Sails and Shadows

"Sails and Shadows is the first account of Portuguese voyaging ever to incorporate data and insights from modern sciences as well as from aged texts. Based on an impressive engagement with original sources in multiple European languages, it should stand (for a very long time) as the definitive English-language account of its subject, which is an important one for world history, maritime history, and European history."--J. R. McNeill, author of Mosquito Empires

"Patricia Seed has produced an outstanding and truly original account of early Portuguese seaborne exploration down the west coast of Africa and to India. The book's great innovation is its deep and learned engagement with the growing field of climate history, which contextualizes Portuguese navigation, colonization, and settlement."--Jerry Brotton, author of Four Points of the Compass: The Unexpected History of Direction