That night, having obtained leave from the king, our men made them a great feast, with much diversion, also of squibs, firing of guns, and loud cries.  The fleet remained at anchor for two days without any message from the shore, on which account the general was much distressed, fearing the king had taken offence at his refusal to go on shore, and might break the peace and amity between them, and not send him any pilot.  But on Sunday the 21st of April, a person who was in high credit with the king, came off to visit the general, who was much disappointed when this person brought no pilot, and again began to entertain suspicions of the kings intentions.  When the king learnt this, and that the general remained merely for the purpose of having a pilot, he sent him one who was a Gentile, called Gosarate[43] in their language, and whose name was Canaca, sending an apology at the same time for not having sent this person sooner.  Thus the king and the general remained friends, and the peace continued which had been agreed between them.

“De Barros and Faria give this pilot the name of Malemo Cana, and say that he belonged to one of the Indian ships of Cambaya, then at Melinda.  De Barros adds, that he shewed De Gama a very small chart of the coast of India, laid down with meridians and parallels, but without rhumbs of the winds.  This pilot shewed no surprise on seeing the large wooden and metal astrolabes belonging to the Portuguese, as the pilots of the Red Sea had long used brass triangular instruments and quadrants for astronomical observations, and that he and others who sailed from Cambaya, and the ports of India, navigated by the north and south stars, and the constellations of the eastern and western hemispheres; and, though they did not use these instruments in navigation, they employed one made of three pieces of board, similar to the balhestillia, or cross-staff of the Portuguese.

“In a collection of papers published in 1790, called Documentos Arabicos, from the royal archives of Lisbon, chiefly consisting of letters between the kings of Portugal and the tributary princes of the east in the sixteenth century, the zeque, sheik, or king of Melinda, with whom De Gama afterwards made a treaty of alliance, and whose ambassador he carried into Portugal, was named Wagerage[44].”

Having thus procured a pilot, and provided all things necessary for the voyage, De Gama departed from Melinda for Calicut, on Friday the 26th of April 1498[45], and immediately made sail directly across the gulf which separates Africa from India, which is 750 leagues[46].  This golf runs a long way up into the land northwards; but our course for Calicut lay to the east[47].  In following this voyage, our men saw the north star next Sunday, which they had not seen of a long while; and they saw the stars about the south pole at the same time.  They gave thanks to God, that, whereas it had been represented to them, that in this season,