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João de Sá | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Occupations | Explorer, Scrivener |
João de Sá,knight (fl. 1497 – 1514) was aPortuguese explorer, who accompaniedVasco da Gama on the voyage of the first ships to sail directly from Europe toIndia.
Sá was ascrivener on the first Portuguese voyage to India, traveling on thecarrackSão Rafael which was captained by Vasco da Gama's older brother,Paulo da Gama. Sá was also a member of the group who accompanied Gama on his first trip intoCalicut on 20 May 1498.
On the return voyage theSão Rafael was scuttled off the East African coast, and the crew re-distributed to the remaining two ships, theSão Gabriel and theBerrio, as by this point there were not enough crewmen left standing to manage all three ships. This was due to the loss of almost half the crew during the voyage across the Indian Ocean, and toscurvy being rife amongst the survivors. João de Sá transferred to theSão Gabriel. Later on, after having sailed around Africa, Sá was given command of the ship because Vasco da Gama decided to remain atSantiago island with his brother Paulo, who had fallen seriously ill.[1] TheS. Gabriel under Sá arrived in Lisbon sometime in late July or early August. Although Paulo was later able to travel on with his brother towards Portugal, he died whilst en route and was buried at the monastery of São Francisco inAngra do Heroismo.
João de Sá is one of the purported authors of the anonymousJournal of Vasco Da Gama's trip of 1497 (the other beingÁlvaro Velho).[1] This work survives in a single manuscript copy preserved at the Biblioteca Pública Municipal of Porto and first published inPorto in 1838 byDiogo Kopke. In 1945, historianFranz Hümmerich identified the author of this manuscript with an Álvaro Velho who had spent eight years inGuinea and provided information about theGambia region toValentim Fernandes. However, more recent studies by Carmen Radulet have exposed weaknesses in this theory and attributed theJournal with more certainty to scrivener João de Sá.[1]
Like Vasco da Gama, João de Sá appears to have been closely associated with the Almeida family. It is believed that he spent some time atSafi (North Africa) after his return fromIndia, possibly at the same time as beingcriado to theBishop of Coimbra, D.Jorge de Almeida.
Between February 1511 and April 1514, de Sá, who was a trainedscrivener, was thetreasurer of spices in theCasa da Índia. He had also become a cavalier byroyal letter in January 1512.
Editions of theJournal: