THE ISLAND OF MOilEASSA. 



205 



without decks and built without the use of nails, — the planks 

 being bound together by cocoa fibres, and the sails being made 

 of palm-leaves. They had compasses and charts. 



The Moorish governor of Mozambique and the other Moors sup- 

 posed the Portuguese to be Turks, on account of the whiteness 

 of their skin. They sent them provisions, in return for which 

 da Gama sent the shah a quantity of red caps, coral, copper 

 vessels, and bells. The shah set no value upon these articles, 

 and inquired disdainfully why the captain had not sent him 

 scarlet cloth. He afterwards went on board the flag-ship, where 

 he was received with hospitality, though not without secret pre- 

 parations against treachery. The Portuguese learned from him 

 that he governed the island as the deputy of the King of 

 Quiloa ; that Prester John lived and ruled a long distance 

 towards the interior of the mainland; that Calicut, whither da 

 Gama was bound, was two thousand miles to the northeast, but 

 that he could not proceed thither without the guidance of pilots 

 familiar with the navigation. He promised to furnish him with 

 two. Discovering subsequently, however, that the strangers 

 were Christians, the shah contrived a plot for their destruction. 

 The vessels escaped, but with only one pilot, whose treachery 

 throughout the voyage was a source of constant annoyance 

 and peril. On departing, da Gama gave the traitors a broad- 

 side, which did considerable damage to their village of thatch. 



On the 1st of April, da Gama gave to an island which he 

 discovered the name of Ac,outado, in commemoration of a sound 

 flagellation which was there administered to the pilot for telling 

 him it formed part of the continent, — upon which he confessed 

 that his purpose in thus misrepresenting the case was to wreck 

 and destroy the ships. On the 7th, they came to the large 

 island of Mombassa, where they found rice, millet, poultry, 

 and fat cattle, and sheep without tails. The orchards were 

 filled with fig, orange, and lemon trees. This island received 

 honey, ivory, and wax from a port upon the mainland. The 



