fore he actually sailed, it is probable that he had grown
to be not only a better geographer, but also a stronger, more
cool-headed, and reliable man. That he was able to command, those
mutineers who cavilled at his severity during the stormy passage of four
months from Lisbon to Table Bay, found out when they demanded that he
give up trying to reach India and return to Portugal as other captains
had done, at the behest of their crews. He made short work of them, and
in his whole career, so salutary was the lesson, no one under his
command ever again refused to obey his orders.

It was July 8, 1497, when he sailed from Lisbon, and it was not until
December 1st that he left Delagoa Bay, the farthest eastward point which
Diaz had reached, to pass over the actually unknown water that lay
between him and India. Even this could hardly be called "unknown water,"
for Corvilhan, who a dozen years before had made his way overland to
Aden, had sent back to Dom Joao II. this message:

"Anyone who will persist, is sure to sail around the southernmost point
of Africa, and can then easily make his way up the eastern shore and
across the gulf to India."

Literally were his words fulfilled. With favoring breezes, Gama reached
Malinda early in January, 1498, and securing the services of an Indian
pilot, who had not only sailed hither from Calicut, but seemed as
familiar as Gama himself with compass and astrolabe, he set out boldly
across the Indian Ocean, and in May arrived at Calicut. When we consider
that this latter part of the voyage was with a pilot accustomed to make
the trip in the far more fragile crafts of the Arabs, the boldness of
the undertaking does not seem so apparent to one of our day. Compared
with the voyages of Columbus, Magellan, Vespucius, or Cabral over
absolutely unknown seas, without pilots or charts of any kind, the
passage from Aden to India hardly seems remarkable. Yet upon this the
fame of Gama as an explorer rests, and as has been remarked, "few men
have won fame so easily." His real merit lay in the fact that he did
what so few of his predecessors were able to accomplish, controlled the
mutinous crews, who had after all been the most serious obstacle in the
path of Portugal to the coveted Indian possessions. It is probable that
if Prince Henry had encouraged his captains to exercise greater
severity, the darling object of his life might have been attained before
his death and the birth of the fortunate ex