Winds in the Age of Sail He took the southeast trade winds directly northwest across the South Atlantic to the Cape Verde Islands, the Azores, and home. Not only did Da Gama find a sea route to India, he discovered the most efficient sailing route there and back. In 1500 Pedro Álvares Cabral sailed somewhat west of Da Gama's route and bumped onto the coast of Brazil. Portuguese and Dutch in the Indian Ocean: After a few more voyages the Portuguese learned two things: that there was little market for European goods in the east, and the large Portuguese ships could outfight nearly any local craft.
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