Le second voyage de Vasco da Gama à Calicut by J. Ph. Berjeau is a historical account and scholarly edition prepared in the late 19th century. It presents, with introduction and translation, a rare early-printed Dutch narrative of Vasco da Gama’s second expedition to India. The book’s likely topic is the route, conflicts, trade objectives, and observations recorded by a participant as the Portuguese pushed from the Atlantic around the Cape of Good Hope to the Malabar coast.The introduction explains the rediscovery of the Dutch pamphlet Calcoen, outlines its Antwerp origin, compares its details with Portuguese chronicles, and clarifies place-names and context (including Bartholomeu Dias’s earlier rounding of the Cape). The translated narrative then follows the voyage: sailing from Lisbon, passing the equator and enduring storms near the Cape; attempted trade at Sofala and contact at Mozambique; coercing Kilwa to pay tribute; missing Melinde and touching at Socotra; noting the monsoons; sighting Cambay; raiding near Goa; stopping at Anjedive; lying off Cananor to intercept Red Sea spice traffic and destroying a Mecca ship; arriving at Calicut for a brutal three-day fight marked by executions and terror; then moving to Cochin and Quilon to secure spice cargoes and recounting communities of “Christians” and Jews in Travancore. The narrator adds brief ethnographic notes on betel chewing, civet (musk), pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and mentions Ceylon, Mylapore’s St. Thomas, and Malacc…
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