António de Saldanha

Being a man of "some nautical experience", Saldanha was appointed to head a squad of three vessels, part of Afonso de Albuquerque's fleet bound for India to reinforce the Portuguese settlement at Cochin.

Saldanha's three-ship squad (himself, Rui Lourenço Ravasco and Diogo Fernandes Pereira) set out of Lisbon in early May 1503, intending to catch up with Albuquerque's main fleet, which had gone on ahead.

He named the peak Table Mountain and (legend has it that he and his men) carved a cross in the rock of a nearby formation, traces of which can still be found on Lion's Head today.

It seems after multiple attempts, Saldanha finally doubled the cape, but his ship was in sufficiently poor shape to force him to put into Mossel Bay for repair.

With no sign of Saldanha, Lourenço entertained himself with some freelance piracy on the East African coast, capturing ships off Kilwa and reducing Zanzibar and Barawa to tribute, and battling against Mombassa (who were besieging the Portuguese-allied Malindi).

But badly battered, they were forced to stop for a long period of repairs and rest at Anjediva island, apparently unaware that, at the very moment, a desperate battle was being fought at Cochin, between the small Portuguese garrison and the large army of the Zamorin of Calicut.

In September, 1504, Saldanha and Lourenço Ravasco were found by 6th India Armada, under the command of Lopo Soares de Albergaria, who helped them finish their repairs, annexed them into his fleet and proceeded down to Cochin.

[5] In late 1506/early 1507, when the fleet was lingering in Mozambique Island waiting for favorable winds, the admiral Tristão da Cunha placed his own flagship, the Sant' Iago, under the temporary command of Saldanha, while he went off on some exploratory expeditions on the African coast in a smaller boat.

[6] Cunha soon came across the Flor de la Mar, the ship of João da Nova, who, on the return from India the previous year, had sprung a bad leak and been forced to stop for repairs.