Gama's large, menacing armada arrives on July…

Gama's large, menacing armada arrives on July 12, 1502, at the island-city of Kilwa, the formal overlord of Mozambique and Sofala.

If the fledgling Portuguese trade presence in those East African towns is to remain unmolested, then the Portuguese must secure Kilwa's consent.

Gama sends for the Kilwa ruler, Emir Ibrahim, inviting him aboard the São Jeronimo, to negotiate a treaty of peace and trade.

Sensing a trap, Emir Ibrahim first asks for a safe-conduct (which da Gama promptly gives him), but fearing treachery, the emir changes his mind, and refuses to go aboard.

However, after much discussion, one of his advisors, a certain wealthy nobleman Muhammad ibn Rukn ad Din, finally persuades the emir to take up the Portuguese offer.

Emir Ibrahim is ferried to the flagship and climbs aboard.

After minimal opening pleasantries, and ostentatious proclamations of friendship, Gama lays down his price: a treaty with Portugal has to be paid for with a hefty cash tribute to the King of Portugal.

The emir is dismayed.

Declaring tribute to be a dishonor, he refuses.

Gama threatens to level the city and lay it to fire and waste.

Emir Ibrahim, effectively captive on board, reluctantly agrees, and signs a treaty making Kilwa tributary to Portugal.

Leaving the Kilwan nobleman and advisor Muhammad Arcone aboard as a hostage, the emir returns to shore to make the arrangements.

After a few days of lingering in Kilwa harbor and with no sign of the emir's promised tribute, Gama dispatches a messenger to determine the cause of the delay.

Emir Ibrahim sends a message back declining to dispatch the tribute, and telling the Portuguese captain-major that he can do whatever he will with the hostage Muhammad Arcone, given that his poor counsel had proven him unworthy.

The angry Gama throws Arcone into a longboat, without water or shade, to die of heat and exposure.

Nonetheless, Muhammad Arcone is a wealthy man in his own right, and servants from his household offer Gama a substantial ransom to release him.

Knowing the hostage is otherwise worthless to him, Gama consents.

His vengeance on Muhammad Arcone's bad counsel satisfied, the Emir Ibrahim of Kilwa finally decides on July 20 to send some tribute—some fifteen hundred gold meticals—to satisfy the Portuguese captain-major.

Vasco da Gama, anxious not to miss the monsoon winds to India, takes what he can get.

The extorted gold coins of Kilwa will be used by the goldsmith Gil Vicente in 1506 to make the famous gold pyx or monstrance known as the Custódia de Belém, for the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém.

It is considered by many to be one of the most magnificent treasure pieces of the Portuguese crown.

Correia reports that several dozen Kilwan women who had been abducted and taken aboard the ships by bored Portuguese sailors refused to return ashore.

Although Emir Ibrahim promises that they will be unharmed, he cannot guarantee that those who allow themselves to be baptized Christian by enthusiastic chaplains on the ships will be taken back by their families.

Much to the delight of the crew, Gama reluctantly allows these women to come with them.

Meanwhile, part of the third squadron, the trio that holds with Estêvão da Gama (Gama, Dias, Carmona) arrives at Mozambique Island, half-famished and heavily damaged.

At the same time, the remaining pair (Vasconcellos, Buonagrazia) alight at the Sofala banks.

The two squads do not reconnect with each other.

Estêvão da Gama's trio, following the itinerary left in Mozambique by his cousin, heads off to Kilwa.

Alone idling before Sofala, Vasconcellos and Buonagrazia proceed north to the mouth of the Rio de Bons Sinaes (Zambezi River), where they put in for repairs and recuperation.

Part of the third squadron (Estêvão da Gama, Lopo Dias and Thomas de Carmona) arrives in Kilwa on July 23, 1502, just in time to reconnect the main armada of Vasco da Gama, preparing to depart from Kilwa harbor.

The day before, the remaining two ships of the third squadron (Vasconcellos, Buonagrazia) had finally arrived in Mozambique Island.

Taking note of the notes and itinerary left behind, they set sail for Malindi, hoping to catch the main fleet there.