Unknown Seas: The Portuguese Captains and the Passage to India

by Ronald Watkins

  One of the natural barriers of the subcontinent is a line that roughly follows the southern edge of the Rayalaseema region, which is the northern border of the Teluga language. It was here that the wave of Islam conquest was finally stayed, and here that a Hindu empire not only survived but flourished for 200 years. It was named after its capital, ambitiously called Vijayanagar, ‘The City of Victory’.169 During the decline of the Delhi sultanate the Vijayanagar empire arose as one of the strongest military states in all India.

  At the time of Vasco da Gama’s arrival the Vijayanagar empire was just entering its most powerful, albeit shortlived, period of supremacy. The empire was founded in the mid-fourteenth century and from the first created an elaborate mythology to establish a religious legitimacy for the new kingdom. An inscription establishes that Vijayanagar was actually founded by King Ballala III.170 This Hindu kingdom fought successfully against both Muslim sultanates and other Hindu kingdoms to establish itself as the first dominant power in all of southern India. Their most consistently powerful opponent was the Bahmanid kingdom to their immediate north. Many wars were waged with that sultanate for the rich land between the Krishna and Tunghabhadra rivers. Vijayanagar fell in the mid-sixteenth century, succumbing at last to the combined pressure of the northern sultanates and independent chieftains, but in its time it flourished from the spice trade.

  The capital city of Vijayanagar was located in a largely barren region yet was one of the largest and most magnificent cities in the world. Seven concentric rings of formidable walls, running some 60 miles, surrounded the inner city. Outside them, driven into the hard ground close together, were stone spears the height of a man, designed to break any cavalry charge, impale war elephants and obstruct massed infantry in their attempt to get to the first wall. Along the northern walls ran the broad and swift-flowing Tunghabhadra river. Within sight were numerous temples, while the city itself stretched into the far distance, a sea of tan masonry interspersed with bright pennants, stone watchtowers and gaudy pavilions.

  The land area within the walls was enormous. Cultivated fields, homes and lush gardens occupied the area between the first and third walls. Streams flowed in meticulously charted stone-lined channels. Here were the suburbs with markets and shops which grew increasingly numerous towards the centre. There the marketplace was lined with arcades. Hundreds of thousands of visitors streamed through the streets, to barter, to seek favour or opportunity. So rich was the empire, so opulent this capital, that silk was more commonly seen than cotton. The women, described universally as the most beautiful on Earth, wore their gold jewellery with ostentation, and both gems and jewels were sold in the open so effective was the security.171

  At the royal centre, conducting himself as a Persian ruler, the king, or raya, held court within the House of Victory, a vast hall supported by forty pillars. Here also were the palace and administrative buildings. The royal palace was constructed from exquisitely carved, gilded wood, interspersed with marble. The rooms within were adorned in mother-of-pearl and gold leaf. Surrounding the palace were many temples, flanked by impressive buildings. All around were statues of gods and goddesses and across from the House of Victory stood stunning pavilions, designed in such a way that each presented an entirely different view when the previous one became stale.

  In the mid-fifteenth century Abd al-Razzaq travelled from Ormuz to Calicut on a horse-trading expedition and there acted as the ambassador of the Timurid ruler. He was invited to journey to the Vijayanagar court by the ruler and recorded his first-hand observations. He noted that there was a substantial west Asian trading community in the capital city and this was only one of many such trading groups. The trade in war horses was jealously guarded by the rulers since the animals were essential to maintain military dominance.172

  An account of the military power and ostentatious wealth of Vijayanagar’s Bahmanid neighbour comes from one Athanasius Nikitan, a Russian merchant who spent some months there in 1470. What he recorded was mirrored in the Hindu Vijayanagar empire to the immediate south.

  The size of the Indian armies, Nikitan records, was enormous, especially by European standards. The great bulk of the troops, however, were marginally trained infantrymen. The key component was the cavalry, with their expensive, imported war horses. Nikitan estimated the size of the sultan’s army, both cavalry and infantry, at 1 million men, armed with both ‘long muskets’and ‘heavy guns’.

