João da Nova
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João da Nova (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒuˈɐ̃w̃ dɐ ˈnɔvɐ]), Xoán de Novoa, Juan de Nova (born c. 1460 in Galicia - died 1509 in Kochi, India) was a Galician explorer of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the service of Portugal. He is credited as the discoverer of Ascension and Saint Helena islands. Juan de Nova Island, in the Mozambique Channel is named after him, and he his also thought to have named the Agalega island, in the Indian Ocean north of Mauritius.
[edit] Biography
João da Nova was born in the nobility of Maceda, Galicia, then in the Kingdom of Castile. Still a young boy, he was sent by his family to Portugal, in order to escape the struggles between aristocratic factions known as the Irmandiño wars. He soon adopted Portugal as his home country and his skills earned him the appointment by King Manuel I of Portugal as Alcaide menor (mayor) of Lisbon in 1496.
In 9 or 10 March 1501, João da Nova departed as commander of the third Portuguese expedition to India, leading a small four vessel fleet under a joint private initiative of Florentine Bartolomeo Marchionni[1] and Portuguese D. Álvaro de Portugal[2]. During this expedition, he is believed to be the first European to have seen Ascension Island (1501), but he did not report it. [3] . They established a trading post (Feitoria) in Cananor, leaving there a factor. Historical accounts state him also as the discoverer of Saint Helena island (1502) on 21 May 1502, on his return voyage from India to Portugal, that he named after Helena of Constantinople. [4][5][6][7]
In 5 March 1505 he undertook another voyage to India, as comander of the Frol de la mar in the fleet of the first Portuguese Viceroy of India Francisco de Almeida, having been granted by the king with a charter entitling him to be General-Capitain (Capitão-mor) of the Indian coast fleet if suitable. They conquered Mombaça, and arrived at Kochi in 1 November, where João da Nova faced bravely the fleet o the zamorin of Kozhikode. In conflict with D. Francisco de Almeida, who did not granted him the title of General-Capitain, instead favoring his own son Lourenço de Almeida, he departed to Portugal. This event seems to be the beginning of a series of misfortunes in João da Nova's life. His ship Frol de la mar had a leak in the hull at the Cape of Good Hope, and he got sick, having decided tho wait for the monsoon in the island since then named Juan de Nova Island. There, in 1506, he was met by his good friend Tristão da Cunha, commanding a fleet of 14 ships headed for the island of Socotra, who did everything to save them, having the ship repaired in Mozambique. João da Nova joined the fleet and followed back to India, never to return to Portugal again.
In this expedition he sailed under Afonso de Albuquerque, commander of a squadron of six ships, that subsequently detached under secret royal orders to attack the island of Ormuz (and bearing secret mission to supersede viceroy Almeida as the next governor of India). However João da Nova departed discontented that Albuquerque also did not granted his charter. Later Albuquerque had to arrest João da Nova after a conflict where he even striked him, because he intended to sail to India, contradicting Albuquerque's orders of going to Arabia to collect supplies in preparation for the conquest of Ormuz. Eventually João da Nova was pardoned, because he was needed and for the bravery he showed in the attack against Muscat, Oman. João da Nova was wounded in Hormuz, and his impulsive temperament showed several times.
In 1509, João da Nova died in Cochin, India.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Bartolomeo Marchionni, possibly the richest man in Lisbon then, was the chief merchant in sugar from Madeira island and had participated extensively in voyages to Guinea, Brazil, Madeira, and would finance several voyages to India "The voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India: from contemporary documents and narratives" p.146, Issue 81 of Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, William Brooks Greenlee, Asian Educational Services, 1995, ISBN 8120610407
- ^ Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama", p.182, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0521470728
- ^ When in 1503 Afonso of Albuquerque sighted the island on Ascension Day, he named it after that day.
- ^ Given this is the feast day used by the Greek Orthodox Church, it has been argued that the discovery was probably made on 18 August, the feast day used by the Roman Catholic Church. It has also been suggested that the island may not have been discovered until 30 July 1503 by a squadron under the command of Estêvão da Gama and that da Nova actually discovered Tristan da Cunha on the feast day of St Helena
- ^ A.H. Schulenburg, 'The discovery of St Helena: the search continues'. Wirebird: The Journal of the Friends of St Helena, Issue 24 (Spring 2002), pp.13–19.
- ^ Duarte Leite, História dos Descobrimentos, Vol. II (Lisbon: Edições Cosmos, 1960), 206.
- ^ de Montalbodo, Paesi Nuovamente Retovati & Nuovo Mondo da Alberico Vesputio Fiorentino Intitulato (Venice: 1507).
- de Albuquerque, Afonso; Walter de Gray Birch (1877). The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India.
