set a square sail on the foremast If necessary, the

mainmast could be reset

with a square sail as well.

from the flush planking of its carvel-built

hull, it used lateen sails but also included

straightsternpost anda stern rudder

firstPortugueseexplorerswhentheysailed

southward toAfricainthe 1440s As

im-mense spars, and the open decks offered

little protection to either crew or stores.

on easily

the ship little maneuverability

There was, however, athird tradition ofboatbuilding familiar, inconcept at least,

to European mariners For 300 years, the Arabs had used a totally different rig, a

sail'spositionchanged,shipscouldsail closetothewind, enablingthemtonegotiate

withouttheneedtowaitfor afavorable breeze.Though convenientforsmallvessels,

difficult; and the ships could not comeabouteasily, as modern yachts do, because

jobthat placed severe restraintson the sizeofvessels A lateen-rigged vessel ofany

size needed a crew offifteen just to handle the sails.

Portu-guese—hadfittedthe lateen rigto theAtlanticcogto produceversatilecombination

be-come the workhorses of Portuguese exploration The larger, more refined of them

un-mapped bays and estuaries Sometimes,too, the ships werererigged from one style

Though easierto handle than their predecessors, such shipswere justas

Althoughthe captain oftenhadtheprivilegeof aminutecabinsetatthestern,therest

ofthecrewofthirtyorfortymen hadto sleep orrelax wherevertheycould: on deck

in warmweather, below deckwith thecargo in rough and cold conditions Not that

they had much leisure forsleeping: Mostofthecrew's time wasspent pumpingout

ocean depth, and working the sails.

Sucha life,though harshand sometimesdangerous,wasnotparticularly

two months and usually still hugged the coasts, generally with several landings to

Encouraged by the knowledgethat his sailors voyaged in increasingly sophisticated

sendoutashipunderacaptainnamed Gil Eanes withorderstoproceedbeyond Cape

of the known world in that direction Apparently, Eanes's courage failed him: He

zones" and

monsters that supposedly lay ahead, readytoattack Prince Henry had no patience

that have possessed you all!" he said, and sent Eanesoffagain "Strain every nerve

to pass that cape!"

shallows that reach 20 miles out from Bojador's wind-whipped barrens, landedalmost 100miles beyond, and even gatheredafew plantstobringbackwith him In reality, it hadturned outtobe an easytrip.ThebarrierofCapeBojadorhad been less

worthwhile.In 1436,acaptainnamed AfonsoBaldaya landed near an inlet 125 miles

beyond Bojadorand found human footprints in the sand.The news excited Henry,

whoat oncedispatched Baldaya on a second expedition.On his return voyage, the

lives from a band of spear-wielding warriors Baldaya had better luck, however, in

which he killed and skinned His sealskins werethefirst commercial cargo to reach

load—adozenAfricans.ToHenry,the prisonersweremerelyasourceofinformation,

to be theeconomic backbone ofthe subsequent process of discovery In 1448, the

Portuguese established a fort on the island of Arguin, about 500 miles south of

Zurara describedtheensuingscene indetail "What heartcould beso hardasnot

the mothers claspedtheir other children in theirarms and threw themselves flaton

thegroundwith them, receivingblowswith little pity for theirownflesh, ifonlythey

mightnotbetornfrom them."Thetradein slaves,who wereused inparticularinthe

Inthe nextdecade,twoother explorers in Henry'sservice—aVenetian nobleman

named AlviseCadamosto and the native-born Diogo Comes — edged fartheraround

the bulge ofAfrica By thetime Henry died in 1460, the African coast was charted

the thunderstorms that grumbled like lions around the coastal heights)

With thedeath of its great patron, thetask offinancing and inspiring exploration

explore anadditional 400 miles ofcoastlineannuallyfortheensuingfive years.This

novel arrangementworked out wellforboth parties Gomes grew rich,and Portugal

acquired knowledgeof almost 2,000 more miles ofcoastline, taking its sailors right

aroundthebulgeofwesternAfrica.Theeastwardtrend of the coastfromSierra Leone

overthesuccessiontotheSpanishthrone,gavesternorders thatifanyofhiscaptains

withoutanyfurtherorderorcourseoflaw,all maybeandshall beforthwithcast into

Afonso himselfdied the followingyear, to be succeeded by his son John II, who

proved to be an enthusiastic patron of the voyages In the course of the 1480s,

meantime, a fort was built in what is now Ghana, to act as a supply base fortrade

still marketable)

