The Third Portuguese India Armada was assembled in 1501 upon the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of João da Nova. It was small compared to other armadas of the same type and was formed for commercial purposes. Nonetheless, it engaged in the first significant Portuguese naval battle in the Indian Ocean. The Third Armada discovered the uninhabited islands of Ascension and Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. Some speculate that it was the first Portuguese armada to reach Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

Fleet

Little is known about the Third Armada of 1501 as opposed to other early Portuguese India armadas. Chroniclers' accounts are scant on details and differ significantly at several points. Very few contemporary documents offer substantive information, such as reconciliations of differing accounts or missing details.

The Third Armada was primarily a commercial run to India. It is confirmed to have been composed of four ships: two owned by the crown and two privately owned. There may have been a fifth supply ship.

Ship name CaptainNotes 1. Uncertain João da Nova Flagship, owned by crown 2. Uncertain Francisco de Novais Owned by crown 3. Uncertain Diogo Barbosa Privately owned by D. Álvaro of Braganza, partially outfitted by Marchionni consortium 4. Uncertain Fernão Vinet Florentine. Private, owned by Marchionni consortium. Partner Girolamo Sernigi may have been aboard as factor.Radulet (1985: 74n) proposes that Fernão Vinet and Girolamo Sernigi are one and the same person. 5. Supply ship? Unknown Uncertain if existed. If it did, it probably scuttled and burned along the way.

This list of captains is given in João de Barros's Décadas,Barros, 1552: Dec. I, Bk V, c.10, p. 464. Damião de Góis's Chronica,Góis, 1566: ch. 63 p. 83 Fernão Lopes de Castanheda's História,Castanheda, c. 1550s, ch. 63, p. 126 Diogo do Couto's list,Couto, "De todas as armadas, &c.", in Barros & Couto, Decadas da Asia, Dec. X, Pt.1, Bk.1, c.16, p. 118 Manuel de Faria e Sousa's AsiaFaria e Sousa, 1666: vol. 1, Pt. 1, Ch.5, p. 50 and Quintella's Annaes.Quintella, 1839: p. 257 Fernão Pacheco replaces Barbosa in several lists: Gaspar Correia's LendasCorreia, p. 235 Correia refers to Vinet as "Mice Nite Florentym". and the Relação das Naus.Relação das Naus p. 5; although it notes Barbosa rather than Pacheco in a side-gloss. The Livro de Lisuarte de Abreu replaces Novais and Barbosa with Rui de Abreu and Duarte Pacheco, respectively.(Bouchon, 1980: p. 250)

The modest armada carried 350–400 men, only 80 of which were armed.Faria e Sousa (p. 49) reports 400 men. Castanheda reports 80 armed men: "Because the king believed that everything in India was at peace, he did not want to send more." (Castanheda, p. 126) Its admiral was João da Nova, a Galician-born minor noble. He was Alcalde Pequeno (municipal magistrate) of Lisbon, and his principal recommendation to the admiralship was probably his connection to the powerful Portuguese nobleman Tristão da Cunha.Subrahmanyam (1997: p. 182)

The owners of the two private ships, D. Álvaro of Braganza and Bartolomeo Marchionni, a Florentine, had jointly outfitted the Anunciada, one of the ships of the Second India Armada of Pedro Álvares Cabral that was still at sea at the time. It was a considerable gamble for them to outfit the new ships before knowing the results of the previous enterprise. The Anunciada safely returned to Lisbon later in 1501 with a large cargo of spices.

Suggestions that da Nova's ships were sent to reinforce Cabral’s ships following the outbreak of war with the Calicut kingdom (e.g., “as the plight of the Portuguese at Calicut was acute, three ships were sent on ahead under the Admiral, Joao da Nova Castella, to reinforce de Cabral, the Portuguese commander in India”.Thomas H. Brooke, A History of the Island of St Helena: From Its Discovery by the Portuguese to the Year 1806 (Black, Parry and Kingsbury, 1808), 35.Gosse, Philip. St Helena 1502-1938. Oswestry: Anthony Nelson, 1938) are now doubted because the Portuguese monarchy was unaware of the outbreak of war at India until the first of Cabral's ships returned to Lisbon some six months after da Nova sailed from Lisbon. It has also been suggested that da Nova was charged to block any attempt by the Spanish to enter the spice trade.Geneviève Bouchon, Vasco de Gama (Paris: Fayard, 1997), 232.[ Geneviève Bouchon, Vasco de Gama - Persée (persee.fr)] If true, given the small size of his fleet, he was entrusted with a very delicate mission.

One of the passengers on the fleet was Paio Rodrigues, employed by D. Álvaro of Braganza to remain in India as a factor for the private consortium. Another was Álvaro de Braga, a crown factor who was heading for the African port of Sofala.

Mission

The objective of the Third Armada was wholly commercial. Its mission was to go to India, load up with spices, and return home. The journey was expected to be uneventful.

The journey's destination was Calicut (known as Calecute in some sources, now Kozhikode), the principal spice hub in the state of Kerala and the dominant city-state on the Malabar coast of India. The Third Armada expected – or hoped – that the well-equipped Second India Armada of Pedro Álvares Cabral, which had departed in the previous year (1500), had succeeded in its ambassadorial mission to secure a treaty with Calicut and set up a factory (feitoria, a trading hub) there. The armada was unaware that Cabral's Second Armada had not only failed in its mission, but it also began hostilities between Portugal and Calicut. João da Nova's Third Armada was sailing into a war that it did not expect and for which it was not equipped.

