honourable charge, saying at
the same time that he had an elder brother, named Paulo da Gama, whom he
requested the King to appoint as Captain-Major to carry the royal
standard. The King, pleased with his modesty, and satisfied that he was
a man especially fitted for the undertaking, granted him his request,
but desired that he himself should carry out all the arrangements for
the expedition.

Paulo, in consequence of a quarrel with the chief magistrate of Lisbon,
had been compelled to quit the city. He was summoned back, and a free
pardon granted him. The two brothers having selected a particular
friend, Nicholas Coelho, to command one of the ships, the three, without
loss of time, set to work to prepare them for the voyage. They were
named respectively the _Saint Miguel_, the _Saint Gabriel_, and _Saint
Raphael_. The crews were at once directed to learn the arts of
carpenters, rope-makers, caulkers, blacksmiths, and plank-makers,
receiving additional pay as an encouragement, while they were furnished
with all the tools necessary for their crafts. Da Gama also selected
the most experienced masters and pilots, who now, instead of being
guided by their charts, would have to depend upon their own sagacity,
their compasses, and lead-lines, for running down strange coasts and
entering hitherto unknown harbours. To save the officers and trained
seamen as much as possible from risking their lives, da Gama begged the
King to order six men who had been condemned to death to be put on board
each ship, that they might be sent ashore in dangerous regions, or left
in certain places, to acquire a knowledge of the language and habits of
the people. These cut-throat gentlemen were, as may be supposed,
afterwards a source of no small trouble and anxiety to the commanders of
the ships.

The preparations for the voyage being completed, the King and Queen,
with their Court and many of the nobles of the land, assembled in the
cathedral of Lisbon, to hear Mass, and bid farewell to the gallant
explorers. The three captains, richly dressed, advanced to the curtain
behind which the Royal Family had sat during the service, and dropping
on their knees, kissed their sovereign's hand, and expressed their
readiness to expend their lives in the important undertaking with which
he had entrusted them. They then, mounting their horses, and
accompanied by numerous nobles and gentlemen, as well as by a procession
of priests and monks, with ta