  The sultan was ‘a little man, twenty years old, and in the power of the Khorasani [i.e., Afghano-Persian] nobles’. He rode his horse during celebration sitting ‘on a golden saddle, wearing a habit embroidered with sapphires and on his pointed headdress a large diamond; he also carried a suit of gold armour inlaid with sapphires and three swords mounted in gold’.173

  Before the sultan marched a gigantic silk-clad elephant, clutching in its trunk a gold chain with which it swept away the masses to clear a path for the sovereign. The sultan’s brother followed, resting on a bed made of solid gold, covered in velvet, set with precious gems and held aloft by twenty men. Next was the chief minister and mentor to sultans, also reclining on a bed of gold pulled by four horses in gilded harness. About and behind the lords was a great mass of cavalry in full armour, accompanied by hundreds of young female dancers and singers, many of them nearly naked but all bearing a shield, sword, lance or bow. To the rear were 300 heavily armoured war elephants holding a ‘citadel’ containing six soldiers armed with guns. Attached to the massive tusks of the elephants were extended, enormous swords.174 There was no doubt in Nikitan’s mind that he was witnessing a sovereign who ranked above all others, ‘the Muhammadan sultan of India’.

  The Vijayanagar empire derived a substantial portion of its income from the taxing of trade, though control of the distant trading ports was tenuous. Although not especially large, Calicut, Vasco da Gama’s destination, was the most prosperous trading port in the empire, yet because of the difficult terrain of the Western Ghats separating them it was largely independent of direct control from the capital. It selected its own leader, the Zamorin, and with its highly skilled professional soldiers was too formidable an opponent to be totally subjugated. It took, for example, two strenuous months to journey from Vijayanagar to Calicut, a passage that would have exposed an invading army to countless opportunities for defeat.

  The Zamorin was the eighty-fourth of his line, and of middle or advanced age. He worked to achieve lasting control over a collection of petty chieftains whose domains extended throughout central and northern Kerala. Abd al-Razzaq observed that the Zamorin was unimpressive in appearance and wore very little because of the oppressive heat. He was tolerant, even solicitous, of the Arabs who controlled most trade in his port. The Zamorin was very much concerned with matters of trade and security was intense. In fact, much of the ruler’s reputation was based on the level of security he provided to traders.

  In that city [Calicut] security and justice are such that wealthy merchants who sail the seas bring many goods there from Daryabar. They unload them from the ships and store them in lanes and the bazaar as long as they wish without having to worry about guarding them. The diwan watchmen keep guard and patrol them day and night. If they make a sale, one fortieth is taken in alms; otherwise no duties are imposed on them. It is the custom of other ports to seize as windfall and plunder any ship headed for one port but driven by God’s destiny to take refuge in another. However, in Calicut, no matter where a ship is from and where it is headed, if it docks there, they treat it like any other ship and subject it to no more or no less duty.175

  There is a story told of the integrity of the Zamorin in Calicut. A Chetti merchant from Coromandel returning to the Red Sea following a trading expedition found his ship overloaded with gold. He deposited a large treasure chest in the stone cellar of the Zamorin and departed, the story goes, with little optimism. When he returned he found the entire treasure awaiting him. In gratitude he offered the Zamorin half, which was refused, the ruler observing that he h
ad done nothing more than was expected of him. The merchant went on to found the bazaar in Calicut.176

  The Portuguese, and the Europeans who followed in time, were more developed in technology, in the construc-tion and use of ships, in their realization of the significance of sea lanes and especially in the building and use of cannon than were either the Muslims or Hindus. The lack of unity hurt India enormously when it came to resisting the encroachment of the Portuguese, for disunity was something the Europeans understood and knew how to exploit. They also profited from the conviction shared by nearly all rulers in India, articulated by Bahadur Shah, King of Gujarat, that ‘wars by sea are merchants’affairs, and of no concern to the prestige of kings’.177

  As the Portuguese were to discover to their great delight, no kingdom that used the Indian Ocean possessed a single ship of war. The merchant vessels were lightly armed, if at all, and of much more fragile construction than the Portuguese ships.

