1488-1498: Portuguese secret fleets?

Hi y'all

I'm doing some light research on Portuguese expansion at the moment and found something interesting.

There was no official records of any expedition between the one in 1488, led by Bartolomé Dias which passed the Cape of Good Hope and the one in 1498, led by Vasco de Gama which went all the way to Calicut.

There is a theory that between the two were a number of secret expedition sent to map out the road before de Gama. The theory rests on several points:

  • Bartolomé Dias went about hugging the coast all the way to SA while de Gama went in a wide route, almost touching Brasil
  • It's strange ten years passed between after such a major breakthrough
  • de Gama has very little prior official experience and would not be the best fit for such a massive expedition
  • There were big orders from the King for sea worthy food that are not linked to any official expedition
  • At Tordesillas, the Portuguese pushed for having the frontier further away from Europe, conveniently encompassing the wide route
  • There are records of Arabs sighting a European shipwreck on the East coast of Africa (Sofala I think) in 1496

Meanwhile, Sanjay Subrahamian just dismisses the hypothesis out of hand, saying the ten years wait was just the Portuguese court being divided about the whole far east issue and was stunned by Colombus' success, which seems a bit light.


Any thoughts on this?
 
Well, the first major Portuguese expedition to Asia was done, in fact, by land. This is how the Portuguese learned the major actors in the Indian Ocean -- and how to reach that market. The correspondence and trade espionage of Pero da Covilha set the stage for Portugal's naval expeditions.

I've never heard of this theory (in fact, I thought the title referred to Corte-Real and the Newfoundland thing), but it seems pretty plausible to me -- especially if the Arabs have records of seeing a shipwreck off Sofala in 1496.
 
Well, the first major Portuguese expedition to Asia was done, in fact, by land. This is how the Portuguese learned the major actors in the Indian Ocean -- and how to reach that market. The correspondence and trade espionage of Pero da Covilha set the stage for Portugal's naval expeditions.

I've never heard of this theory (in fact, I thought the title referred to Corte-Real and the Newfoundland thing), but it seems pretty plausible to me -- especially if the Arabs have records of seeing a shipwreck off Sofala in 1496.
Oh yeah, I am aware of Covilha, what an adventure!
If by any chance you have extensive sources on that expedition I'd love to have them but it seems like a relatively obscure episode :)

The sighting is by a merchant who wrote in 1500 that he saw a Firangi (Franks so European) ship being shipwrecked off the coast of Sofala in 1496, so two years before Vasco de Gama. Since he wrote in 1500 I'm not 100% sure he's reliable (since he wrote after de Gama's expedition) but the other arguments are pretty irrefutable
 
i don't have any sources on Covilha as of yet, sadly. When it comes to researching obscure Portuguese land explorers, I'm trying to find stuff on Aleixo Garcia first...
 
i don't have any sources on Covilha as of yet, sadly. When it comes to researching obscure Portuguese land explorers, I'm trying to find stuff on Aleixo Garcia first...
South America isn't really my area but if I see anything I'll let you know! Try to dig up stuff from Sanjay Subrahmanyam, he wrote extensively about the Portuguese Empire. You might find good sources in there?
 
Yeah, I downloaded one of Subrahmanyan's books recently -- good stuff on the Early Modern Indian Ocean.
 
Yeah, I downloaded one of Subrahmanyan's books recently -- good stuff on the Early Modern Indian Ocean.
I'm not the biggest fan of his style to be honest. I find him a bit pedant at times and his style is heavy on pure analysis where a bit more narrative could be useful. It works when you already have the narrative in mind but otherwise it's tough to follow.

On analysis, I found the three volumes of Civilization and Capitalism by Braudel for 15£ at Oxfam and it's a breeze to read. The guy makes a compelling narrative and a solid, very convincing analysis of the temps long and of global networks. For this time period, I very highly recommend it
 
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