Vasco da Gama (71469-1524) is well known| as one of a generation of discoverers, along with Magellan, Cabral and Columbus. Yet| little is known about his life, or about the context within which he 'discovered' the all-sea route In India in 1497-99. This

Table of Contents:
Preface Note on Transliteration 1. Overture : Bones of Contention 2. The Heritage of Santiago 3. To Calicut and Back 4. The Attempt to Consolidate 5. The Wilderness Years 6. A Career Culminates 7. Finale : The Judgements of Posterity