Cristóvão da Gama
Cristóvão da Gama | |
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Portuguese | |
Occupation | Military commander |
Known for | Leader of a Portuguese military expedition in Ethiopia |
Parent(s) | Vasco da Gama Catarina de Ataíde |
Signature | |
Cristóvão da Gama (c. 1516 – 29 August 1542), anglicised as Christopher da Gama, was a Portuguese military commander who led a Portuguese army of 400 musketeers to assist Ethiopia that faced Islamic Jihad from the Adal Sultanate led by Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi.
He, along with the allied Ethiopian army, was victorious against Adal forces in four battles, but he was seriously wounded in his last battle and was captured, tortured, and executed by Imam Ahmad. Richard Burton, in his First Footsteps in East Africa, referred to Gama as "the most chivalrous soldier of a chivalrous age".[1]
Early career
Cristóvão (or Christopher) da Gama was the son of navigator Vasco da Gama and the younger brother of Estêvão 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. In recognition of his usefulness,[2] in 1541, his brother Estêvão, then Viceroy of India, gave him command of a ship in the fleet Estêvão led into the Red Sea against the Ottoman naval base at Suez. He was defeated along with his brother in the ensuing battle against the Ottomans.
Ethiopian campaign
After this crushing
The Portuguese reached Debarwa after a march of eleven days on 20 July, to learn that the
Once the rains ended, the Portuguese continued south. After months of being 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,
At the end of February, two Portuguese arrived from a ship anchored at Massawa, escorted by six people native to the area. Gama responded with a detachment of forty men to make contact, 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 Seble Wongel had feared, the events at Bacente alerted Ahmad that a hostile army had entered the area, and he marched north to confront it, meeting Gama at Jarte (which
Two battles followed these exchanges at Jarte, the first on 4 April and the next on 16 April. The first battle was a victory for the Portuguese, although 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 Adal-Ottoman army was even more soundly defeated, and according to Castanhoso, "The victory would have been complete this day had we only [had] a hundred horses to finish it."[15]
Ahmad was forced to retreat further south, where with fortune against him, the local population now openly defied him by refusing to provide him supplies or soldiers. Whiteway identifies the Imam's refuge as a village named
At some point late in the rains, Gama was approached by a
Leaving thirty men behind to bring the horses, Gama led his victorious men back to Wofla, to find Ahmad Gragn in position to attack that next morning. Having successfully petitioned the governor of
Gama's death and aftermath
Cristóvão da Gama was brought to
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 two hundred of the foreign musketeers, and proceeded to his camp at Derasge on the shores of Lake Tana. However, over 120 men had joined Queen Seble Wongel, 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; with the promise of their ability, Gelawdewos was able to raise a new army, which met Ahmad Gragn at Wayna Daga. The Portuguese musketeers aimed their fire only at the Muslim musketeers, who had played a decisive part at Wofla—and at Imam Ahmad himself. While the sources differ on the exact details, most agree that Ahmad Gragn was killed by the men of Cristóvão da Gama to avenge their commander's death.[25]
References
- ^ Richard Burton, First Footsteps in East Africa (New York: Praeger, 1966), p. 181
- ^ 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.
- Gaspar Corrêa, as translated by Whiteway, p. 274.
- ^ Translated by R.S. Whiteway with notes, in the work above.
- ^ Castanhoso does not explicitly name this town, but Whiteway (p. xlvi) makes a convincing case that Debarwa is meant.
- ^ Whiteway, p. 9.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Whiteway, pp. 10–20.
- ^ 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).
- ^ Whiteway, p. 28.
- ^ Whiteway, pp. lii f.
- ^ Whiteway, pp. 31f.
- ^ Whiteway, p. liv
- ^ Whiteway, pp. 26f
- ^ Whiteway, p. 51.
- ^ Whiteway, pp. lix f.
- ^ J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Geoffrey Cumberlege for the University Press, 1952), p. 89.
- ^ Whiteway, pp. 56 f.
- ^ The number of musketeers varies amongst the primary sources: Castanhoso states that there were nine hundred musketeers (Whiteway, p. 55); the Emperor Gelawdewos in two different letters states that there were six hundred (translated in Whiteway, pp. 117, 120).
- ^ Whiteway, pp. 65 f.
- ^ Jerónimo Lobo, The Itinerário of Jerónimo Lobo, translated by Donald M. Lockhart (London: Hakluyt Society, 1984), pp. 207f; Castanhoso's account is translated in Whiteway, pp. 66–70.
- ^ Makkham, C. E. (1867). The Portuguese Expeditions to Abyssinia in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. Royal Geographical Society. p. 6.
- ^ Castanhoso in Whiteway, p. 68; Lobo, p. 208
- ^ Whiteway refers to this letter at p. lxiv n.1
- ^ Castanhoso fails to mention the story of John of Castillo, who charged into the Muslim troops so he could fire upon Ahmad Gurey at point-blank range, after which the Imam's followers killed him; however, every other near-contemporary account of the battle (e.g., Bermudez, Lobo) describes this as how the Imam died, so at the very least it was an early legend repeated in Ethiopian and Roman Catholic circles.