The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama led an expedition at the end of the 15th century that opened the sea route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope. He was born about 1460 at Sines, in southwest Portugal, where his father commanded the fortress. Entering the service of the Portuguese King John II, he helped to seize French ships in Portuguese ports in 1492. He was a gentleman at court when chosen to lead the expedition to India.

Many years of Portuguese exploration down the West African coast had been rewarded when Bartolomeu DIAS rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488. The Portuguese then planned to send a fleet to India for spices and to outflank the Muslims in Africa. Vasco da Gama was placed in command of the expedition and carried letters to the legendary PRESTER JOHN and to the ruler of Calicut, on India's Malabar coast.

Four ships left Lisbon on July 8, 1497 - the Sao Gabriel, on which da Gama sailed, the Sao Rafael, the Berrio, and a storeship. They stopped in the Cape Verde Islands; from there they did not follow the coast, as earlier expeditions had, but stood well out to sea. They reached the Cape of Good Hope region on November 7.

The cape was rounded on November 22. The expedition stopped on the East African coast, broke up the storeship, and reached Mozambique on Mar. 2, 1498. There they were assumed to be Muslims, and the sultan of Mozambique supplied them with pilots, who guided them on their journey northward. They stopped in Mombasa and Malindi before sailing to the east. They crossed the Indian Ocean in 23 days, aided by the Indian pilot Ibn Majid, and reached Calicut on May 20, 1498. The local ruler, the Zamorin, welcomed the Portuguese, who at first thought that the Indians, actually Hindus, were Christians.

Unfortunately, the trade goods and presents provided by the Portuguese king were suitable for Africa, not India, and the Arabs who dominated trade in the Indian Ocean region viewed the Portuguese as rivals. As a result, da Gama was unable to conclude a treaty or commercial agreement in Calicut. After one further stop on the Indian coast, the Portuguese set out to return with a load of spices. They took three months to recross the Indian Ocean, however, and so many men died of scurvy that the Sao Rafael was burned for lack of a crew. The expedition made a few stops in East Africa before rounding the Cape of Good Hope on Mar. 20, 1499. The ships were separated off West Africa in a storm and reached Portugal at different times. Da Gama stopped in the Azores and finally reached Lisbon on Sept. 9, 1499.

Da Gama's success led to the dispatch of another Portuguese fleet, commanded by Pedro Alvares CABRAL. Some of the men Cabral left in India were massacred, so King Manuel ordered da Gama to India again. He was given the title of admiral and left Portugal in February 1502 with 20 ships. The Portuguese used their naval power on both the East African and Indian sides of the Indian Ocean to force alliances and establish their supremacy. Da Gama's mission was a success, and the fleet returned to Lisbon in October 1503.

Da Gama then settled in Portugal, married, and raised a family. He may have served as an advisor to the Portuguese crown and was made a count in 1519. King John III sent him to India in 1524 as viceroy, but he soon became ill and died in Cochin on Dec. 24, 1524. Vasco da Gama's first voyage to India linked that area to Portugal and opened the region to sea trade with Europe. On that foundation the Portuguese soon built a great seaborne commercial empire, with colonies in India and the Spice Islands.