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Portuguese navigator Vasco DaGama, (1460-1524) and the greatest accomplishment of his life...

"On July 8, 1497, Vasco Da Gama left Lisbon on a voyage to India, the fabled land of spices and oriental treasures. Many believed his quest meant certain death. But after two years da Gama returned to Portugal, albeit with less than a third of his crew. The survivors completed one of history's most daring voyages - a 27,000-mile journey that propelled Portugal to the forefront of international commerce and power." --Into the Rising Sun : Vasco Da Gama and the Search for the Sea Route to the East by Luc Cuyvers. Read more

"Da Gama's achievement in reaching India puts him in the first rank of explorers of all time. The distance he had to cover, the difficulty of making his landfall North of the Cape after the long sweep out into the Atlantic, the problems posed by the fierce currents running against him off Mozambique and elsewhere--these hazards required a courage and skill of seamanship that were equal to those possessed by his remarkable contemporary, Christopher Columbus. Like Columbus, Da Gama helped give Europeans an entirely new concept of the world in which they lived." --Age of Exploration by John R. Hale and the Editors of Time-Life Books