The voyage of Vasco da Gama to India (1497-1499) was one of the seminal events of the Renaissance period. An anonymous Journal kept by a member of his fleet has long served as the main documentary source for accounts of this voyage. Strangely, there has only been one English translation of this important document, published more than a century ago. This book provides a new, updated English translation of the Journal with extensive editorial notes and appendices which encompass and reflect changes in the historiography over the last century on Vasco da Gama and his first voyage. In doing so, it examines initial Portuguese impressions when confronted by the cultures of Africa and India during this period.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Translated and Edited, with Notes, an Introduction and Appendices. Includes also letters of King Manuel and Girolamo Sernigi, 1499, and early seventeenth-century Portuguese accounts of da Gama's first voyage. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1898. Owing to technical constraints it has not been possible to reproduce the following maps which appeared in the first edition: 'Natal to Malinde', 'The West Coast of India', 'Africa, from the Cantino Chart', 'Africa and India, from Canerio's Chart', and 'The Indian Ocean, according to the "Mohit"'.