João da Gama

The lands northeast of Japan which João da Gama discovered were the target of legend and speculation in the centuries that followed, inspiring its search by European powers.

He received cordially the Portuguese representative who brought the news of the coronation of Philip II of Spain as king of Portugal, but only recognized the new order later, after indication of the Viceroy of India.

Following the trade agreement between the Portuguese-Jew New Christian Bartolomeu Landeiro and the city of Macau, Jerónimo de Sousa was also preparing to send a ship to the Philippines.

João da Gama, hoping to get a higher profit and new possibilities, and against all prohibitions, decided for an expedition to New Spain at his own expense and at his own risk.

The decision of D. João da Gama, a risk taker, was taken with the knowledge that it was an illegal enterprise, since it was well known the prohibition of trade between the world areas of Portugal and Castile (later Spain) by the Treaties of Tordesillas and Zaragoza, ban reinforced by the letters personally written by Philip II to the Viceroys of New Spain and India, and also directly to the administrative bodies of Macau and the Philippines in 1589 and 1590s, leading to the expulsion of the Spanish from Macau in 1592.

This reality is reflected in the letter that the king Phillip II (I of Portugal) sent to the Viceroy on February 6, 1589, which ordered him "that the noble (João da Gama) that came from China, should be arrest in irons and taken to the Kingdom aboard this Armada", as was also appointed before, in 1587, by the Crown.

After starting the voyage in Macau and due to a damage caused by a typhon, da Gama was forced to seek refuge at the island of Amakusa on the Japanese coast.

[citation needed] Nevertheless, several maps later point to João da Gama's exploration and discovery of a large portion of the west and northwest of the then unknown and known coasts of North America.

The papers eventually included a sketch of a long north Pacific coast which João da Gama skimmed en route.

Da Gama's voyage was directly contrary to the Iberian crown legislation, prohibiting commercial transactions between the Spanish and the Portuguese empires.

However, in spite of the fact that Portugal and Spain were then "united", da Gama's remained goods and his charts and logs of navigation were confiscated.

The Portuguese crew and merchants who had participated in the trip returned to Macau via Philippines, after a stay in Mexico, where they brought silver, and he himself was sent to Seville to be tried by the audiencia of the Casa de la Contratación.

Atlas of João Teixeira Albernaz I , 1643, showing the North Pacific Ocean and the area reached by João da Gama, including islands João da Gama found (possibly the Kuril islands, hypothesis clearly shown by maps as of Joseph Nicolas Delisle. Other maps also made reference to a mythical more largest land, also northeast of Japan). The mythical or "recognized" Strait of Anián , separating Asia and the Americas, is also shown. Part of the known North American coast is possibly widely shifted to the northwest
Planiglobii Terrestris Cum Utroque Hemisphaerio Caelesti Generalis Exhibitio by Johann Baptiste Homann , Nuremberg 1707. Planisphere with map of the North American west coast, with both Californias (including US California to capes Mendoncino, Sebastiano and Blanco at 40º-45º N, at east-southeast of the imaginary strait) drawn as a single island, and with the note: "Costa Terrae borealis incognitae detected by D. João da Gama sailing from China to New Spain". Legend repeated in his other map of 1720, more extended to the northwest and already with both the Californias connected to mainland, in a northwest coast, possibly corresponding to the present day United States north coast and Canada
The Americas in 1720 by Johann Homann with Terra Esonis recognized by João da Gama, traveling from China to New Spain
The Americas in 1720 by the same Johann Baptiste Homann, with the same northern land Esonis incognitae sighted by João da Gama
Guillaume Delisle 's map of Asia, describing Company Land as "Coste découverte par Dom Jean de Gama allant de la Chine à la Nouvelle Espagne".