Portrait of a man (assumed to be Vasco da Gama)

Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India (1497–1499) was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans and therefore, the West and the Orient.