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Cristovão da Gama (c.1516 - 29 August 1542) was a Portuguese soldier, who led a Portuguese army in Ethiopia against Imam Ahmad Gragn. He was victorious against a larger forces in four battles, but was defeated in his last battle, after which he was captured and killed.

Cristovão (or Christopher) da Gama was the son of Vasco da Gama, and younger brother of Estevão da Gama. He first came to India in 1532 with his brother, returned to Portugal in 1535, then joined Garcia de Noronha in sailing to Diu 6 April 1538. Many times in these travels he demonstrated a quick mind that saved his companions, and in recognition for his usefulness,1 in 1541 his brother Estevao, now Viceroy of India, gave him command of a ship in the fleet Estavao led into the Red Sea against the Ottoman naval base at Suez.

The Ethiopian campaign

Estevao's raid came to nothing, and he returned to Massawa 22 May, 1541, to rejoin the ships he had left there. While at Massawa, he attempted to salvage something from this raid by dispatching an expeditionary force under Christavão to assist the beleagured Emperor of Ethiopia, who was now Gelawdewos. Four hundred Portuguese men-at-arms were selected, 70 of whom were also skilled artisans or engineers, and 130 slaves for this expedition, equipped with about 1000 arquebuses, an equal number of pikes and several bombards.2 John Bermudez, who had represented himself as the patriarch of Ethiopia to the Portuguese, accompanied this expedition. An account of this campaign in the Ethiopian highlands was later written by Miguel de Castanhoso, who accompanied da Gama and was an eye-witness to almost everything he recorded.3 The men were landed at Massawa and Arqiqo, the next port south of Massawa, and began their trek inland to Debarwa, the capital of the Bahr negus, or Ethiopian viceroy for the northern provinces.4

They reached Debarwa after a march of 11 days on 20 July, to learn that the rainy season (which Castanhoso, as well as the natives, referred to as "winter") made further travel impossible.5 Cristavão would not allow his men to pass the months in idleness, and had them construct sleds for the bombards and making raids on nearby villages that had accepted Ahmed Gragn's rule. He also learned from the Bahr negus that Queen Sabla Wengel was camped nearby on top of a mountain that Ahmed had not been able to reduce by siege. (R.S. Whiteway identifies this mountain with Debre Damo.6) With one hundred men, he marched to the mountain, and invited Queen Sabla Wengel to join him; she did so, bringing her entourage of 30 men and 50 women, all of whom were received with careful ceremony.7.

Once the rains ended, the Portuguese continued south. After months slowed by their equipment, da Gama decided to leave half of it in an arsenal on Debre Damo. His army passed the Church of St. Romanos around Christmas of 1541,8 and celebrated Epiphany in the province of Agame (January 1542).9 Da Gama's first encounter with the Muslim troops was 2 February, 1542 at the Battle of Bacente, which Whiteway identified with Amba Sonaut in Haramat.10 The invaders had taken possession of a hill from which they made raids into the countryside. Although Queen Sabla Wengel advised da Gama to march around this hill, advising him to wait until her son Emperor Gelawdewos could arrive from Shewa and join him, he believed that failing to engage the invaders would make the natives distrust his troops, and they would then stop bringing food and supplies. Fortunately the engagement was an unquestioned success, and da Gama's men took the hill despite superior enemy numbers, losing only 8 men.11

At the end of February, two Portuguese arrived from a ship anchored at Massawa, escorted by 6 locals. Da Gama responded with a detachment of 40 men to make contact and obtain supplies and exchange news. This group failed to reach the ship before it sailed, and the only outcome was that these soldiers and their captain were absent for the next battle, which was against Ahmad Gragn himself.

As Queen Sable Wengel had feared, the events at Bacente alerted Ahmad Gragn that a hostile army had entered the area, and he marched north to confront it, meeting da Gama at Jarte (which Whiteway identifies with the province of Wagarta).12 The Imam made the first contact, sending a messenger to da Gama to demand that the Portuguese force either leave Ethiopia or join Ahmad Gragn, or be destroyed. On the Imam's orders, the messenger produced the gift of a monk's habit, an expensive insult to da Gama. Da Gama responded with his own messenger, who delivered "a few lines in Arabic", stating that he had come to Ethiopia "by order of the great Lion of the Sea" and on the "following day he Gragn would see what the Portuguese were worth", and delivered his own insulting gift -- a pair of "small tweezers for the eyebrows, and a very large mirror -- making him out a woman." 13

Two battles followed these exchanges at Jarta, the first on 4 April and the next on 16 April. The first battle was a victory for the Portuguese, although da Gama lost one of his captains, Ahmad Gragn was wounded, which forced his troops to retire to the far side of the plain. The Portuguese, finding their encampment on the battlefield becoming unbearable, moved across the plain next to the enemy camp, which led to the second battle. This time, the Muslim army was even more soundly defeated, and according to Castanhoso, "The victory would have been complete this day had we only 100 horses to finish it."14

Ahmad Gragn was forced to retreat further south, to a village Whiteway identifies as Wajarat. With fortune against him, the local population now openly defied him, and refused to provide him provisions.15 Da Gama marched as far as Lake Ashangi, where he made camp on a hill named Wofla on the advice of Queen Sable Wengel as the rainy season started.