The southwardturn ofthe coastbeyond the Bight ofBiafra haddisappointed those

seekingapathtoIndiaand resurrected olddoubts abouttheshapeofAfrica; perhapsPtolemy had been right after all, and it merged with some vast southern continent

Theonly waytosettlethequestion once andforall would betosend an expedition

would be more formidable than any of the voyages yet undertaken and would

demand greater feats of seamanship

As it happened,this taskwould be made easierbecause the meansfor improved

astronomer Abraham Zacuto, listing the sun's midday position above the Iberian

Peninsulaforeach dayofthe year,now madeit possibletoworkouta ship's latitude

he reached thelatitude of hisdestination, themariner hadonly toturn toward the coastand use existingtechniques

of dead reckoning to make a straight line for shore

En-couraged by the new development,John determined thatthe time had come to settle the issue of the southern

Theperson he choseto lead thequestwas Bartolomeu

an experiencedand reliablecaptain,fortheexpedition he

Twosixteenth-century ivory pieces from the powerful

WestAfricankingdomof Benin hint at the astonishment

of Africanswhen they first saw Portuguese bearded, light-skinned mensailing ships of a type ut- terlyunknown in Africa. On the left is a saltcellar

sailors-topped by a bearded mariner peering from a

crow's-nest.Onthe right is a mask, the braided hair formed

into a row of bearded heads Objects like this were

often carved for Portuguese merchants, eager to trade

their guns and other manufactured goods for slaves,

palm oil, ivory, and pepper.

As revealed by a glazed earthenware bowl from

Portu-gal (below) and the end of an oak bench from a chapel

in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England (right), the success of

exploration by sea in the late fourteenth and early

fif-teenth centuries captured the popular imagination in

countries across Europe Both images are of

high-decked carracks, or naos, as the Portuguese called

them Sturdier boats than caravels, naoswere better

suited to ocean voyages.

was

hewas provided with astoreshiptocounterthedifficultyoffindingfood andfuel on

the southern African coast When he set sail in August 1487, his mandate was unambiguous: to travel asfarbeyond previouslymapped regionsasnecessaryto findthe southernmost point of the African continent

It took Dias three months to reach the bay ofAngra das Aldeias, on thecoast of

left behind the storeship, guarded by nine ofits crew Then he set off past the last

Portuguese padrao, whichhad been planted by the explorerDiogo Caotheprevious

drove his boatssouthward When Diasfinallydecided tohead back in the direction

been, according to his calculations, there was none Dias turned north and duly

that he had rounded some sortof cape

Determined to check, he pressed on for more than a month, despite

promontory —possibly the one known today as

Kwaaihoek, near South Africa's Great Fish River

Taking time to establish that the current was a

north-east—sure evidence that he had rounded

sentiment as if he were leaving a

be-loved son in eternal exile."

hiscrew members spotted a "great

and noble cape" with granite

flat-topped mountain There he placeda

secondpadraotomark what he

missed the most southerly point,

Cape Agulhas, which lay more than

hisdiscovery the Capeof Good Hope.

Workinghisway back upthecoast, he

the men he had left to guard it had been killed

astonishedwithpleasureuponseeinghiscompanionsthathe diedshortly,beingvery

burned the shipbeforeheadingforhome Hearrived to a hero'swelcomeattheend

of 1488, having been away forsixteen months The way to India was open at last.

