‘‘I am not afraid of the darkness. Real death is preferable to a life without living.’’ Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama (c.1460 – 1524) was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea; linking Europe and Asia via the Cape of Good Hope. Da Gama never set out to colonise the Cape and neither is there evidence of him ever having populated the land with vines. But if he had, the complexion of the South African vineyards might well be influenced more by Iberian rather than French varieties.