* 1498 – Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to Portugal.

The city's status was further diminished after Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route around the Cape of Good Hope, thereby allowing spice traders to avoid Cairo.

* António da Costa de Albuquerque de Sousa Lara, 2nd Count de Guedes, Vasco de Bettencourt de Faria Machado e Sampaio and Marcelo Olavo Correia de Azevedo, Ascendências Reais de Sua Alteza Real a Senhora Dona Isabel de Herédia Duquesa de Bragança, I, pelos Costados Herédia, Bettencourt e Meneses da Ilha da Madeira " ( Universitária Editora, 1999 )

* 1497 – Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.

* 1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.

In exchange, the Portuguese received gold ( transported from mines of the Akan deposits ), pepper ( a trade which lasted until Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498 ) and ivory.

* 1497: Vasco da Gama departs to India starting direct trade with Asia.

In 1498, Vasco da Gama successfully discovered a new sea route from Europe to India, which paved the way for direct Indo-European commerce.

" In 1498, Vasco da Gama was the first sailor to travel from Portugal to India.

In 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and became the first European to sail to India and later the Far East.

From there, they sailed to Kozhikode ( Calicut ), where Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama would land two centuries later.

Later, starting in 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama made the first open voyage from Europe to India.

* 1499 – Portuguese explorer Nicolau Coelho returns to Lisbon, after discovering the sea route to India as a companion of Vasco da Gama.

* 1497 – Vasco da Gama sets sail on the first direct European voyage to India.

The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reached Mombasa in 1498.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the region of current-day Kenya, Vasco da Gama having visited Mombasa in 1498.

When Vasco da Gama, exploring for Portugal, reached the coast of Mozambique in 1498, Arab trading settlements had existed along the coast and outlying islands for several centuries, and political control of the coast was in the hands of a string of local sultans.

* 1498 – Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut, India.

* 1498 – Vasco da Gama's fleet visits the island of Mozambique Island.

* 1498 – Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama discovers the sea route to India when he arrives at Kozhikode ( previously known as Calicut ), India.

Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century following Vasco da Gama's voyages of exploration saw them battle the Ottomans up the coast of the Persian Gulf.

The control of trade routes and the spice-producing regions were the main reasons that Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed to India in 1499.

In 1498, by reaching India, Vasco da Gama proved that the access to the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic was possible.

The complete conquest of Ethiopia was averted by the timely arrival of a Portuguese expedition led by Cristóvão da Gama, son of the famed navigator Vasco da Gama.

Vasco da Gama, who passed by Mogadishu in the 15th century, noted that it was a large city with houses of four or five storeys high and big palaces in its centre and many mosques with cylindrical minarets.

In the 1497 expedition of Vasco de Gama, the curative effects of citrus fruit were known.

Jonathan Lamb wrote: " In 1499, Vasco da Gama lost 116 of his crew of 170 ; In 1520, Magellan lost 208 out of 230 ;... all mainly to scurvy.

He married Marguerite Jeanne Disqué, born c. 1880, and had a daughter Nelly Marguerite Jeanne Schulthess, born in Switzerland on 13 August 1903, who married as his first wife at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Bern on 30 November 1933 Portuguese Vasco Francisco Caetano de Castro Coutinho de Quevedo Pessanha, born in Lisbon, Coração de Jesus, on 3 July 1909 ), and had issue.

Additionally Clavell gave the Japanese wife of Vasco Rodrigues ( whose Japanese name was Nyan-nyan ) the baptismal name Gracia.

Vasco Navarro da Graça Moura, ( born 3 January 1942 in Foz do Douro, Porto ) is a Portuguese lawyer, writer, translator and politician, son of Francisco José da Graça Moura and wife Maria Teresa Amado da Cunha Seixas Navarro de Castro, of Northern Portugal bourgeoisie.

Born Julia Frances Langford in Lakeland, Florida, she was the daughter of Vasco Cleveland Langford and his wife, Anna Rhea Newbern.

Clavell appears to have named the character Vasco Rodriques to acknowledge João Rodrigues in a similar way as he gave Vasco Rodriques ' Japanese wife the name " Gracia " to honor Hosokawa Gracia ( Hosokawa was the real name of the character " Mariko " in the book ).

Around 1501, Vasco da Gama married Catarina de Ataíde, daughter of Álvaro de Ataíde, the alcaide-mór of Alvor ( Algarve ), and a prominent nobleman connected by kinship with the powerful Almeida family ( Catarina was a first cousin of D. Francisco de Almeida ).

Setting out in April 1524, with a fleet of fourteen ships, Vasco da Gama took as his flagship the famous large carrack Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai on her last journey to India, along with two of his sons, Estêvão and Paulo.

There are 17 FNAC stores in Portugal ( in order of opening ): Colombo ( Lisbon ), NorteShopping ( Oporto ), Chiado ( Lisbon ), CascaiShopping ( Cascais ), Santa Catarina ( Porto ), Almada ( Almada ), GaiaShopping ( Gaia ), AlgarveShopping ( Albufeira ), Forum Coimbra ( Coimbra ), MadeiraShopping ( Madeira ), Braga Parque ( Braga ), Alegro ( Alfragide ), Palacio do Gelo ( Viseu ), MarShopping-IKEA ( Matosinhos ), Vasco da Gama ( Lisbon ), GuimarãeShopping ( Guimarães ) and LeiriaShopping ( Leiria ).

Vasco Núñez de Balboa ( c. 1470 – 1519 ), Spanish explorer

* Vasco Núñez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador

Also during this time Almagro established a friendship with Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who during the time was in charge of Acla, with the intent of making a ship with the materials of the Espinosa expedition and later finish it in the " Great South Sea " as the Pacific Ocean first became known to the Spanish.

Founded by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa in 1510.

Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and named it Mar del Sur ( South Sea ).

The east side of the ocean was discovered by Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa in the early 16th century.

Vasco Nuñez de Balboa and Martin de Enciso agreed on the site near the mouth of the Tarena River on the Atlantic.

Vasco Nuñez de Balboa's 1513 expedition route to the South Sea-Pacific Ocean

Vasco Núñez de Balboa claiming possession of the Pacific Ocean | South Sea.

* 1513 – Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches what would become known as the Pacific Ocean.

* January 21 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer ( b. 1475 )

* September 25 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa, " silent upon a peak in Darién ", first sees what will become known as the Pacific Ocean.

** Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish conquistador ( approximate date ; d. 1519 )

Servicio Editorial de la Universidad del País Vasco ( UPV / EHU ). Bilbao.