The Third Armada also seems to have had a planned intermediary destination at Sofala, where Cabral had been instructed to set up a factory. According to Correia, the crown ship of Francisco de Novais was designated to trade for gold in Sofala and leave the factor Álvaro de Braga, the clerk Diogo Barbosa (same name as captain) and an additional twenty-two men.Correia, (p. 235) Cabral's Second Armada had also already failed that mission: there was no Portuguese factory in Sofala.

The armada could not have delayed its departure until the arrival of the news of the Second Armada. The seasonal monsoon wind patterns of the Indian Ocean forced India-bound expeditions to leave Lisbon by April at the latest to find favorable southeasterly summer winds from Africa to India. Those same wind patterns determined that returning fleets could only arrive in Europe in the summer, June at the earliest. Although the difference between one fleet's departure and another fleet's arrival was only a few months, outbound fleets could not delay their departure until the previous year's fleet returned; if they did, an entire year would be lost. Therefore, both the crown and the private consortiums were willing to equip and launch the Third Armada in March 1501 before they received any news of the outcome of the Second Armada. The first ship of the Second Armada to arrive only did so in late June.

Nova's Third Armada would learn of the Second Armada's voyage along its own voyage from notes and letters left by Cabral's ships at African staging posts. Even if the Third Armada learned about the misfortune of the Second Armada, the aforementioned conditions meant that it could not go home to acquire reinforcements or otherwise change the circumstances of its journey. Lightly armed, it would have to press on, sneak into India stealthily, avoid Calicut, load spices at friendly ports, and leave, all as quickly as possible.

Outward voyage

The date of the third Portuguese armada's departure from Lisbon to India has variously been quoted as 1 March,Gaspar Corrêa and Rodrigo Jose de Lima Felner, Lendas da India. Publicadas de ordem da Classe de sciencias moraes, politicas e bellas lettras da Academia real das sciencias de Lisboa e sob a dirrecção de Rodrigo José de Lima Felner, vol. 2 (Lisboa Typographia da Academia Real das Sciencias, 1858), 235. 5 March,João de Barros, Manoel Severim de Faria, and João Baptista Lavanha, Da Asia de João de Barros e de Diogo de Couto, vol. I, book V, chapter X (Lisbon: Regia Officina Typografica, 1778), 466.Damião de Góis, Chronica do serenissimo senhor rei D. Manoel (Lisbon: Na officina de M. Manescal da Costa, 1749), 84. 11 March,Duarte Leite, História da colonização portuguesa do Brasil, Chapter IX, O mais antigo mapa do Brasil, ed. Carlos Malheiro Dias, vol. 2 (Porto: Litografia Nacional, 1922), 251. 26–27 MarchWilliam Brooks Greenlee, The Voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral to Brazil and India (London: Hakluyt Society, 1938), 139. or 10 April.Edzer Roukema, ‘Brazil in the Cantino Map’, Imago Mundi 17 (1963): 15

Two chronicles claimed the ships discovered Ascension Island during the outward voyage, naming it Conception Island. Thus, João de Barros wrote that passing eight degrees beyond the equator, towards the south, an island was found to which the name Concepcão was givenBarros, Faria, and Lavanha, Da Asia de João de Barro, I, book V, chapter X:466. whilst Damião de Góis’ later chronicle described the sighting of an island south of the line which was named Conçeicam.Góis, Chronica do serenissimo, 84 There are at least three reasons why it is thought this name was quoted by de Barros in error, this later being repeated by de Góis.Bruce, Ian. 'The Discovery of St Helena'. Wirebird: The Journal of the Friends of St Helena 51 (2022): 26–43 First, the Church of Rome has long celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary on the fixed date of 8 December, yet by then the third armada had already reached India. Second, the Portuguese Cantino Planisphere, completed in 1502 after the third armada returned, shows the newly sighted island marked as ilha achada e chamada Ascenssam [island found and called Ascension], not as Conception. Third, in 1503 a division of the 4th Portuguese India Armada (Gama, 1502) under Estêvão da Gama also named the island as Ascension, not as Conception. It is usually presumed that the island was discovered on the movable feast of Ascension Day, which fell on 20 May in 1501, 39 days after Easter.Side-by-side Easter calendar reference for the 16th century

Two sources, a letter from King Manuel I of PortugalEdzer Roukema, ‘Brazil in the Cantino Map’, Imago Mundi 17 (1963): 15. and Gaspar Corrêa’s chronicle,Gaspar Corrêa, Lendas de India, vol. 1 (Lisbon: Typ. da Academia Real das Sciencias, 1858), 235. made no mention of either Ascension or Conception, instead describing a visit to Brazil.

The fleet crossed the Cape of Good Hope on July 7, 1501, without a known incident. It anchored at Mossel Bay (Aguada de São Brás). There, Nova found a note in a shoe by a watering hole. The note was left about a month earlier by Pêro de Ataíde, one of the captains of the returning Second Armada.Barros (p. 466). Correia (p. 236) claims that the note was left by Sancho de Tovar, and not in a shoe, but under an iron pot. Ataíde's note, addressed to all captains bound for India, warned that Calicut had become hostile to the Portuguese, but that Cochin (Cochim, now Kochi) and Cannanore (now Kannur) were still friendly ports where spices could be procured. It also recommended India-bound captains to go to Malindi, where Pedro Álvares Cabral left letters that contained more detailed information.Barros (p. 466–67) becomes confused here, saying that the letter told them to go by way of "Mombassa" and that the letters were held by the degredado António Fernandes. Correia (p. 236) merely says that the note warned of hostilities with Calicut. Centuries later, the South African government declared the milkwood tree where Ataíde hung his shoe a national monument and erected a shoe-shaped postbox below it.Dias Museum, Mossel Bay, Old Post Office Tree