Explorer's journey in the 1500s

Planning for the voyage

Dec 6, 1509

Soon we will be leaving from France to travel to the coastal areas of India. Our crew members have been packing all the necessities for our travels, loaded with salted beef, dried legumes and a fermented fish sauce called garum. The choice of have many different meats and dairy products was low because they could spoil easily. The parts of India we will be navigating to are the ports of Goa,

First day into sea

Jan 3, 1510

It's the first day of traveling by ship so far. There hasn't been many problems lately so I think we'll do good for the first couple of weeks. Although this is true, our captain warned us that life of a caravel will become harder as time passes. For now, all our supplies for food and everything are with us and nobody has died yet.

First stop: Bombay port

Feb 16, 1510

Our first stop is the Bombay port. A relief to get outside of the ship, the heat of the sun was burning our skin. Thank goodness our crew members didn't arrive during the monsoon seasons, or we wouldn't have made it far into sea afterwards. We made a couple of good trades with the people and went on our way.

Food shortages

Mar 4, 1510

After what seemed a couple of months, we're still on the ship. Nothing has changed and food seems to be diminishing in minutes. There are quite a bit of old biscuits left, but most men onboard have began to eat sawdust shavings and rats. As for me, I hope that somewhere close there's going to be a port we can stop at.

The port of Daman

May 2, 1510

Finally, landing on the port near Daman, trade had begun. Our men, sick of trading and traveling, started up the trades again. There were many dasas, or slaves sold near the port. We exchanged our goods and took the dasas onto the ship to continue our journey.

Problems with the crew

Jun 11, 1510

Lately, life on the ship has gotten pretty bad. Since the shortage of the food supplies, many people were left hungry. Some men are starting to look terrible.Their teeth are falling out and their gums are swollen. Hopefully, there's a port somewhere close by.

The Nagapattinam port

Aug 20, 1510

Sailing nearly over 13,000 km, we make our way around india. We're heading for the Nagapattinam port, where there is large rice trade happening. That will at least get us some money when we go back home. Only about a couple days away.

Deaths continue

Aug 25, 1510

The death tolls are continuing to rise. More and more men are dying from this awful disease and we're frightened just by the though of it. We will probably have to throw the bodies overboard so that the stench doesn't overflow the parts of the ship that we sleep in. So far 10 crew members have died.

The Goan port arrival

Sep 9, 1510

We have just arrived near the port of Goa. The climate is quite humid and felt really good after spending many days on the ship. The native peoples briskly crowded all around us to greet us with joy. We decided to trade guns and other artillery with the indigenous people, and in return, they gave us Bahrain pearls, corals, and different spices.

Going back home

Oct 23, 1510

We are finally turning around back to Europe. Our last port will be on the way back home, called Colombo near Sri Lanka. So far the ports we have traveled to are Bombay, Daman, Nagapattinam. and Goa.We're all thrilled we made fine trades so far, and can't wait to trade for cinnamon. We hope to reach home soon with all our glory that we have brought back with us.