“Not daring to go back to Baghdad, for fear that my master would take away my life, I joined up with another caravan which was going to Cairo. I offered my services to the travellers, who carried me on their camels and shared their provisions with me. When I got to Cairo I saw the great river which is called the Nile. I asked: Where does it come from? They answered: Its source is in the land of the Zanj. On which side? On the side of a large town called Aswan, which is on the frontier of the land of the blacks.
“With this information, I followed the banks of the Nile, going from one town to another, asking alms, which was not refused me. I fell, however, among a company of blacks who gave me a bad welcome. They seized on me, and put me among the servants with a load which was too heavy for me to carry. I fled and fell into the hands of another company which seized me and sold me. I escaped again, and went on in this manner, until, after a series of similar adventures, I found myself in the country which adjoins the land of the Zanj. There I put on a disguise. Of all the terrors I had experienced since I left Cairo, there was none equal to that which I felt as I approached my own land. For, I said to myself, a new king has no doubt taken my place on the throne and commands the army. To regain power is not an easy thing. If I make myself known or if anyone recognizes me, I shall be seized upon, taken to the new king and killed at once. Or perhaps one of his favourites will cut off my head to gain his favour.
“So, in prey to mortal terror, I went on my way by night, and stayed hidden during the day. When I reached the sea, I embarked on a ship; and, after stopping at various places, I disembarked one night on the shore of my country. I asked an old woman: Is the king who rules here a just king? She answered: My son, we have no king but God. And the good woman told me how the king had been carried off. I pretended the greatest astonishment at her story, as if it had not concerned me and events which I knew very well. The people of the kingdom, she said, have agreed not to have another king until they have certain news of the former one. For the diviners have told them that he is alive and in health, and safe in the land of the Arabs.
“When the day came, I went into the town and walked towards my palace. I found my family just as I had left them, but plunged into grief. My people listened to the account of my story, and it surprised them and filled them with joy. Like myself, they embraced the religion of Islam. Thus I returned into possession of my sovereignty, a month before you came. And here I am, happy and satisfied with the grace God has given me and mine, of knowing the precepts of Islam, the true faith, prayers, fasting, the pilgrimage, and what is permitted and what is forbidden: for no man else in the land of the Zanj has obtained a similar favour. And if I have forgiven you, it is because you were the first cause of the purity of my religion. But there is still one sin on my conscience which I pray God to take away from me.
“What is this thing, oh King? I asked. It is, he said, that I left my master, when I left Baghdad, without asking him his permission, and that I did not return to him. If I were to meet an honest man, I would ask him to take the price of my purchase to my master. If there were among you a really good man, if you were truly upright men, I would give you a sum of money to give him, a sum ten times what he paid as damages for the delay. But you are nothing but traitors and tricksters.
“We said farewell to him. Go, he said, and if you return, I shall not treat you otherwise than I have done. You will receive the best welcome. And the Muslims may know that they may come here to us, as to brothers, Muslims like themselves. As for accompanying you to your ship, I have reasons for not doing so. And on that we parted”.
Buzurg ibn Shahriyar of Ramhormutz, Kitab al-Ajaib al-Hind.
From The East African Coast: Select Documents G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville.
In 1414 a great fleet from China sailed into the Indian Ocean.
It was commanded by Zheng He, Grand Eunuch of the Three Treasures. Three times already since 1405 Zheng He and his ships had descended on the ports of Indochina, Indonesia, south-west India and Ceylon. Now they were advancing into more distant regions, covering in the process a larger total quantity of water than any seafaring people had before.
Zheng He was the Chinese Columbus. He has become for China, as Columbus has for the West, the personification of maritime endeavour. Yet he differed from his Western counterpart in a number of major ways. Three-quarters of a century before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, this Ming dynasty admiral had at his disposal resources which make the Genoese explorer look like an amateur. Columbus had three ships. They had one deck apiece, and together weighed a total of 415 tons. Zheng He had sixty-two galleons, and more than a hundred auxiliary vessels. The largest galleons had three decks on the poop alone, and each of them weighed about 1,500 tons. They had nine masts and twelve sails, and are said to have measured 440 feet long by 180 feet wide. With a force of perhaps a hundred men, Columbus might have been grateful for the company of
868 civil officers, 26,800 soldiers, 93 commanders, two senior commanders, 140 “millerions” (captains of a thousand men), 403 centurions, a Senior Secretary of the Board of Revenue, a geomancer, a military instructor, two military judges, 180 medical officers and assistants, two orderlies, seven senior eunuch ambassadors, ten junior eunuchs and 53 eunuch chamberlains
who travelled in Zheng He’s retinue, along with an unspecified number of signallers, interpreters, scribes, professional negotiators, purveyors, Chinese and foreign navigators, helmsmen, military and civil mechanics, naval captains, common sailors and cooks. Columbus’s crew, whose diet included dirty drinking water and flour baked with sea water, might also have appreciated the abundance of grain, fresh water, salt, soya sauce, tea, liquor, oil, candles, firewood and charcoal which Zheng He brought with him in his attendant supply ships and water tankers.
