Portuguese Empire years for the Portuguese to follow up on Dias's voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, though it has also been speculated that other voyages were in fact taking place in secret during this time. Whether or not this was the case, the long-standing Portuguese goal of finding a sea route to Asia was finally achieved in 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
Portuguese India Armadas (1497–99) to the end of 1563. It is conserved at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City (ms. 525). Another codex of the same nature is the "Memória das Armadas que de Portugal passaram à Índia" ("Memory of the Armadas that from Portugal passed to India") or "Livro das Armadas", held by the Academia das Ciências in Lisbon. It covers the period from 1497 to 1567 (although missing the armada of 1517). The first Portuguese chronicler to attempt a systematic chronology of the India Armadas seems to have been Diogo do Couto, in his appendix to João de Barros's