Genoesenavigator—thirty-sevenyears old intheyear of Dias'sreturn—withatheory

ofthe world and thedetermination necessary to put his ideas to thetest. Cristoforo

Colombo —the name was Latinized even in his lifetime to Columbus —had spent

ForColumbus,whilesharing thebelief thattherewerefortunestobemadebytrading

Paolo Toscanelli dal Pozzo, who had studied Ptolemy, and was familiar with his

westoftheCanaryIslands As ittranspired,thefigurewascompletelywrongforAsia,but by coincidence was almost exactly correct for the previously unknown and

who was by now too committed tothe exploration of the Africa route towelcome

Columbus's ideas,concurred; he dismissed the Genoese, whom he evaluated as "a

backer and royal approval for an expedition

theNina, thePinta, andthe Santa Maria— and approximatelyninetycrew members,

he headed fortheCanary Islands, where he restocked before setting sail again, this

reached Cuba and Hispaniola, where the Santa Maria ran aground and had to be

abandoned The two other vesselsthen steered back to the Old World, bearing the

momentous news of theirdiscoveries

Portugueseking,asunwelcomeasitwassensational IfColumbus wastobebelieved,

he had reached the very islands that the Portuguese had so long sought, but by a

on histriumphant way to Spain

ThePortuguesemonarchrealized thatFerdinandand Isabella,Columbus'spatrons

protege's discovery,andthatColumbus would be dispatchedagain.Therewere now

claimtothe very landsthatPortugal hadspent so much time andeffort in seekingto

Therewas at thetime in Europe onlyone supranational powerwith the authority

Spaniardwho had been electedonly the previousyear with the backingof Isabella

Itcame as little surprise,then,that heproposed givingSpain rights toall discoveries

The Portuguese were outraged Not only was the suggested grant a threat to

Portuguese controlofthe Indies, it also endangeredfurtherexploration: John's

theyneededtohead westinsearchoffavorablewinds and currents, intowhat would

be Spanish waters

John consequently opened discussions with Isabella and Ferdinand, spreadingrumors of his intention to challenge the linewith a great fleet if no agreement wasreached TheSpaniards proved receptive to hisclaims, and after a yearof negotia-

nascent empires almost 1,000 miles to the west At the time, the exact distance

chosen seemedof limited significance.Asithappened, however, it leftthestill-to-be

discovered coast of Brazil jutting into the Portuguese sphere of influence, and as a

Spanish continent

however,itserveditspurposewell, leavingeachnation free topursueitsowncourse

around the tip ofAfrica to India and beyond

of1494 wasperhapsfilled by journeysthat leftnoenduring record Oneexpedition

still underway,however,wastheextraordinaryvoyageofanexplorerandspynamed

Coviiha was dispatched by John some months before the startof Dias's enterprise

Coviiha accomplished hismission by posing asan Arab merchant,travelingwith

a caravanfrom CairotoAden atthe mouthofthe Red Sea,and thenonto the Indian

re-ONWITTING OlSCOVEREil OF A NEW WORLD

AGenoesebybirth,Colombo —hisname

aftera shipwreck Likemanyothersatthe

Failing to win support in Portugal,

Co-lumbus eventually turned tothe rulers of

sailedwestintotheunknown.Twomonths

later,he sighted an island, oneofthe

yearlater, itwasnamed —notafter

AmerigoVespucci

Although no contemporary

portraits of the burly,

red-headedColumbus vive, this sixteenth-century picture hints at the obses- sive determination that

sur-drovehimto complete his

quest in spite of repeated discouragements.

RFPTO

Part of the honors heaped

transatlantic voyage, his

coat of arms included

roy-al symbols—a castle and

lion for Isabella's realms

of Castile and Leon—

scattering of islands senting hisNewWorld

repre-discoveries, and anchors symbolizing his title: Ad-

miral of theOceanSea.

^fc^-€;

Twointricatewooden

stat-uettes of Ferdinand and

Isabella in prayer recall

the piety that infused their

collaborative efforts They

madeanoddcouple—she

sportsman and

womaniz-er—but their marriage in

1469 laid the foundations

of Spanish unity and overseas conquest.

