Portuguese expedition to Sofala (1505)

The 1505 expedition of Pêro de Anaia to Sofala led to the establishment of Fort São Caetano, the first permanent Portuguese colony in East Africa.

Around 1489, Sofala had been visited by the Portuguese spy Pêro da Covilhã, who identified it as the principal emporium for the gold trade with the interior kingdom of Monomatapa.

Finally, in 1502, Vasco da Gama returned to the area with a new fleet, and, while idling on Mozambique Island, dispatched a detachment of boats under Pedro Afonso de Aguiar to visit Sofala.

At any rate, the elderly sheikh Isuf realized it would be better to make allies rather than enemies out of the Portuguese, and so agreed to Aguiar's proposals and signed a treaty of commercial and political alliance with the Kingdom of Portugal.

After the 4th Armada returned to Lisbon, with news of the Sofalese treaty, preparations immediately began to equip an expedition to erect a Portuguese factory and fortress in Sofala.

It is a tentative list compiled from various conflicting accounts: [Because the name of Anaia's flagship is conspicuously missing, some writers sometimes mistakenly call it the Espirito Santo (confusing it with Magalhães's).

After the fort was built, Anaia was to dispatch four ships - the three large naus and one caravel - under the overall command of Pero Barreto de Magalhães to Cochin, India, where viceroy Almeida would ensure they would load up with spices and be sent back to Lisbon.

They gradually arrive, each with their own tale of woe: Early September 1505 - After gathering his scattered ships, Pêro de Anaia requests an audience with the sheikh Isuf of Sofala.

What Pêro de Anaia was now proposing - the establishment of a permanent Portuguese factory and fort in the city – probably exceeds Isuf's authority to allow.

Nonetheless, the recent news of Almeida's attacks on Kilwa and Mombasa persuade sheikh Isuf that a similar fate might await Sofala if he shows any sign of legal quibbling or recalcitrance.

This constraint is slightly alleviated with the appearance at Sofala, in early January 1506, of the Kilwa patrol caravel of Gonçalo Vaz de Goes, with a substantial cargo of Indian trade goods (most of it confiscated from captured Kilwan merchant ships who were 'violating' the new Portuguese mercantilist rules).

In January 1506, as per his instructions, captain Pêro de Anaia prepares the fleet of four ships to be dispatched to vice-roy Almeida in India.

These are the three large naus, Espírito Santo (under Pedro Barreto de Magalhães), the Santo António (now under João Vaz de Almada) and Anaia's old flagship (now captained by his pilot, Gonçalo Álvares), and the caravel of Manuel Fernandes (now captained by Jorge Mendes Çacoto) [11] As the monsoon season is not yet open for an Indian Ocean crossing, the Sofala naus intend to make their way slowly up the East African coast, escorted by Goes's caravel.

Young Anaia immediately sets about cruising the coast, and captures two local Muslim fustas - one loaded with Indian calico, another with ivory - and mercilessly puts their crews to death.

In the meantime, the Sofala naus, under the overall command of Pedro Barreto de Magalhães, stop by Mozambique Island, where they find the caravel of Lucas da Fonseca.

Barreto de Magalhães furiously admonishes young Anaia for losing his caravels, and makes up his mind to carry him to India in chains and put him on trial before the viceroy Almeida.

[13] Barreto's nau, Espirito Santo, capsizes and is lost, but most of the cargo and crew is saved with the timely assistance of the caravels of Lucas da Fonseca and Jorge Mendes Çacoto.

Leaving the three heavier ships anchored in Anjediva, all the captains and as much of the crew as possible pile into Lucas da Fonseca's caravel and cruise down the coast to Cochin to present themselves to viceroy Francisco de Almeida.

A group of Sofalese nobles, led by a certain Mengo Musaf (son-in-law of the sheikh Isuf [16]), sets about trying to persuade the ageing ruler to abandon his treaty and expel the Portuguese.

Pêro de Anaia, with what remains of his diseased garrison and his new Swahili auxiliaries, leads a sally out and disperses the surprised Bantu besiegers in a bloody encounter.

Despite their protests of innocence, Moconde indignantly withdraws his warriors from the city, and returns to the mainland (burning down some of the Swahili nobles' villages on their way, as a parting gesture).

That same night, in a bold operation, Anaia leads a Portuguese squad stealthily through the abandoned streets of Sofala and makes his way into the city's palace.

In early June, the ships of Cide Barbudo and Pedro Quaresma, who had been on a search-and-rescue mission in South Africa, arrive in Sofala harbor, intending to deliver the Portuguese king's new instructions to Pêro de Anaia.

Instead they find the Sofala fort and garrison in a dilapidated state, 76 Portuguese are by now dead from malarial fever[19] and the remainder weakened and starving for lack of food.

Streams of refugees had left the once-great city of Kilwa practically deserted, save for roving gangs of partisans fighting each other in the streets.

Cide Barbudo hurried on to India, reaching Cochin in August 1506, delivering his report on the disastrous conditions of both Sofala and Kilwa to the vice-roy D. Francisco de Almeida.

Gold mining in the interior had gravitated north, near the Zambezi, and delivery was being directed to better-situated emerging new coastal towns like Quelimane and Angoche.

Abreu erected Fort São Gabriel on Mozambique Island in late 1507, that would henceforth serve as the main garrison and capital of the capitaincy.