Being Unable To Continue His
Voyage To India, On Account Of The Trade Wind Being Adverse, He
Determined Upon Taking Revenge Upon The King Of Mombaza, Who Infested
Those Of Melinda And Zanzibar From Hatred To The Portuguese.
If
successful, he proposed to have raised Munho Mahomet to the throne,
who was son to him who had received De Gama on his first voyage with so
much kindness.
Mahomet however objected to this honour, saying, "That he
was not deserving of the crown, being born of a Kafr slave: But if Nuno
wished to reward the friendship of his father, he might confer the crown
on his brother Cide Bubac, a younger son of his father by a legitimate
wife, and who was therefore of the royal blood of the kings of Quiloa."
Nuno set off on this expedition with 800 men, accompanied by Mahomet and
Bubac, each of whom had sixty followers. On the way he was joined by the
sheikh of Otonda, a neighbouring town, who offered to accompany him
with a well appointed vessel. This prince had silver chains on his legs,
which he wore as a memorial of having been wrongfully imprisoned by the
king of Mombaza, and had sworn never to take them off till revenged,
having been so used merely because he had shewn friendship to the
Portuguese.
Having been apprized of the intended attack, the king of Mombaza had
provided for his defence, by planting cannons on a fort or bulwark at
the mouth of the river, and brought 600 expert archers into the city.
Though opposed by a heavy cannonade from the bulwark, Nuno forced his
way up the river and anchored in the evening close to the city, whence
the archers shot continual flights of arrows into the ships, and were
answered by the Portuguese cannon.
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