Vasco Da GamaVasco Da Gama was a Portuguese explorer who led the first expedition that had successfully sailed directly from Europe around The Cape of Good Hope to India. He was born in Sines,Portugal,1460. He tipped to the sea at an early age and worked on merchant ships in the king's service. On those ships he learnt about navigation and everything else he would need to know in order to command an expedition. On the 8th of July, 1497 Vasco Da Gama and his crew with four ships; Sao Gabriel, Sao Rafael, the Berrio and the fourth ship was unnamed, and used for storage. Then they set out to find a sea route to Asia. Instead of sailing close to the African coast he sailed out into the Atlantic to find favourable winds.
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On the 22nd of November he sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, then sailed into the India Ocean. On the 20th of May,1498 he arrived in Kozhikode on the southwest coast of India. He brought back gems and spices. He sailed two more times to India before he died from malaria in India on the 24th of December, 1524. Vasco Da Gama's trip was important because by going around Africa and finding a sea route to India he found a faster and cheaper way to get spices, because it is a really long way to travel by land from Europe to Asia over dangerous mountains and deserts and by the time the merchants came to Europe to sell the spice they were very expensive because of how hard they were to get. For Vasco Da Gama to find a sea route to India they were able to get spices for a much cheaper price.
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