The two biggest were fat-bellied as whales, with bulging sides that swept up to support sturdy wooden towers in the bows and stern. The light was fading when the three strange ships appeared off the coast of India, but the fishermen on the shore could still make out their shapes. The New York Times 'He possessed a visionary cast of mind bordering on derangement he saw himself spearheading a holy war to topple Islam, recover Jerusalem from “the infidels” and establish himself as the “King of Jerusalem.” ' Excerpt Nigel Cliff, author of Holy War: How Vasco da Gama's Epic Voyages Turned the Tide in a Centuries-Old Clash of Civilizations. This hour On Point: the epic voyages and long echoes of Vasco da Gama. The face-to-face meeting, again, with Islam. The ships, the voyages, the mystery, the confusing Hindus for Christians. A new history takes the pittance we learn in grade school and gives us the whole, amazing saga of Vasco da Gama. Da Gama found what they were looking for.Īround the tip of Africa, across the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea. 'A chegada de Vasco da Gama a Calicute em 1498,' by Alfredo Roque Gameiro (1864-1935).Ĭhristopher Columbus sailed west, looking for the Indies. The man who found the Indies when Columbus did not and brought Europe face-to-face again with Islam.
