Page "Vasco da Gama" Paragraph 44

Vasco da Gama invoked his royal letter to take command of the 4th India Armada, secheduled to set out in 1502, with the explicit aim of taking revenge upon the Zamorin and force him to submit to Portuguese terms.

The heavily armed fleet of fifteen ships and eight hundred men left Lisbon on 12 February 1502.

One of the squadrons was led by his cousin, Estêvão da Gama ( the son of Aires da Gama ), and two of his maternal uncles, Vicente Sodré and Brás Sodré, were pre-designated to command an Indian Ocean naval patrol.