Island of Mozambique > Ilha de Moçambique Nampula Mozambique

Swahili commercial settlements had existed along the East African coast and outlying islands for several centuries when Portuguese explorers reached East Africa in 1498.

The voyage of Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean in 1498 had marked the Portuguese entry into trade, politics, and society in the Indian Ocean world.

The Island of Mozambique had first been occupied by Portuguese explorers in the late fifteenth century.

They had quickly established a fort here, and with time a community will spring up and achieve importance as port of call, missionary base and a center for a thriving trade in gold, ivory, and enslaved East Africans.

Portuguese trading posts and forts will soon become regular ports of call on the new route to the east.

Vasco da Gama becomes in 1498 the first European to sail around Africa to reach India.

Stopping on the East African coast, where Arab-controlled territory is an integral part of the network of trade in the Indian Ocean, the expedition breaks up the storeship, and on March 2, 1498, reaches the vicinity of Mozambique Island, a major Arab port and boat building center.

The name of the island is derived from Ali Musa Mbiki, the current sultan of the island.

This name will subsequently be taken to the mainland country which is modern-day Mozambique, and the island will be renamed Ilha de Moçambique, or Island of Mozambique.

Fearing the local population will be hostile to Christians, Gama impersonates a Muslim and gains audience with the Sultan.

With the paltry trade goods he has to offer, Gama is unable to provide a suitable gift to the ruler and soon the local populace becomes suspicious of Gama and his men.

Forced by a hostile crowd to flee Mozambique, Gama departs the harbor on March 29, firing his cannons into the city in retaliation.

Cabral's three-ship squadron hobbles on to Mozambique Island on June 22.

Despite the earlier quarrel with Gama, he is given an unexpectedly warm reception by the Sultan of Mozambique, and allowed to collect water and supplies.

Shortly after, three more ships of the Cabral’s fleet sail into Mozambique island and rejoin the expedition.

Only the ship of Diogo Dias, Bartolomeu's brother, remains missing.

As Dias's mission is for Sofala anyway, Cabral decides not to wait for it but rather to press on with his current fleet of six ships.

Cabral's fleet reaches Mozambique Island. 

As there is no sign or news from Diogo Dias awaiting him, Cabral realizes he must take responsibility for the Sofala mission himself.

Cabral orders the private ship Anunciada of Nuno Leitão da Cunha, the fastest in the fleet, to be placed under the command of veteran hand Nicolau Coelho, and dispatched ahead of the rest of the fleet to deliver the results of the voyage to Portugal.

Vice-admiral Sancho de Tovar, having lost the El Rei), is given a chance to make amends by taking command of the caravel São Pedro (hitherto commanded by Pêro de Ataíde) and seek out Sofala and to proceed home alone from there.

Ataíde is transferred to the command of Coelho's old nau.

In the meantime, Cabral lands a degredado, António Fernandes, on the African coast, with letters of instruction for Diogo Dias and any passing Portuguese expeditions, informing them of the dramatic turn of events in India, and warning them to avoid Calicut.

Matters settled, Cabral takes the remaining three ships—his own flagship, the large nau of Simão de Miranda and Coelho's ship, now under Pêro de Ataíde—and sets sail from Mozambique island.

The Third Armada arrives at Mozambique Island in mid-July.

Juan de Nova, discarding his instructions, decides against dispatching Novais's ship to Sofala.

Contemplating the new hostile state of affairs in India, Nova has probably concluded that he needs to take all the men he has in case of a military engagement in India.

He sets sail up the East African coast soon after.

It is possibly now that Nova discovers what has since been called Juan de Nova Island in the Mozambique Channel and possibly also the Farquhar atoll (part of the Seychelles, will also be named 'João da Nova islands' until the nineteenth century.

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.

The sixth armada reaches Mozambique Island on June 25.

Here, Lopo Soares finds the testimonial letter left behind by Pêro de Ataíde, the former captain of the India patrol, who had died there in February.

From this missive, Lopo Soares learns of the debacle of the coastal patrol of Vicente Sodré and Calicut's attack on Cochin the previous spring.

Ataide's letter gives Lopo Soares the news of India up until February, 1504.

What Lopo Soares does not know (but probably can guess) is that at this very moment there is a desperate battle going on in Cochin.

The returning armada makes a stop in Mozambique Island for repair and resupply in mid-February.

Realizing it is going to be a two-week stay, Lopo Soares dispatches two ships—Pêro de Mendonça and Lopo de Abreu—ahead of him to Lisbon to announce the results.

Pêro de Mendonça's ship will be lost somewhere after Cape Correntes, probably capsized on the South African coast, and will never be heard from again.

Lopo de Abreu will arrive in Lisbon in mid-July.