  Such was the world Vasco da Gama and his crew were about to enter. India was a self-contained universe, confident in its military dominance, arrogant in its cultural supremacy, essentially unaware of and utterly unconcerned with any nation beyond its shores.

  13

  ‘You will have to conquer’

  As Vasco de Gama and the navigators completed their readings on the coast of southern Africa the seamen were busy cleaning and refilling water kegs. Other crewmen explored the immediate area while a few wandered atop the nearby sand dunes to view the interior. They spotted two Bushmen busy with a small torch smoking bees from a hive so they could harvest the honey. When informed, Vasco ordered the pair to be surrounded and captured peacefully in the hope he could learn something of this region.

  Unlike the slaves the Portuguese had been taking for a generation, these Bushmen were short and tawny-coloured. They wore the skins of animals rather than woven cloth and covered their penis with a ‘war sheath’. They carried olive wood spears, tipped by a brown horn strengthened in fire. They were accompanied by a pack of dogs which to the Europeans looked much like those in Portugal, with the same reassuring bark. The Bushman diet consisted of seal and whale meat, gazelles and roots. This pair, it transpired, was preoccupied and caught by surprise, although one managed to struggle loose and flee.178

  As for the other, none of the interpreters could communicate with the terrified man. Seeing this would get him nowhere, Vasco had a cabin boy and black sailor take him aboard the São Gabriel, where he was seated at the captain’s place, fed the best food available and reportedly ate with gusto. The experience calmed him and the three managed to communicate a bit by sign language. Vasco gave instructions for the Bushman to be dressed from the slop chest, given small bells and glass beads, and then had him sent alone to his village with a request to bring others of his tribe back the next day.

  That morning some fifteen of the Bushmen appeared and readily accepted the offered trinkets. But when shown a selection of spices, pearls, gold and silver, they demonstrated complete ignorance. Two days later, just after the Portuguese had taken their meal, between forty and fifty locals appeared, and again relations were friendly. The sailors bartered for souvenirs, as seamen of all ages are inclined to do. A single copper coin secured ornaments worn in the ears and fox tails attached to a handle, which were used as fans.

  Contact between Europeans and distant people was always fragile and likely to turn suddenly from peace to violence. To reassure the Bushmen that the Portuguese had come in peace Vasco instructed his men to carry no weapons of any kind. One of the men-at-arms, Fernão Velloso, a loud and boastful sort, announced that he would like to return with this group to their nearby village to see how they lived. Vasco hesitated, knowing how tenuous all this goodwill was, but when his older brother Paulo urged him to allow it, he let the man go. Velloso set off in high spirits, the entire group laughing and chattering as Vasco returned to his ship.

  Nicolau Coelho was ashore with men, gathering wood and collecting lobsters, which were in abundance. The Bushmen with Velloso soon spotted a seal, which they killed and decided to cook on the spot. Perhaps they were having second thoughts about letting this stranger know the location of their village, because when the meal was finished the Bushmen told Velloso he should return to his ship and go with them no further.

  While this was transpiring out of sight, Paulo decided to hunt one of the small whales that came in close to shore and set out in a small boat (batel) with two of his crew. He had the ropes of his harpoons tied to the boat’s bow so that when one of his men speared a whale it dragged the boat after it as it swam quickly for the open ocean. The Portuguese were caught by surprise and had neither an axe nor a knife with which to cut the line. The men precariously clung to the boat, which was in danger of capsizing at any instant. As they reached the sea the whale suddenly veered back towards the shore, where it went to the shallow bottom and lay still. Taking advantage of this interlude, the men were able to untie the rope and immediately rowed to their ship. The scene had been good sport to the seamen on board the ships who had witnessed it, although more than one thought it a foolish way for men to drown.

