De Gama, having under his command three vessels, manned with sixty men, left Lisbon on the 8th July, 1497. He called at the Cape de Verde Islands, and thence continued his course to the southward, along the coast of Africa, until he came to an anchor in St. Helena Bay. Two days after quitting which, he attained the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, where he had to contend with the south-east trade-wind, and the insubordination of his crews. Having, by his perseverance and address, overcome the opposition of the elements and the mutineers in his fleet, he rounded the great promontory of Africa, and by his subsequent success, earned for himself the proud distinction, throughout all ages, of having been the first who reached India by that route.
Anxious to visit Sofala, discovered by his countryman Covilham, he followed the coast of Africa from its southern extreme. He anchored in Saint Blasse Bay, after leaving which, he arrived at the island of Santa Cruz, which was the limit of the discoveries of his predecessor Diaz. Thence, continuing his own discoveries, he kept the land in view as he proceeded to the northward. He touched at Natal, passed Sofala, and arrived at Mozambique, where he anchored, according to Osorio, on the 1st of March, but, according to the Diario Portuguez, on the 28th February, 1498, just two months before Columbus set out on his third voyage.
De Gama found that Mozambique was an Arab settlement, under the dominion of the Sultan of Kilwa, whose subordinate, Zacoëja, was then governor of Mozambique.
Kilwa was described to him as one of the most celebrated ports of the country, having vessels which had constant commercial relations with Arabia, Persia, and India.
Sofala was spoken of as the country which furnished large and inexhaustible quantities of gold; and he found that the whole trade of the country was in the hands of the Arabs, whose vessels were supplied with the mariner’s compass, marine charts, and astrolabes, or instruments for taking the altitude of the heavenly bodies, for the purpose of navigating these seas.
His application for pilots to take him to Calicut was readily complied with, and two pilots were furnished to him by the governor, Zacoëja.
On the arrival of the Portuguese at Mozambique, it was at first supposed that the strangers were Arab traders from Berbera, on the north-east coast of Africa, opposite to the Arab emporium of Aden, and hence arose the hospitality with which they were received. But on the true state, of the case being known, that De Gama and his followers were “infidel dogs,” who had found their way from the west round the Cape of Good Hope, the animosity of the Arabs was immediately let loose upon the strangers; who, not satisfied with depriving them of their fair possessions in the west, had circumnavigated Africa, to despoil them in the east.
On this discovery being made, the battle of the Crescent and the Cross commenced in the Indian Ocean, and from that moment De Gama had another difficulty to contend with in his voyage of discovery.
In consequence of the hostility displayed towards him by the Mozambique people, he was obliged to quit the port, and directed his course in search of Kilwa, in order to place himself in communication with the Sultan of that place.
His pilots, doubtless acting under the instructions of the Mozambique Arab, failed to reach Kilwa, but, instead, found themselves off Mombas. They endeavoured to persuade De Gama that the greater part of the inhabitants of Mombas were Christians, and that it was the most suitable place to refit his ships, and refresh their crews, after their long and harassing voyage.