Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c10.31.3

c10.31.3

Embarking doctors, artizans, bales of goods, and, strangely enough, “a supply of Spanish dancing girls,” the expedition “set sail for India.” Passing Gibraltar, they at first kept well out to sea; but the sailors grew frightened, and Eudoxus, against his better judgment, stood in shore. As he had feared, the large vessel ran aground, and had to be dismantled, a smaller boat being constructed out of her timbers. They went on and reached an Ethiopian tribe who, he thought, spoke a dialect similar to that which he had studied in East Africa. He was now compelled, owing to want of provisions, to return; but shortly afterwards he fitted out yet another expedition, and this time he intended to winter at one of the large, uninhabited and fertile islands he had observed on the way, probably the Canary Isles or Madeira¹, and sail on when the weather and wind permitted. For this purpose he took seeds and agricultural implements, so as to grow a fresh stock of provisions. Of the end of this brave mariner, who twice reached India and anticipated, in design at least, the projects of Vasco da Gama, we hear no more. From the silence which history observes with regard to his end, we may gather that he never reached home after rounding the Cape. The noteworthy thing about his career is the fact that he twice reached India and that he conceived the project of a voyage to that land by way of South Africa to be a feasible thing.