[1][2] By the end of March, the Portuguese fleet set sail for the Battle of Suez, though some vessels remained stationed at Massawa, where they spent over a month.

The port’s extreme climate and near-total lack of provisions took a severe toll on the Portuguese forces left behind, and the prospect of starving to death drove more than a hundred of them to mutiny.

Furthermore, João Bermudez, the physician of Rodrigo da Lima’s embassy and a key proponent of the military campaign against the Adal Sultanate, persuaded these mutineers that his highland patriarchate was a paradise and that there was a Christian cause worth fighting for.

One by one they slipped ashore and disappeared, the watchmen sounded the alarm and Manuel da Gama ordered them to be fired upon but the gunners' sympathies were on the side of the deserters, and with good will, all missed the mark.

Hearing of the Portuguese contingent of 100 men arriving to assist the Abyssinians, Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim sent an expedition to counter them.

Scrambling over blistering stones and breathing the desert’s fiery air, they were tormented by a thirst they had carelessly overlooked.

Hostilities ceased immediately, yet some Portuguese remained wary, believing it more prudent to continue fighting.

Inside the tent, Gragn was sitting with his hands devoutly clasped about a string of beads to which was hung a little wooden cross.

But among them, one man, though gravely wounded, had the presence of mind to collapse and feign death, face down in his own blood.

With unyielding self-control, he remained motionless throughout the day, silently bearing witness to his fallen companions' fate.

The Moors bound the surrendered prisoners hand and foot, stripped them of their clothing, and confined them in a cattle pen.

At their command, the pen was unlatched, and one captive was released, forced to step forward where the Imam and his captains waited on horseback.

When the sun had cooled and silence fell over the slaughter, the Moors gathered their belongings and departed, leaving behind only the lifeless bodies that covered the ground.