^^r -r :^;

turned Cairo

doubtwearyfrom his many adventures,Coviiha cannot haverelished the news, but

Coviiha presumably sent back to Portugal a report from Cairo on his earlier

was dead, but hissuccessor, Manuel I, was happytocontinue sponsoringthe samework Accordingly, theexpedition heplanned was equipped moreambitiously than

Under Dias'sexperiencedeye, four shipswerefittedout One wasa small,

cargo ofthesortof knickknacksthathad proved popularas trade goods and gifts in

were something new: Sturdier than caravels, these square-rigged three-masters,

known as naos, were mounted with ten guns each The cannon afforded mute acknowledgment that thisjourney, unlike previous ones, might end in bloodshed

In Vasco da Gama, Manuel found exactly the man he needed Da Gama, who was

capable of cruelty (The story was told that he once extracted information from a

On July 8, 1497, priests led da Gama and his 170 men in solemn processionthrough thestreetsofLisbonandblessedtheirdeparture Da Gamatookhis little fleet

Canaries to his American landfall—but it paid off brilliantly. Knowing only the

itself (thirty-four degrees south), without charts or tables of winds and currents, da

Gama brought his crew back to the African shore less than 125 miles north of his target, theCape of Good Hope.

The next partof the journey could be taken in easier stages For five months, da

Gama probed around the tip of Africa, trading peacefully with the local Hottentot

tribes. He passed Dias's last padrao and sailed almost 1,000 miles more, past

un-dependentcity-states, each ruled by asultan protective of hisown power Here, the

Portuguese were viewed not just as potential enemies, but, to their surprise, as

by da Gama's cannon

enough to find afriendly sultanwho saw himas a possibleallyagainsthisrivals and

helped him toengage the services ofan experienced navigator named Ahmed

ibn-Majid for the next stage of the exploration—an eastward probe across the Indian

Ocean to India With ibn-Majid's guidance and good following winds, the mile journey took just over a month The fleet—the first European ships to reach

Da Gama's stay inCalicutwasnot a happyone His presencewasresentedbythe

Muslimmerchants inwhose handsthecommerceof the port lay,and hewasgreeted

goodsthe Portuguese had brought with them, and it waswith the greatest difficultythatheandhismen managedtogather afewpacketsofcloves,cinnamon, andjewels

Worse wastocome Thenavigator, ibn-Majid,disappeared duringthecrew'sstay

experienced for the first time all the horrors of longvoyages over open sea Rotting

food and excrementgathered inthe bilges toform astinking slush breedingrats, lice,and maggots.The crewsurvivedonfreshlycaughtfish,saltedpork heavilylacedwith

Deprivedoffresh fruitandvegetables, the men eventually fell preyto scurvy Gums

he was apparently very attached Nonetheless, the two surviving boats reached

KingManuel wasdelightedbyda Gama'sachievement.Hefetedthe survivorswith

churchand monasterynear themouthoftheTagusRiverto sanctifythelandthatwas

goods brought back from India in no way covered the cost of the enterprise, the

Da Gama's voyage marked awatershed in thestory oftheageof exploration The

balance of knowledge acquired by their navigators into the hard cash of empire.Spain rapidly managed to acquire, through the exploits of the conquistadors, pos-

intheworld; in theprocess itwoulddestroy the sophisticated edificebuiltup bythe

werebothspeedyandspectacularly successful LessthansixmonthsafterdaGama's

expedi-tion was a resounding success On the outbound sweep intothe Atlantic, the fleet

engaging in— and bloodilywinning —a tradewarwith the recalcitrantMuslim

Muslims againsthim,then moved ontotrade peacefully withtwoothermajorports

Cochin and Cannanore He returned to Lisbon in June 1501 with only seven ships

amply repaid the costs ofthe voyage

The combination oftrade and force was to bring rich rewards over the next few

exchange in the commercial center of Antwerp, in the Netherlands, from which to

titleofviceroytosupervise theexpansionofcommerceinthe IndianOcean Thefirst

1505, sacked Mombasa and captured the East African ports of Sofala and Kilwa,

commercial treatywith Malacca, and his son explored new territory for Portugal

Portuguesewere nowfree tofulfilltheambitionthathaddriventhemsinceHenrythe

Portuguese hands Itwasonlythefirstlink inachainofsitesthateventually includedHormuz,atthemouthofthe Persian Gulf;the islandsofCeylon andTernate, a center

of clove growing; and the ports of Diu and Goa in India and Macao in China By

1520, Portugal dominated the seas of southern Asia Muslim trade east of Adendeclineddrastically, asdid the fortunes of theVenetian merchantswho hadacted as

LordofGuinea andoftheConquest, Navigation,and Commerceof Ethiopia,Arabia,

One final achievement remained to complete the process of discovery set in

motion by Prince Henry 100 years before: thecircumnavigation ofthe world That,too, was the actof a Portuguese seaman, although he did not live tocomplete the

lands. Acentury beforethe Portuguese rived,aChinesecommander namedZheng

thelaterPortugueseefforts.