The Star Raft Philip Snow.
In the following year a present from the king of Malindi arrived at the court of the Emperor of China and created a great stir. It was a K’i-lin, a giraffe, together with a “celestial stag”, an oryx, and a “celestial horse”, a zebra. The giraffe was equated with a mythical creature believed to appear only at the courts of rulers of exceptional virtue and wisdom. It received a warm welcome from the Emperor.
Now in the twelfth year of which the cyclical position is chia-wu,
In a corner of the western seas, in the stagnant waters of a great morass,
Truly was produced at K’i-lin whose shape was high 15 feet,
With the body of a deer and the tail of an ox, and a fleshy boneless horn,
With luminous spots like a red cloud or a purple mist.
Its hoofs do not tread on (living) beings and in its wanderings it carefully selects its ground,
It walks in stately fashion and in its every motion it observes a rhythm,
Its harmonious voice sounds like a bell or a musical tube.
Gentle () is this animal that in all antiquity has been seen but once,
The manifestation of its divine spirit rises up to Heaven’s abode.
Ministers and people gathering to behold it vie in being the first to see the joyful spectacle,
As when the Phœnix of Ch’i sang in Chou or the Chart from the River was presented to (the Emperor) Yü.
The hundred myriads this year are united and observe the same rules of conduct.
Your servant on duty in the Forest of Letters, cherishing the presumptuous ambition to record this,
Has intoned this poem in order to present a hymn of praise to the Sacred Ruler.
Composed by Your servant, Shên Tu, Shih-chiang-hsüeh-shih, Feng-hsün-ta-fu of the Han-lin-yüan.
Thus it happened that the giraffe from the African wilderness, as it strode into the Emperor’s Court, became the emblem of Perfect Virtue, Perfect Government, and Perfect Harmony in the Empire and in the Universe. Rarely have such extravagant cosmic claims been made in such refined language for any living animal.
China’s Discovery of Africa J. J. L. Duyvendak.
On 8 July 1497 a fleet
of four Portuguese vessels under the command of Vasco da Gama put to sea from the mouth of the Tagus river. Each of the largest pair had a displacement of only 250 to 300 tonnes. The total crew comprised 148 seamen plus twelve convicts to be used for missions of the greatest danger. Da Gama’s small fleet sailed without mishap across the south Atlantic, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and made their first contact with the Moors (Arabs) at Mozambique, where they were provided with pilots. Arrived at the outer roadsteads of Mombasa, the inhabitants at first appeared to be friendly.
On Palm Sunday [8 April 1498] the King of Mombaça sent the captain-major a sheep and large quantities of oranges, lemons and sugar-cane, together with a ring, as a pledge of safety, letting him know that in case of his entering the port he would be supplied with all he stood in need of. This present was conveyed to us by two men, almost white, who said they were Christians, which appeared to be the fact. The captain-major sent the king a string of coral-beads as a return present, and let him know that he purposed entering the port on the following day. On the same day the captain-major’s vessel was visited by four Moors of distinction.
Two men were sent by the captain-major to the king, still further to confirm these peaceful assurances. When these landed they were followed by a crowd as far as the gates of the palace. Before reaching the king they passed through four doors, each guarded by a doorkeeper with a drawn cutlass. The king received them hospitably, and ordered that they should be shown over the city. They stopped on their way at the house of two Christian merchants, who showed them a paper (carta), an object of their adoration, on which was a sketch of the Holy Ghost.1 When they had seen all, the king sent them back with samples of cloves, pepper and corn,2 with which articles he would allow us to load our ships.
On Tuesday [10 April], when weighing anchor to enter the port, the captain-major’s vessel would not pay off, and struck the vessel which followed astern. We therefore again cast anchor. When the Moors who were in our ship saw that we did not go on, they scrambled into a zavra attached to our stern; whilst the two pilots whom we had brought from Moçambique jumped into the water, and were picked up by the men in the zavra. At night the captain-major “questioned” two Moors (from Moçambique) whom we had on board, by dropping boiling oil upon their skin, so that they might confess any treachery intended against us. They said that orders had been given to capture us as soon as we entered the port, and thus to avenge what we had done at Moçambique. And when this torture was being applied a second time, one of the Moors, although his hands were tied, threw himself into the sea, whilst the other did so during the morning watch.
About midnight two almadias, with many men in them, approached. The almadias stood off whilst the men entered the water, some swimming in the direction of the Berrio, others in that of the Raphael. Those who swam to the Berrio began to cut the cable. The men on watch thought at first that they were tunny fish, but when they perceived their mistake they shouted to the other vessels. The other swimmers had already got hold of the rigging of the mizzen-mast. Seeing themselves discovered, they silently slipped down and fled. These and other wicked tricks were practised upon us by these dogs, but our Lord did not allow them to succeed, because they were unbelievers.
