5th Portuguese India Armada (Albuquerque, 1503) Cape Verde, the first squadron of Afonso de Albuquerque struck out into the south Atlantic, following the South Atlantic Gyre. Along the way, Albuquerque came across Ascension Island. Although the island had already been discovered back in 1501 by the Third Armada of João da Nova (and named "ilha da Conceição" then), Albuquerque renamed it "ilha da Ascensão" on account of it being Ascension Day (May 21), the name that has since stuck. Strong south-westerly winds pushed them towards the coast of Brazil, where Albuquerque made a brief stop to take on water (exactly where is uncertain), before making his
Afonso de Albuquerque Albuquerque" (1884) and the warship NRP "Afonso de Albuquerque", the latter belonging to a sloop class named Albuquerque. The fabled Spice Islands were on the imagination of Europe since ancient times. In the 2nd century AD, the Malay Peninsula was known by the Greek philosopher Ptolemy, who labeled it 'Aurea Chersonesus"; and who said that it was believed the fabled area held gold in abundance. Even Indian traders referred to the East Pacific region as "Land of Gold" and made regular visits to Malaya in search of the precious metal, tin and sweet scented jungle woods. But neither Ptolemy, nor