João da Nova

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João da Nova
Kingdom of Spain
OccupationExplorer
Known forDiscoverer of Ascension and Saint Helena islands

João da Nova (

Kochi, India) was a Galician-born explorer in the service of Portugal. He is credited as the discoverer of Ascension and Saint Helena
islands.

The Juan de Nova Island, in the Mozambique Channel, is named after him. The Farquhar atoll (in the Seychelles) was, for a long time, known as the João da Nova islands.[N 1][1] It is sometimes thought that the Agaléga islands (in the Indian Ocean) was also named after him (although it is almost certain he never visited them).[N 2]

Biography

Juan da Nova was born into a noble family in Maceda, Galicia, then a constituent kingdom of the Crown of Castile, Spanish empire. Nova was sent by his family to Portugal, where he grew up, to escape the struggles between aristocratic factions known as the Irmandiño revolts.[citation needed] In Portugal, he was also known as João Galego ("the Galician"). In 1496, he was appointed as Alcaide menor (mayor) of Lisbon by King Manuel I.

First voyage to India

Main article: 3rd Portuguese India Armada (Nova, 1501)

On 9 or 10 March 1501, João da Nova departed as commander of the

South Atlantic.[N 4][4] After doubling the Cape, he is said to also have discovered what has since been called Juan de Nova Island in the Mozambique Channel.[5]

Arriving in India, Nova established a

Ceylon at some point on this trip, four years before the first officially documented Portuguese visit by D. Lourenço de Almeida in 1505-6.[8]

Nova's armada left India in January 1502. On his return journey, Nova is said to have discovered the South Atlantic island of

Sir Thomas Herbert in 1638,[14] is suggested as historically more credible than the Protestant date of 21 May. The paper observes that if da Nova made the discovery on 3 May 1502, he may have been inhibited from naming the island Ilha de Vera Cruz (Island of the True Cross) because Pedro Álvares Cabral had already assigned that same name to the Brazilian coastline, which he thought to be a large island, on 3 May 1500.[15]
News of Cabral’s discovery reached Lisbon directly from South America before da Nova’s fleet set off on the voyage to India in 1501. If da Nova knew the True Cross name had already been assigned, the most obvious and plausible alternative name for him to give the island was "Santa Helena".

Second voyage to India

1505-06

On 5 March 1505, he undertook another voyage to

Mombassa
.

After crossing the Indian Ocean, the armada spent some time erecting forts and raiding ports, before eventually arriving at

Cochin in October. There D. Francisco de Almeida inaugurated his term as Viceroy of Portuguese India, but refused to allow João da Nova to invoke his credentials as Captain-Major of the Indian coastal patrol. Almeida claimed that the Flor de la Mar was too large to enter the Indian coastal inlets and lagoons and thus unsuitable as a patrol ship. Almeida offered João da Nova the option of switching to a caravel, and sending the Flor back under another captain, but Nova chose to bring her back to Lisbon himself. Almeida then appointed his own son, Lourenço de Almeida
, as captain-major of the patrol.

Leaving India in February 1506, Nova's heavy-laden Flor de la Mar, developed a leak in the hull in the environs of Zanzibar and was forced to stop for repairs in the islands of the Mozambique Channel. He would spend the next eight months in the area repairing the ship, a delay prolonged by illness and contrary winds.

1507

He was still stranded with his leaky ship in February, 1507, when the

Mozambique Island
. Cunha helped complete the repairs, transferred its cargo to a Lisbon-bound transport, and annexed Nova and the Flor de la Mar into his own India-bound fleet.

João da Nova took part in the Portuguese capture of

Battle of Hormuz
in October, 1507.

1508

Shortly after the battle, Nova once again was at the center of a renewed series of complaints, this time over the establishment of a fortress in the city of Hormuz. In early 1508, during the construction of the fortress, three of the patrol ships slipped away from Albuquerque's sight and set sail to India, intending to lodge formal complaints against Albuquerque with the vice-roy

Cochin
. João da Nova was not among them, but Albuquerque nonetheless decided to let him go as well, hoping that by this belated magnanimous gesture, Nova might argue on his behalf. He didn't. Once in Cochin, João da Nova joined the three other captains in opening a formal case against Albuquerque.

