Cabral's fleet reaches the city-state of Kilwa,…

Cabral's fleet reaches the city-state of Kilwa, the dominant city of the East African coast, which Gama had never visited.

Afonso Furtado, who had been appointed factor for Sofala back in Lisbon and and mercifully escaped death (Furtado had been aboard Bartolomeu Dias's ship, but moved to the flagship just before the Cape crossing), goes ashore on July 26 to open negotiations with the strongman ruler, Emir Ibrahim.

There is no current ruling Sultan of Kilwa, the last one, al-Fudail, having been deposed around 1495 in a coup by his minister, Emir Ibrahim, who has since ruled Kilwa with a vacant throne.

A meeting is arranged between Cabral and Emir Ibrahim, conducted on a couple of rowboats in Kilwa harbor.

Cabral presents a letter from King Manuel I proposing a treaty, but Emir Ibrahim is suspicious and, for all the formal pleasantries, resistant to the overtures.

Cabral, feeling there is nothing to be achieved here and worried about missing the monsoon winds to India, decides to break off the negotiations and sail on.