  Vasco, unaware the Bushmen had stopped to cook a seal, was by now quite concerned about Velloso and began pacing the deck of his ship, casting frequent looks in the direction the group had taken. Suddenly there was Velloso, running for all he was worth, shouting and gesturing for help. Coelho was in the water by this time, returning to his ship, when Vasco called out for him to hurry ashore and retrieve Velloso. Coelho’s men were well acquainted with their shipmate and thought this was just one more of his pranks and so they rowed their boats slowly.

  The situation on shore was deteriorating by the moment. Two Bushmen raced from an angle to head Velloso off while others appeared behind him in hot pursuit, armed with bows, arrows and stones. Coelho’s boats suddenly leaped forward in the water. The two Bushmen tried to seize Velloso, who fought them off with his fists even as he scrambled aboard one of the boats.

  The boats moved out of immediate danger while Coelho tried to determine what had happened and restore peace. The instructions to all the crew had been very specific about maintaining friendly relations with the people they contacted, if at all possible. The situation, however, continued to deteriorate and as the natives gathered in force Vasco climbed into a longboat and joined the scene. Just as he arrived stones and arrows were unleashed at the Portuguese, three of whom were lightly wounded. When Vasco stood in his boat and attempted to restore calm, they turned on him and he took an arrow in the leg.179

  Vasco ordered all boats back to their respective ships. On shore the Bushmen continued shouting and gesturing with hostility towards the Portuguese. The lesson learned over the long years of the discoveries was that such an assault must be greeted in kind. Other Portuguese were likely to find themselves in this very bay –indeed Vasco himself might have to put in here on his return voyage –so the situation could not be left as it was. If the locals weren’t to have friendly relations with them, then they should know fear. Vasco ordered a team of crossbowmen to row ashore with a full complement of arrows and instructions to retaliate against the Bushmen.180

  There is no record of the source of the dispute with Velloso, nor is it known how many, if any, Bushmen were killed or wounded by the armed force. The injuries to the Portuguese were apparently not serious, but had the arrows been poisonous Vasco da Gama would be a footnote in history.

  The Portuguese took an important lesson from this experience. The author of the Roteiro records that ‘all this happened because we looked upon these people as men of little spirit, quite incapable of violence, and had therefore landed without first arming ourselves’.181 They were not to repeat what they saw as a mistake.

  After eight days in St Helena Bay, Vasco ordered his small fleet to set sail. Two days later, with jubilation, they spotted the Cape but when they attempted to round it they encountered a strong wind blowing from south southeast and were unable to make headway. Time and agai
n Vasco ordered the ships to turn into the gale, only for them to be forced back and compelled briefly to seek shelter against the coast. Even the largest of his vessels was too small to face the formidable winds, currents and heavy seas of this region where the Indian Ocean and the south Atlantic tempestuously meet.

  The weather deteriorated and the crew suffered terribly in the attempts. The ships were struck by such powerful waves there were fears they would break up. Battered by the winds, with massive waves crashing across the decks, the seamen, frightened, unable to cook meals, cold and wet, began to grumble among themselves. The repeated attempts were so perilous that the crew begged Vasco to break off his efforts. At one point a group crowded about the Captain-Major and implored him to turn about. They said he was responsible for them and had no right to force them into such a terrible death as the one they were certain to now face. Vasco mounted a stand and shouted that ‘double the Cape he would, even if it meant trying again and again’.182 He ordered the men back to their places and renewed the assault against the heavy seas and fierce winds.

  Finally, at noon on 22 November, the ships turned the tip of Africa. Trumpets were sounded and the crew broke into a spontaneous dance of joy. Now hugging the coastline, the ships made their way slowly east. Three days beyond the large curvature of the coast, running low on water, they sailed into Mossel Bay and dropped anchor.