agers wept; all were affected; the sight was general; Gama
himself shed manly tears on parting with his friends, but he hurried
over the tender scene, and hastened on board with all the alacrity of
hope. He set sail immediately, and so much affected were the thousands
who beheld his departure, that they remained immovable on the shore,
till the fleet, under full sail, vanished from their sight.

It was on the 8th of July when Gama left the Tagus. The flag ship was
commanded by himself, the second by his brother, the third by Coello,
and the store ship by Gonsalo Nunio. Several interpreters, skilled in
Arabic, and other oriental languages, went along with them. Ten
malefactors (men of abilities, whose sentences of death were reversed,
on condition of their obedience to Gama in whatever embassies or dangers
among the barbarians he might think proper to employ them), were also on
board. The fleet, favoured by the weather, passed the Canary and Cape de
Verde islands, but had now to encounter other fortune. Sometimes stopped
by dead calms, but for the most part tossed by tempests, which increased
in violence as they proceeded to the south. Thus driven far to sea they
laboured through that wide ocean which surrounds St. Helena, in seas,
says Faria, unknown to the Portuguese discoverers, none of whom had
sailed so far to the west. From the 28th of July, the day they passed
the isle of St. James, they had seen no shore, and now on November the
4th they were happily relieved by the sight of land. The fleet anchored
in the large bay,[54] and Coello was sent in search of a river where
they might take in wood and fresh water. Having found one, the fleet
made towards it, and Gama, whose orders were to acquaint himself with
the manners of the people wherever he touched, ordered a party of his
men to bring him some of the natives by force, or stratagem. One they
caught as he was gathering honey on the side of a mountain, and brought
him to the fleet. He expressed the greatest indifference about the gold
and fine clothes which they showed him, but was greatly delighted with
some glasses and little brass bells. These with great joy he accepted,
and was set on shore; and soon after many of the blacks came for, and
were gratified with, the like trifles; in return for which they gave
plenty of their best provisions. None of Gama's interpreters, however,
could understand a word of their language, or obtain any information of
India. The frien