604: GAMA The western part, comprising the district of Connemara, rests upon granite, and is barren, rugged, and mountainous, but contains valuable mines of copper, lead, and manganese, and quar- ries of marble and other stones. Agriculture is in a very backward state. The southern parts produce some fine wheat, but oats and barley are the principal products elsewhere. Flax is also cultivated, but less extensively than for- merly. Grazing is much attended to. The coast fisheries have diminished in importance ; but a company has recently been formed for carrying on deep-sea fisheries. There are some manufactures, among which are woollen ho- siery, coarse linens and friezes, and felt hats. The production of kelp was formerly one of the great sources of profit on the western shores, and is still carried on to some extent. Celtic crom- lechs and Anglo-Norman castles are frequently to be met with. The chief towns are Galway, Tuam, Loughrea, and Ballinasloe. II. A town, seaport, and parliamentary borough, and capi- tal of the county, near the head of Galway bay, 117 m. W. of Dublin, with which it is con- nected by railway ; pop. in 1871, 13,184. The greater portion of the town is built upon a tongue of land, bounded E. by Lough Athalia, an arm of the sea, and W. by the Corrib river. The other and smaller part is on the opposite bank of the river, and is connected with the for- mer by one wooden and two stone bridges. In the old town the streets are narrow, irregular, and dirty, but in the modern part they are in gen- eral spacious, handsome, and cleanly. The chief Eublic edifices are the Queen's college, the col- igiate church of St. Nicholas, the Franciscan convent, and two handsome court houses. Galway was formerly the principal emporium of Ireland, and for several centuries enjoyed the monopoly of the trade with Spain. It was then surrounded by walls, of which only a few fragments now exist. The principal ex- ports are corn, flour, kelp, marble, wool, and provisions. The chief imports are timber, wine, salt, coal, hemp, tallow, and iron. The harbor has an extensive line of quays, and is connected with Lough Oorrib by a canal. It has a floating dock, which admits vessels of 14 ft. draught. On Mutton island, in front of the harbor, is a lighthouse 33 ft. above high water. GAMA, Joze Basilio da, a Brazilian poet, born in 1740, died in Lisbon, July 31, 1795. He was brought up as a member of the society of Jesus, but left it, and went to Lisbon and to Eome, where he was for a time professor in a seminary. Owing to his former affiliation with the Jesuits, he was banished after his re- turn to Brazil. At Lisbon he found a protec- tor in Pombal, who after the publication of his poem V Uruguay, describing the overthrow of the Jesuit missions (1769), gave him a place in the state department, and in 1771 he was raised to the nobility. He translated parts of Metas- tasio and Goldoni, published poems, and be- came a member of the academy of Lisbon. GAMA, Vasco da, a Portuguese navigator, born at Sines, died in Cochin, India, Dec. 25, 1524. Bartholomew Dias, a Portuguese explorer, hav- ing visited the cape which he called Cabo Tor- mentoso, or Stormy cape, brought back such interesting accounts of his discoveries that the Portuguese sovereign Emanuel determined to urge discovery beyond the point where Dias left it, and if possible to reach by sea the countries of the Indies. Accordingly an ex- pedition was placed under the command of Vasco da Gama, a gentleman of the king's household, and a skilful and experienced mari- ner. The fleet consisted of the Sao Gabriel, flag ship, of 120 tons, the Sao Eafael of about 100 tons, a caravel of 50 tons, and a store ship, with a total force of 160 men. On July 8, 1497, the expedition departed from Lisbon for the Cape Verd islands, whence it set sail on' Aug. 3 southward along the African coast. Delayed by storms, it was not till Nov. 7 that they reached the bay of St. Helena, near the cape. Departing on the 16th, they encoun- tered a succession of tempests such as had gained for the southern promontory of Africa the name of the cape of Storms. The courage of Gama's companions failed, and they besought him to put back, which he not only refused to do, but put the ringleaders of the movement in irons, and held on his course into the stormy sea. When they were beating about off the promontory, Gama fancied that he saw the spirit of the cape. Camoens has sung this in- cident as a fact, while moderns, less poetical, say that the apparition could have been noth- ing more than that peculiar cloud whose sud- den envelopment of the cape is the forerunner of a storm. On Nov. 20 (according to Barros, but more probably on the 22d) they doubled the cape of Storms, or, as Emanuel himself had named it ere the expedition set out, the cape of Good Hope. Proceeding along the coast, they touched at various points, among others at Natal. Further N. they discovered Mozam- bique, and came upon a country which exhib- ited a high stage of commercial advancement, the inhabitants having regularly built ports, with mosques. The natives were Mohamme- dans, carrying on a trade in pearls, rubies, sil- ver, linen, and spices with Arabia and India. Gama took with him a pilot from this place. On April 1, 1498, the explorers discovered the island of Acoutado, so named by Gama from a flogging he gave his pilot there ; and on the 7th the island of Mombassa, where the inhabi- tants were bravely apparelled in silken stuffs and jewelry. As these men tried to cut his cable, Gama seized a boat containing 17 of them, and carried them off to Melinda, 3 S. of the equator, where the king of the place entered into friendly relations with the Portu- guese, and gave them a pilot to conduct them across the Indian gulf. Melinda was described as a regularly built city, with wide streets, and houses of more than one story. The Melindese pilot is supposed to have been acquainted with
