End of the Middle-Ages View of the South of the Bay of Inhambane by the Portuguese.

Taken from: Álvaro Velho: Roteiro da primeira viagem de Vasco da Gama. (1497-1499).

Álvaro Velho was on board but left on the return at Sierra Leone.

[ Terra da boa Gente and Rio do Cobre.] (Land of good people and Copper River)

On Thursday, January 11nth [1498] we discovered a small river and anchored near the coast. On the following day we went close in shore in our boats, and saw a crowd of Negroes, both men and women. They were tall people, and a chief (Senhor) was among them. The captain-major ordered Martin Affonso, who had been a long time in Manicongo, and another man, to land. They were received hospitably. The captain-major in consequence sent the chief a jacket, a pair of red pantaloons, a Moorish cap and a bracelet. The chief said that we were welcome to anything in his country of which we stood in need: at least this is how Martin Affonso understood him. That night, Martin Affonso and his companion accompanied the chief to his village, whilst we returned to the ships. On the road the chief donned the garments which had been presented to him, and to those who came forth to meet him he said with much apparent satisfaction: Look, what has been given to me! The people upon this clapped hands as a sign of courtesy, and this they did three or four times until he arrived at the village. Having paraded the whole of the place, thus dressed up, the chief retired to his house, and ordered his two guests to be lodged in a compound, where they were given porridge of millet, which abounds in that country, and a fowl, just like those of Portugal. All the night through, numbers of men and women came to have a look at them. In the morning the chief visited them, and asked them to go back to the ships. He ordered two men to accompany them, and gave them fowls as a present for the captain-major, telling them at the same time that he would show the things that had been given him to a great chief, who appears to be the king of that country. When our men reached the landing place where our boats awaited them, they were attended by quite two hundred men, who had come to see them.

This country seemed to us to be densely peopled. There are many chiefs, and the number of women seems to be greater than that of the men, for among those who came to see us there were forty women to every twenty men. The houses are built of straw. The arms of the people include long bows and arrows and spears with iron blades. Copper seems to be plentiful, for the people wore [ornaments] of it on their legs and arms and in their twisted hair. Tin, likewise, is found in the country, for it is to be seen on the hilts of their daggers, the sheaths of which are made of ivory. Linen cloth is highly prized by the people, who were always willing to give large quantities of copper in exchange for shirts. They have large calabashes in which they carry sea-water inland, where they pour it into pits, to obtain the salt [by evaporation].

We stayed five days at this place, taking in water, which our visitors conveyed to our boats. Our stay was not, however, sufficiently prolonged to enable us to take in as much water as we really needed, for the wind favored a prosecution of our voyage.

We were at anchor here, near the coast, exposed to the swell of the sea. We called the country Terra da Boa Gente (land of good people), and the river Rio do Cobre (copper river).

The first place Da Gama visits in East Africa is the river Limpopo = Inhampura (250km down from Inhambane gulf) or according to others the river Inharrime (90km down from Inhambane gulf). He was very well received by clearly wealthy people. Who must have seen occasionally other big ships passing to be so open to them.