Portuguese discoveries a ground-breaking voyage commanded by Vasco da Gama. The squadron of Vasco da Gama left Portugal in 1497, rounded the Cape and continued along the coast of East Africa, where a local pilot was brought on board who guided them across the Indian Ocean, reaching Calicut in western India in May 1498. The second voyage to India was dispatched in 1500 under Pedro Álvares Cabral. While following the same south-westerly route as Gama across the Atlantic Ocean, Cabral made landfall on the Brazilian coast. This was probably an accidental discovery, but it has been speculated that the Portuguese secretly knew
Journey to Portugal wrong from the start; it is downright solipsistic", and concluded that the book was better as a guide to Saramago rather than as a guide to Portugal. The book was also reviewed in "World Literature Today", "The Washington Post", "New Statesman", and "The Spectator". Journey to Portugal Journey to Portugal ("Viagem a Portugal" in Portuguese) is a non-fiction book on Portugal by Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago. It was first published in 1981 by Círculo de Leitores e Editorial Caminho. An English language translation was published in 2001. A review in "Publishers Weekly" praised the book, calling it a "monumental