A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama trans. E. G. Ravenstein.
The Portuguese poet Camoens (1524–1580), who was born in Lisbon in the year of da Gama’s death, took a more romantic view of these confused events. Luckily the goddess Dione, daughter of Oceanus and mother of Aphrodite, had taken the bold navigators under her wing; she flew like an arrow to their assistance and summoned reinforcements from the deep.
She calls together Nereus’ snowy daughters,
With all the azure Flock that haunts the deeps;
(For, being born from the salt-sea, the Waters
In her obedience as their Queen she keeps)
And, telling them the Cause that hither brought her,
With all in squadrons to that part she sweeps
Where the ships are, to warn them come no nigh,
Or they shall perish fundamentally.
Now through the ocean in great haste they flunder,
Raising the white foam with their silver Tayles.
Cloto with bosom breaks the waves in sunder,
And, with more fury than of custom, sayles;
Nise runs up an end, Nerine (the younger)
Leaps o’er them; frizled with her touching Scales,
The crooked Billows (yielding) make a lane
For the fear’d nymphs to post it through the Maine.
Upon a Triton’s back, with kindled Face,
The beautious Ericyna furious rode.
He, to whose fortune fell so great a grace,
Feels not the rider, proud of his fair load.
Now they were almost come upon the place
Where a stiff gale the warlike Navy blow’d.
Here they divide, and in an instant cast
Themselves upon the Ships advancing fast.
The Goddess, with a party of the rest,
Lays herself plum against the Admiral’s Prow,
Stopping her progress with such main contest
That the swol’n sail the wind in vain doth blow.
To the hard Oak she rivets her soft Breast,
Forcing the strong Ship back again to go.
Others (beleaguring) lift it from the Wave,
It from the bar of enemies to save.
As to their store-house when the Housewife Ants,
Carrying the unequal Burthens plac’t with flight
To their small shoulders (lest cold Winter’s wants
Surprise them helpless) exercise their might;
This tugs, that shoves, one runs, another pants;
Strength far above their size, they all unite;
So toil the Nymphs, to snatch and to defend
The men of Lusus from a dismal end.
Confused and alarmed by these supernatural events, the Muslims who had clambered on board da Gama’s vessels panicked, flung themselves overboard and swam ashore. So da Gama’s fleet was saved.
O great, undreampt of, strange deliverance!
O miracle most clear and evident!
O fraud discovered by blind Ignorance!
O faithless Foes, and Men devilishly bent!
What care, what Wisdom, is of sufficience
The stroke of Secret mischief to prevent,
Unless the Sov’raign Guardian from on high
Supply the strength of frail Humanity?
From Lusiads Luis de Camoens (trans. Richard Fanshawe).
At Malindi, Mombasa’s rival, da Gama received a much more amicable welcome.
The king wore a robe (royal cloak) of damask trimmed with green satin, and a rich touca (turban). He was seated on two cushioned chairs of bronze, beneath a round sunshade of crimson satin attached to a pole. An old man, who attended him as a page, carried a short sword in a silver sheath. There were many players on anafils, and two trumpets of ivory, richly carved, and of the size of a man, which were blown from a hole in the side, and made sweet harmony with the anafils.
On Thursday (19 April) the captain-major and Nicolau Coelho rowed along the front of the town, bombards having been placed in the poops of their long-boats. Many people were along the shore, and among them two horsemen, who appeared to take much delight in a sham fight. The king was carried in a palanquin from the stone steps of his palace to the side of the captain-major’s boats. He again begged the captain to come ashore, as he had a helpless father who wanted to see him, and that he and his sons would go on board the ships as hostages. The captain, however, excused himself….
On the following Sunday, 22 April, the king’s zavra brought on board one of his confidential servants, and as two days had passed without any visitors, the captain-major had this man seized, and sent word to the king that he required the pilots whom he had promised. The king, when he received this message, sent a Christian pilot, and the captain-
major allowed the gentleman, whom he had retained in his vessel, to go away.
We were much pleased with the Christian pilot whom the king had sent us. We learnt from him that the island of which we heard at Moçambique as being inhabited by Christians was in reality an island subject to this same King of Moçambique; that half of it belonged to the Moors and the other half to the Christians; that many pearls were to be found there, and that it was called Quylee [Kilwa]. This is the island the Moorish pilots wanted to take us to, and we also wished to go there, for we believed that what they said was true.
The town of Malindi lies in a bay and extends along the shore. It may be likened to Alcouchette [a town on the Tagus above Lisbon]. Its houses are lofty and well whitewashed, and have many windows; on the land side are palm-groves, and all around it maize and vegetables are being cultivated.
A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama trans. E. G. Ravenstein.
Nine Faces Of Kenya Page 4