da Gama, Vasco

da Gama, Vasco ( c. 1469 – 1524 )
Portuguese explorer. He led the first European expedition round the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 , sighting and naming Natal on Christmas Day before crossing the Indian Ocean and arriving in Calicut in 1498 . The Portuguese king Manuel I ( 1469 – 1521 ) chose him to lead a second expedition to Calicut in 1502 . Da Gama forced the raja of Calicut (who had massacred Portuguese settlers from an earlier expedition) to make peace, also establishing colonies on the coast of Mozambique.