The first people the Portuguese met in India were two Tunisians

A recently unearthed journal paints Vasco da Gama as a peevish, paranoid trader who failed to impress the Zamorin of Calicut. The hero of the first Portugese contact on Indian shores is a degradado, or Portugese convict and exile, not Vasco da Gama. One of the greatest navigators from the Age of Discoveries, da Gama, appointed by Dom Manuel, King of Portugal, for his “energy and high spirits” refused to take the initiative to go ashore on the morning of May 21, 1498.

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