A Long and Uncertain Journey: The 27 000 Mile Voyage of Vasco Da Gama (Great Explorers)

Five years after Columbus sailed off to find a sea route to the Orient the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama went on the same quest. His epic 27 000 mile journey around the bottom of Africa was filled with danger treachery sacrifice cruelty and acts of extraordinary courage. By the time da Gama returned half his ships were gone and two thirds of his crew were dead but he had found what Columbus had not. Da Gama brought back tales of East African and Asian marketplaces overflowing with riches of rulers who wore emeralds and rubies and pearls the size of grapes of ships and cannons that were no match for those of the Portuguese. Portugal would soon send more ships and more cannons. The rest of Europe would follow. And the world would never be the same. Joan Elizabeth Goodmans narrative captures both the drama of da Gamas voyage and its central place in world history. Tom McNeelys fluid watercolors give the reader a visceral sense of an unknown world unfolding before the explorers eyes.