In this same year[10] 1497, on the 20th day of June[11], King Emanuel sent a squadron of three ships for India, commanded by one Vasques de Gama, having under his command his brother Paulus de Gama and Nicolas Coello, as captains of the other two ships, the whole having a complement of 120 men.  They were accompanied by a fourth ship laden with provisions.  In fourteen days they reached the island of St Jago, one of the Cape Verds, whence they went along the coast beyond the Cape of Good Hope, erecting pillars of stone in proper places, as marks of discovery and possession, and came to Mosambique in lat. 15 deg.  S. After staying only a short time there, de Gama went to Mombaza and Melinda, the king of which last place gave him pilots, who conducted him to India, in which passage he discovered Los Baxos do Padua, or the Flats of Padua.  In the month of May 1498, de Gama came to anchor before the city of Calicut, and Panama[12], where they remained till the first day of September, when they sailed towards the north, discovering all the coast till they came to the island of Angediva, on the western side of India, in 15 deg.  N. where they came to an anchor in the beginning of October.  They remained here till February 1499, when they departed on their voyage homewards; coming first to Melinda, and so by Mosambique and along the coast to the Cape of Good Hope, and by the islands of Cape de Verd, and lastly to the city of Lisbon, in September of that year, having been absent on their voyage for twenty-six months.

On the 13th of November 1499, Vincent Yannez Pinzon, who had sailed with Columbus in his first voyage of discovery, and his nephew Aries Pinzon, departed from the port of Palos with four well appointed ships, fitted out at their own cost, having a license from the king of Spain to prosecute discoveries in the new world, but with express orders not to touch anywhere that had been visited by Columbus.  Going first to the islands of Cape de Verd, they passed the line and stood over towards the new world, which they fell in with at Cape St Augustine, in lat. 8 deg. 30’ S. where they carved on the barks of trees the date of their arrival, and the names of the king and queen of Spain.  They had several skirmishes with the inhabitants of Brazil, but got no advantage.  Following the coast westwards[13], they entered the river named Maria Tambal, by which time they had made above thirty prisoners.  The chief places where they touched were Cape St Augustine, Cape St Luke, Tierra de los Humos; the rivers of Marannon and of the Amazons, and the Rio Dolce, or Sweet river[14], and other places along the coast.  At last, being come to 10 deg.  N. they lost two of their ships with their crews, and returned home, after having employed ten months and fifteen days in their voyage.