GAMBETTA
733
GAMBIA
Hope caused the Portuguese to determine on further explorations, Gama was chosen to command an expedition of four vessels, manned with 160 men. Furnished with letters to all the potentates he was likely to meet, among them the fabled Prester John, then supposed to be reigning in splendor somewhere in the east of Africa, he set sail on July 8,1497, from Lisbon. Vexed by storms, he was four months in reaching St. Helena Bay, and after rounding the Cape, in the midst of storms without and mutinies among his crew, he made Melinda early in the following year. Here, finding a skillful Indian pilot, he steered eastward across the Indian Ocean and arrived at Calicut, India on May 20, 1498. The ruler of Calicut, at first suspicious, soon became hostile, and Gama had to fight his way out of the harbor. He reached Lisbon in September, 1499, was received with great distinction, and created a noble. Three years later Gama was sent to avenge the massacre of a Portuguese colony at Calicut. He bombarded Calicut, destroyed a fleet of 29 ships, extorted a favorable peace, and founded the colonies of Mozambique and Sofala; but the cruelties inflicted in this expedition left an indelible stain upon his name. After 20 years of retirement at Evora, Gama was again sent to the scene of his triumphs, as viceroy of the Portuguese dominions in India; and, while engaged there in successful work, he died at Cochin in December, 1524. His body was taken to Portugal and buried with great pomp. The great achievement of Gama is probably only second in importance to the voyage of Columbus a few years before. His story gave rise to the Lusiad of Camoens. See The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama, translated by Lord Stanley of Alderley.
Gambetta (gam-bettd)f Le'on Michel, a French statesman, was born at Cahors, Oct.
30, 1838. He became a lawyer at Paris, and soon attracted attention. Upon the surrender of Napoleon III at Sedan in 1870, G a m -betta proposed to dissolve the empire, and he was one of the first to p r o-claim the republic on Sept. 4. When the government of national defense was formed, he became minister of the interior, and at once took active measures for opposing the Germans and defending Paris. He escaped from
L13ON GAMBETTA
the city in a balloon, and took the general conduct of public affairs, being for five months dictator of France. With marvelous energy and undaunted courage, he called into existence army after army and sent them against the German hosts; but in vain. He continued the contest even after Paris had surrendered, and refused to agree with the action of his colleagues in the capital. He finally resigned, and retired for a short time to Spain, but be became more popular than ever with the masses, and was elected to the national assembly by the different departments. After the fall of the short-lived commune Gambetta became the most prominent Frenchman of his time, and played an important part in firmly establishing the republic. Though the most powerful statesman in France, he refused for some time to take office, but later he became president of the chamber and, in November, 1880, premier. He resigned in 1882 after the rejection of his plan for the revision of the constitution, and afterward took little part in public affairs. On Nov. 26 of that year, as he was handling a revolver, it accidentally went off, inflicting a slight wound in the hand, from which, however, he died on Dec. 31, being only 44 years old.
Gam'bia, a river of western Africa, the more southerly of the two great streams of Senegambia. It enters the Atlantic after a course estimated at over 1,400 miles, by an estuary which in some parts measures nearly 27 miles, but contracts at the mouth to little more than two miles. From June to November it is navigable for vessels for about 400 miles. The lower part of the river overflows its banks in the rainy season, and like the Nile leaves a fertile coating of mud.
Gambia, a British colony and protectorate in West Africa on the river of the same name, is situated between Senegal and French Guinea. Area, independent of the adjacent protected territories, 4 square miles; population 13,456. The colony and protectorate have an area of 3,061 square miles and a population of 163,718. The whole colony, with the exception of the island of St. Mary (area 4 square miles, population 8,807), is conducted on the protectorate system. Bathurst is the capital of the island of St. Mary; population 6,000. There are no local telegraphs or railways, but there is a short telephone line at Bathurst, a tramway is in contemplation, and there are cable lines from Bathurst to St. Vincent and Sierra Leone. There are six elementary schools (with over 1,000 pupils), government-aided, besides the Wesley ans' technical school and secondary school. The chief exports are groundnuts, beeswax, hides, rice, millet, sweet potatoes, cotton and rubber.