Zheng He was the chiefeunuch of

deposedpredecessor mightbepreparingan

Of Mongolian origin and a Muslim,Zheng He proved a brilliant admiral In

ships, bearing in all some 30,000 crewmembers,as faras Calicutin southern In-

This giraffe, portrayed in a

painting on silk,wasa gift

to the Chineseemperor

Yongle from the sultan of Mallndi, in present-day

Kenya Itwascollected on

from 1416 to 1419, and

received in person by the delighted emperor at the gate of his palace in Nan-

jing The beast, placed in

the imperial zoo,was

The vessels' cargo

includ-ed Ions of rice and other

staples for consumption by

the crew during the

voy-age They also carried

trade goods—silks,

porce-lain, barrels of peppers

—

to be exchanged or

of-fered as gifts in the ports

the fleet visited.

Zlieny He's Grand TiwopeSliiiis

ZhengHe's organizationalskillsmusthave

un-known oceans andcoasts andtransported

soldiers fordefenseand enough wealth to

mas-sive. The largest, like the one shown at

right, displaced more than 1,600tons;

al-largest ships built to that time Upto 500mencrewedfivemasts withsailsmaderig-

id by bamboostretchers, sothey could be

In such vessels, theChinese could have

ranged the world In fact, exploration

upon

Chinese boats ofZheng

He's day incorporated a structural feature un-

time: the use of bulkheads

to create watertight

com-partments belowdecks.

As a result, if any one

sec-tion of the hold sustained

damage, only the cargo in that particular areawas

spoiled; the rest remained

Their boatswere quently equipped with

conse-tubs for growing bles and herbs, and with

vegeta-pens for pigs thatwere

slaughtered and eaten in

voyage, and hewas sailingatthetime undertheflagofthe king of Spain FerdinandMagellan had done honorable service forthe Portuguese in the East Indies— where

he savedthe1509expeditiontoMalaccafromdisasterbygivingwarningofa surprise

Magellanset sail in 1519withfiveshipsandapproximately260 mentocrewthem

Magellan— who wascutdownbynativespearsduringaskirmish inthe Philippines

—

aboard theoneremaining boat provided insufficient profittopayoffin fulleven thesad remnants ofthe crew

Yet as a pioneering enterprise, Magellan's voyage was priceless Magellan

achievedwhat had been suggested byColumbus: theconnectingofwestern Europe

Theworld itselfstood revealed,even ifonly in thestarkestoutlines Much remained

tobemapped —Australia, NewZealand,andAntarctica,aswellasthe interiorsof the

newlyfound lands, werestill undiscovered—but aframework had been established

Portuguese notonlyendedthe isolation ofEurope; they also unwittinglyset iton thepathofworldwideexpansion.Theirvoyagesofdiscovery standatthe verybeginning

^

il

^ti

InthelateMiddleAges,mostmapsfellinto

navigational charts, reflecting the practical

newknowledgebroughtbackfromthe

encouragetheproductionof

knownas mappaemundi, Latin for "maps

aim ofthe mapmakers, however, was less

toconveygeographicalinformationthanto

formed by an ocean ring encircling the

formed bywaterways; theMediterranean,

CHARTING A WIDENING WORLD

layovera crossbar composed ofthe

andNile rivers.

sur-prisingly accurate, were known as

porto-lans,fromtheItalianwordforapilotbook

from which a seaman could identify his

that,asfaras possible, employedthe

prin-ciples of direct observation enshrined in

second-century-AD Greek scholar whose

works had been reintroduced to Europe

measure-mentslaterprovedtobewrong,hismethod

theGeographyincreased steadily

The mostcrucial contribution to people's

un-knowncoasts of AfricaandAmerica.Bythe

firsttime, a reasonably accurate imageof

^AM, ,7^. "1^1

LM'* 4