Death of Paul de Gama. the pumps, and they were so old that it was a wonder how they kept above water, and many of the crews were dead, and others sick, who died on reaching land. There also Paul de Gama died, for he came ailing ever since he passed the Cape; and off Guinea he took to his bed, and never again rose from it."[1]
The expedition reaches the Tagus 18th Sept, 1499. The death of Paul de Gama was a source of the greatest grief to his brother Vasco. His body was buried in the monastery of St. Francis with much honour, and amidst the lamentations of the crews, and the chief inhabitants of the island, who followed it to the grave. The crews having, chiefly by death, been reduced to fifty-five, and many of the men being in a weak state, the government officers of Terceira sent an extra supply of seamen on board, to navigate the ships to Lisbon, for which port the expedition sailed as soon as the vessels had received the necessary refit, reaching the Tagus on the 18th of September, 1499, after an absence of two years and eight months, on one of the most remarkable and interesting voyages on record.
But the news of the arrival of the fleet at Terceira had preceded its actual arrival at Lisbon, more than one adventurer having started thence while De Gama was detained, so as to secure the reward for bringing the first good tidings to the king, then at Cintra.
It spread, indeed, far and wide. Another road had been discovered to a country which, famed for its riches, had been the envy of the Western nations from the earliest historic period, as well as the dream of the youth of every age and land since the days of Solomon and Semiramis. Well might Lisbon be in a state of the greatest ecstasy when the tidings of
- ↑ Correa, pp. 264-5.
