The second mission stumbled upon numerous hippopotami and many members of the expedition were killed or wounded by the startled animals.
The forth mission failed when torrential downpours in December made travel impossible.
The fifth expedition, led by Portuguese explorers Manuel Gomes and Agostinho Cabeçadas suffered from a leopard attack in which both of the aforementioned explorers, who were the leaders of the expedition were mauled by the same leopard a few miles northwest of Massangena.
The sixth and seventh expeditions were attacked by the armed bands of the Tsonga people and were forced to turn back.
For this reason the area to northwest of Massangena, which is roughly today's Masvingo Province of Zimbabwe, was labelled as "desconhecida" and/or "inexplorada" on Portuguese maps by the late 1770s and early 1780s.