Nigel Cliff - The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco da Gama

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THE LAST
CRUSADE

ALSO BY NIGEL CLIFF

The Shakespeare Riots:

Revenge, Drama, and Death in Nineteenth-Century America

First published in the United States of America in 2011
by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, New York.

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
Atlantic Books, an imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd.

Copyright Nigel Cliff, 2011

The moral right of Nigel Cliff to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Hardback ISBN: 978 1 84887 017 8
Trade paperback ISBN: 978 1 84887 018 5
EBook ISBN: 978 0 85789 774 9

Printed in [printer to insert details]

Atlantic Books
An imprint of Atlantic Books Ltd
Ormond House
2627 Boswell Street
London WC1N 3JZ
www.atlantic-books.co.uk

For Viviana

ILLUSTRATIONS

1. North Africa from the Catalan Atlas of 1375 by Abraham Cresques (Bibliothque nationale de France)

2. The world according to a Catalan map of c. 1450 (Biblioteca Estense, Modena)

3. Three representatives of the Monstrous Races, illustration by the Matre dEgerton from Marco Polos Livre des Merveilles, c. 141012 (Bibliothque nationale de France)

4. Henricus Martelluss world map of 1489 (The British Library)

5. The 1453 siege of Constantinople, illustration by Jean Le Tavernier from the Voyage dOutremer by Bertrandon de la Broquire, c. 1458 (Bibliothque nationale de France)

6. Henry the Navigator, from the mid-fifteenth-century Polytriptych of St. Vincent by Nuno Gonalves (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon)

7. Miniature of Manuel I, from the Leitura Nova of Alm-Douro, 1513 (Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon/Bridgeman Art Library)

8. Wedding portrait of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, c. 1469 (Convento MM. Agustinas, Madrigal de las Altas Torres, vila/Bridgeman Art Library)

9. Portrait of Vasco da Gama (Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa)

10. The So Gabriel, from the Memrias das Armadas of 1568 (Academia das Cincias, Lisbon/Bridgeman Art Library)

11. Sixteenth-century mural from the Veerabhadra Temple, Lepaskhi, Andhra Pradesh (SuperStock)

12. The Cantino Planisphere of 1502 (Biblioteca Estense, Modena)

13. The Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai, circle of Joachim Patinir, c. 1540 (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

14. Portrait of Vasco da Gama, c. 1524, school of Gregrio Lopes (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon)

15. Lisbon in 1572 from the Civitates Orbis Terrarum by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg (Heidelberg University Library)

16. The Portuguese in Goa, late sixteenth-century engraving by Johannes Baptista van Doetechum from the Itinerario of Jan Huygen van Linschoten (Bridgeman Art Library)

AUTHORS NOTE

T HIS STORY SPANS three continents and more centuries, and most of the people and places in it have been known by different names, at different times, and in different languages. Fittingly perhaps, Vasco da Gama has never been rechristened; I give his family name as Gama in the Portuguese manner, though some historians have preferred da Gama or Da Gama. In most casesnot least that of Gamas great rival, born Cristoforo Colombo, but called Cristvo or Cristbal Coln in his adopted Portugal and Spainchoices have had to be made. Where a well-established English name exists, it is given; where one does not, Western names are given according to prevailing usage in the language in question, while non-Western names are transcribed in their simplest and most recognizable form.

Other decisions have been made to remove thickets of qualifications from the readers path. Broad-brush terms for epochs or regionsthe Middle Ages, or the Eastare moving targets at best, but they are used, in context, as necessary signposts. Dates are rendered in the Western form, with reference to the Common Era. Quotations from non-English sources are variously given in translations old, recent, and brand-new, as period flavor or clarity dictates. Distances at sea are stated in the leagues used by the explorers; one Portuguese league is roughly equivalent to three modern miles. Finally, having whiled away many a day learning how to gammon the bowsprit, peek the mizzen, and cat the anchor, I have kept sailing terminology to a minimum. I hope specialists of all stripes will not be too offended.

PROLOGUE

T HE LIGHT WAS fading when the three strange ships appeared off the coast of India, but the fishermen on the shore could still make out their shapes. The two biggest were fat-bellied as whales, with bulging sides that swept up to support sturdy wooden towers in the bows and stern. The wooden hulls were weathered a streaky gray, and long iron guns poked over the sides, like the barbels on a monstrous catfish. Huge square sails billowed toward the darkening sky, each vaster than the last and each surmounted by a bonnet-shaped topsail that made the whole rig resemble a family of ghostly giants. There was something at once thrillingly modern and hulkingly primeval about these alien arrivals, but for sure nothing like them had been seen before.

The alarm was raised on the beach, and groups of men dragged four long, narrow boats into the water. As they rowed closer they could see that great crimson crosses were emblazoned on every stretch of canvas.

What nation are you from? the Indians leader shouted when they were under the side of the nearest ship.

We are from Portugal, one of the sailors called back.

Both spoke in Arabic, the language of international trade. The visitors, though, had the advantage over their hosts. The Indians had never heard of Portugal, a sliver of a country on the far western fringe of Europe. The Portuguese certainly knew about India, and to reach it they had embarked on the longest and most dangerous voyage known to history.

The year was 1498. Ten months earlier, the little fleet had set sail from Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, on a mission to change the world. The 170 men on board carried instructions to open a sea route from Europe to Asia, to unlock the age-old secrets of the spice trade, and to locate a long-lost Christian king who ruled over a magical Eastern realm. Behind that catalog of improbability lay a truly apocalyptic agenda: to link up with the Eastern Christians, deal a crushing blow to the power of Islam, and prepare the way for the conquest of Jerusalem, the holiest city in the world. Even that was not the ultimate endbut if they succeeded it would be the beginning of the end, the clarion call for the Second Coming and the Last Judgment that would surely follow.

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