At some point late in the rains, da Gama was approached by a Jew (possibly one of the Beta Israel), who told him of a mountain stronghold that Ahmad Gragn's followers controlled weakly (identified by Whiteway as Amba Sel.16 It was also at this time that da Gama was accurately informed about the Emperor Gelawdewos' true strength: the Ethiopian monarch was living as an outlaw in the south, with only 60 to 70 men in his army.17 However, the mountain was the major barrier between the two allies, and da Gama also learned that the garrison had a large number of horses -- a resource he had badly needed in his last battle. Da Gama swiftly marched south with about 100 men, and siezed control of the mountain.

Leaving 30 men behind to bring the horses back, da Gama led his victorious men back to Wofla, to find that Ahmad Gragn was in position to attack that next morning. Having successfully petitioned the governor of Zabid in South Arabia, as well as offering "much money" and submission to the official, Gragn received a number of musketmen, far more than da Gama had.18 Despite their bravery, the Portuguese were heavily defeated 28 August at the Battle of Wofla, with only 170 surviving the assault (counting the 30 men escorting the horses from the Hill of the Jews). And da Gama, his arm broken from a bullet, was captured that night with 14 companions by a Moslem patrol.19

da Gama's death and aftermath

Cristavao da Gama was brought to Ahmad Gragn's camp, where the Imam produced the tweezers da Gama had given him and began to pluck out his beard. He was tortured in an attempt to force him to convert to Islam. Castanhoso's -- and Jerónimo Lobo's account after him -- describe da Gama's fortitude and death in language worthy of a hagiography, complete with miracles.20 In the end Ahmad Gragn chopped off da Gama's head, and tossed it into a nearby spring, whose waters Castanhoso reported gained a reputation for giving "health to the sick". Lobo elaborates upon this story, claiming that upon hearing of this miracle the Imam had a dead dog tossed into the spring and covered with a cairn of stones; Lobo confirms this detail in describing the account of a party sent to retrieve da Gama's remains and send them to his nephew, Vasco da Gama Conde Vidigueira. (Lobo gives the impression that he accompanied this expedition, but a letter of Manoel Almeida states otherwise.)21

Certain that the surviving Portuguese were scattered, without their firearms, and alone in a foreign land Ahmad Gragn concluded that this threat was ended, dismissed all but 200 of the foreign musketeers, and proceeded to his camp at Derasgue on the shores of Lake Tana. However, over 120 men had joined Queen Sabla Wengel who had taken refuge at the Mountain of the Jews. Ten days later her son, Emperor Gelawdewos, arrived and they took measure of their situation. Using the arms stockpiled at Debre Damo, the Portuguese were able to rearm themselves, and with the promise of their ability Gelawdewos was able to raise a new army, which met Ahmad Gragn at Wayna Daga. Expressing their loyalty to their fallen general, the Portuguese musketmen aimed their fire only at the Muslim musketmen who had played a decisive part at Wofla -- and Imam Ahmad Gragn himself. While the sources differ on the exact details, all agree that Ahmad Gragn was killed by the men of the deceased Cristavão da Gama to avenge their fallen leader.22

References

  1. For this part of his career and arrival, see R.S. Whiteway, editor and translator, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1441-1543, 1902. (Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1967), pp. xlii ff.
  2. According to Gaspar Correa, as translated by Whiteway, p. 274.
  3. Translated by R.S. Whiteway with notes, in the work above.
  4. Castanhoso does not explicitly name this town, but Whiteway (p. xlvi) makes a convincing case that Debarwa is meant.
  5. Whiteway, p. 9.
  6. Whiteway, pp. xlvii f. Debre Damo is also home to a monastery, and the mountain since time immemorial has been forbidden to women; Whiteway admits to this problem, but fails to explain why the monks permitted the Queen and her daughters to trespass on the mountain.
  7. Whiteway, pp. 10-20.
  8. Whiteway's identification (pp. l ff) of a "small house in which were some three hundred men, more or less, all desiccated, sewn up in very dry skins, the skins very much decayed but the bodies entire" (pp. 26f).
  9. Whiteway, p. 28.
  10. Whiteway, pp. lii f.
  11. Whiteway, pp. 31f.
  12. Whiteway, p. liv
  13. Whiteway, pp. 26f
  14. Whiteway, p. 51.
  15. Whiteway, pp. lix f.
  16. Whiteway, pp. 56 f.
  17. The number of musketmen vary amongst the primary sources. Castanhoso states there were 900 musketmen (Whiteway, p.55), the Emperor Gelawdewos in two different letters states there were 600 (translated in Whiteway, pp. 117, 120).
  18. Whiteway, pp. 65 f.
  19. Jerónimo Lobo, The Itinerario of Jerónimo Lobo, translated by Donald M. Lockhart (London: Hakluyt Society, 1984), pp. 207f; Castanhoso's account is translated in Whiteway, pp. 66-70.
  20. Castanhoso in Whiteway, p. 68; Lobo, p. 208
  21. Whiteway refers to this letter at p. lxiv n.1
  22. Castanhoso fails to mention the story of John of Castillo's suicide charge into the Moslem troops to fire upon Ahmad Gragn at point-blank range; however every other near-contemporary account of the battle (e.g., Bermudez, Lobo) states that this is how the Imam died, so at the very least it was an early legend repeated in Ethiopian and Catholic circles.

1510s births | 1542 deaths | History of Ethiopia | Portuguese soldiers

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Cristovão da Gama".

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