Chronicles differ on what exactly happened after…

Chronicles differ on what exactly happened after the first of Vasco da Gama’s squadrons doubled the Cape.

Following the account of Gaspar Correia (p. 272), Vasco da Gama had been the among the first ships to arrive in Mozambique Island, the prearranged meeting point.

Gama is immediately recognized by the local sheikh (with whom Gama had a tussle on his first journey back in 1498).

The Mozambique ruler immediately offers his pardon for that affair and puts supplies at the disposal of the tempest-tossed Portuguese.

Vasco da Gama remains in Mozambique for a while, waiting for the rest of the battered fleet to trickle in, one by one.

The only known loss is the small nau Santa Elena, captained by the novice Pêro de Mendonça, which, captured by bad currents around Cape Correntes, ends up running aground near the banks of Sofala.

However the crew is safely rescued by the passing ships of Francisco da Cunha Mareco and Fernão Rodrigues Bardaças.

With a surfeit of crew from the capsized Santa Elena, Gama orders the construction of a new caravel from scratch.

According to Correia, while repairing on Mozambique Island, Vasco da Gama dispatched Pedro Afonso de Aguiar (captain of the Leitoa) and two caravels south to the city of Sofala, the entrepôt of the Monomatapa gold trade.

Sofala had been missed by all prior armadas, but not this time.

Following up on the scout report of Sancho de Tovar from the previous year, Aguiar leads the first Portuguese ships into Sofala harbor.

Aguiar goes ashore, initiates some trade in the local markets while seeking out the local ruler, the sultan or shiekh Isuf of Sofala.

An audience is arranged and Aguiar draws up a commercial and alliance treaty between Portugal and Sofala.

Matters settled and gifts exchanged, Aguiar takes aboard a Sofalese ambassador to meet Vasco da Gama back in Mozambique.

Gama makes arrangements to leave Mozambique in late June.

A Portuguese factory is established on Mozambique Island, with Gonçalo Baixo as the factor, with some ten assistants, to capitalize on the results of the Sofala trade mission.

The new caravel finished, Gama christens it Pomposa and places it, together with some thirty crew, under the command of João Serrão (of future Magellan fame), with instructions to take any goods from the Sofalese trade.