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Old February 8th, 2016 #1
Karl Radl
The Epitome of Evil
 
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Default Vasco da Gama and the Jews

Vasco da Gama and the Jews


Vasco da Gama, the fifteenth century Portuguese explorer who discovered the Indian subcontinent, had long been seen a European hero and one of which the Portuguese are, to this day, rightly proud.

The interesting thing about da Gama is that he is usually envisioned, like a great many historical individuals, as a kind of androgynous figure or a colourless image. The vision has no life or colour to it; the assumptions are made that the sum of his worth was in his explorations.

When we restore some of that colour however it immediately begins to make the more intellectually myopic among us – who are almost invariably members of the political left and/or assorted religious groups - froth at the mouth precisely because the restoration of life and colour to the subject grinds against one shibboleth or another.

Da Gama is one such case since he is usually presented as a 'great explorer', but that's about it. He has had his personal essence removed and when we restore life and colour to him. We discover that he really doesn't fit into the politically correct narrative of European history and most especially in regard to his attitude towards jews.

While the idea that he studied under the prominent jewish astronomer and rabbi named Abraham Zacuto is almost certainly a myth. (1) The problem remains that we know relatively little about da Gama, (2) but what we do know presents him as being stridently anti-jewish.

The most famous incident we have which details as much is Vasco da Gama's encounter with Gaspar da Gama off the coast of Goa in India. Now I should point out that we don't actually know Gaspar da Gama's real name or where he actually came from, but what we do know is that he was jewish merchant and that he took the name 'Gaspar da Gama' upon his forced baptism by Vasco da Gama. (3)

Gaspar was either came from the kingdom of Granada (4) or Poznan in Poland. (5) He had for reasons unknown, but presumably for purposes of trade, traveled to India and had set up there in the service of a local ruler.

When he heard that Vasco da Gama was nearby; Gaspar rowed out to da Gama's ships and was immediately identified by local merchants as a jew. This lead Vasco da Gama to conclude, quite rightly in the circumstances (since jews had a track record of being agents for the Ottomans a-la Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos), that Gaspar may well have been a spy for the Ottoman Empire.

Vasco da Gama promptly had Gaspar seized and tortured until such time as he revealed why he had really traveled out uninvited to the Portuguese vessels. (6) We don't know exactly how Gaspar managed to convince Vasco da Gama that he wasn't an Ottoman spy, but it does seem to have something to do with his willingness to convert to Christianity.

That Vasco da Gama accepted such a mealy mouthed bribe is naturally deplorable, but it was consistent with the Christian missionary impulse of his time. As it happens this conversion merely served as a smokescreen behind which Gaspar then operated and gained the favour of King John of Portugal as a well-traveled polyglot.

Clearly Vasco da Gama was no friend of jews, but it is also clear that his religious zeal lead him to the unfortunate (and often fatal) belief that a jew can change their spots.



References


(1) Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 1997, 'The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama', 1st Edition, Cambridge University Press: New York, p. 62
(2) A. J. R. Russell-Wood, 1999, 'The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama', Journal of World History, Vol. 10, No. 2, p. 453
(3) Nigel Cliff, 2011, 'The Last Crusade: The Epic Voyages of Vasco da Gama', 1st Edition, Atlantic: London, p. 358; http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...pardaGama.html
(4) Cliff, Op. Cit., p. 358
(5) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...pardaGama.html
(6) Cliff, Op. Cit., p. 358; George Towle, 1878, 'The Voyages and Adventures of Vasco da Gama', 1st Edition, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard: Boston, pp. 247-254


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This was originally published at the following address: http://www.semiticcontroversies.blog...-and-jews.html
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