Note 1 — Chapter I

As is well known, there is considerable variation in the dates assigned to different portions of Vasco de Gama’s voyages by different writers. It has been thought, on the whole, best on this occasion to follow those given by Gaspar Correa, whose narrative has been translated from the Portuguese and edited for the Hakluyt Society by the Hon. H. E. J. Stanley (now Lord Stanley of Alderley): Lond. 1869. Correa states that he went to India sixteen years after it was discovered, which would be therefore in 1514, and that he had access to the Journals of Joam Figueira, a priest who accompanied De Gama in his first voyage. Correa, when in India, was secretary to the governor, Alfonzo d’Albuquerque; and died at Goa, some time before 1583.