1509

João da Nova fought in the

Battle of Diu in February 1509, his ship, the Flor de la Mar, being used by the vice-roy Francisco de Almeida as the flagship of the Portuguese battle fleet. In March of that year, Afonso de Albuquerque, by then in Cochin himself, invoked his own secret credentials to relieve Francisco de Almeida as governor of India. But João da Nova, along with the other captains, assembled a petition demanding that Almeida refused to yield it, characterizing Albuquerque as unfit to govern.[16]
In May of the same year, Almeida formally opened a council in Cochin to consider the reception of Albuquerque. Nova and the other patrol captains presented the case against him.

João da Nova died shortly after, in July 1509, just a couple of weeks before Almeida delivered the indictment and ordered Albuquerque's arrest. In spite of all this, Albuquerque is said to have personally paid for Nova's funeral in memory of his achievements in the Hormuz campaign.[17]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The appellation 'João da Nova islands' for the Farquhar atoll appeared in most European navigational charts until the 19th century, when they were renamed after British Mauritius governor Robert Townsend Farquhar, to avoid confusion with the Mozambique Channel island.
  2. ^ Theories behind the 'Agalega' name are reviewed by Robert Scott (1961) Limuria: The Lesser Dependencies of Mauritius
  3. ^ 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.
  4. Ascension Day
    , he renamed it after that day.

References

  1. ^ Findlay, A. G. (1866) A Directory for the Navigation of the Indian Ocean, London: Laurie, p.479
  2. ISBN 81-206-1040-7
  3. ISBN 978-0-521-47072-8
  4. ISBN 1-4021-9511-7
  5. ^ Birch, 1877, p.xx
  6. ^ K.S. Matthew (1997) "Indian Naval Encounters with the Portuguese: Strengths and weaknesses", in K.K.N. Kurup, editor, India's Naval Traditions, New Delhi: Northern Book Centre. p.11
  7. ^ Marinha.pt, 2009, site Cananor - 31 de Dezembro de 1501 a 2 de Janeiro de 1502 Archived 2016-08-20 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Bouchon, G. (1980) "A propos de l'inscription de Colombo (1501): quelques observations sur le premier voyage de João da Nova dans l'Océan Indien", Revista da Universidade de Coimbra, Vol. 28, p. 233-70. Offprint.
  9. ^ Ian Bruce, ‘St Helena Day’, Wirebird The Journal of the Friends of St Helena, no. 44 (2015): 32–46.[1]
  10. ^ Jan Huyghen van Linschoten, Itinerario, voyage ofte schipvaert van Jan Huygen Van Linschoten naer Oost ofte Portugaels Indien, inhoudende een corte beschryvinghe der selver landen ende zee-custen... waer by ghevoecht zijn niet alleen die conterfeytsels van de habyten, drachten ende wesen, so van de Portugesen aldaer residerende als van de ingeboornen Indianen. (C. Claesz, 1596)[2].
  11. ^ Jan Huygen van Linschoten, John Huighen Van Linschoten, His Discours of Voyages Into Ye Easte [and] West Indies: Divided Into Foure Bookes (London: John Wolfe, 1598).[3]
  12. ^ Side-by-side Easter calendar reference for the 16th century
  13. ^ Duarte Lopes and Filippo Pigafetta, Relatione del Reame di Congo et delle circonvicine contrade tratta dalli scritti & ragionamenti di Odoardo Lope[S] Portoghese / per Filipo Pigafetta con disegni vari di geografiadi pianti, d’habiti d’animali, & altro. (Rome: BGrassi, 1591).[4]
  14. ^ Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels into Africa et Asia the Great: Especially Describing the Famous Empires of Persia and Industant as Also Divers Other Kingdoms in the Orientall Indies and I’les Adjacent (Jacob Blome & Richard Bishop, 1638), 353.[5]
  15. ^ Corrêa and Felner, Lendas da India, [Edited by R. J. de Lima Felner], Vol 1 Part 1:152.[6]
  16. ^ Albuquerque's Commentaries, Vol. II, p.33 online
  17. ^ Albuquerque's Commentaries, vol. ii, p.49 online

Sources

  • de Albuquerque, Afonso (1877). The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India. Translated by Walter de Gray Birch.
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