Cristóvão da Gama Cristóvão da Gama ( c . 1516 – 29 August 1542 ) was a Portuguese military commander who led a Portuguese army of 400 musketeers on a crusade in Ethiopia and Somalia ( 1541 – 1543 ) against the far larger Somali Muslim army of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al - Ghazi ( also known as Ahmad Gurey ) aided by the Ottoman Empire . He ( along with the allied Ethiopian army ) was victorious against larger forces in four battles , but was seriously wounded in his last battle , after which he was captured and eventually executed . Sir Richard Burton , in his " First Footsteps in East Africa " , referred to him as " the most chivalrous soldier of a chivalrous age . " Early career . Cristóvão ( or Christopher ) da Gama was the son of Vasco da Gama and 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 , 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 . The Ethiopian campaign . Estêvão ' s raid came to nothing , and he returned to Massawa on May 22 , 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 Cristóvão to assist the beleaguered Emperor of Ethiopia , Gelawdewos . Four hundred Portuguese men - at - arms were selected , seventy of whom were also skilled artisans or engineers , and 130 slaves for this expedition , equipped with about a thousand arquebus es , an equal number of pikes and several bombard s . João Bermudes , 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 Gama and was an eye - witness to almost everything he recorded . 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 . The Portuguese reached Debarwa after a march of eleven 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 . Cristóvão would not allow his men to pass the months in idleness , employing them in constructing sledges for the bombards and in raiding nearby villages that had accepted Ahmed Gurey ' 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 . ) With one hundred men , he marched to the mountain , and invited Queen Sabla Wengel to join him ; she did so , bringing her entourage of thirty men and fifty women , all of whom were received with careful ceremony . 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 , and celebrated Epiphany in the province of Agame ( January 1542 ) . Gama ' s first encounter with the Somali troops was 2 February 1542 at the Battle of Bacente , which Whiteway located on Amba Senayt in Haramat . The invaders had taken possession of a hill from which they made raids into the countryside . Although Queen Sabla Wengel advised 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 that they would then stop bringing food and supplies . Fortunately , the engagement was an unquestioned success , and Gama ' s men took the hill despite superior enemy numbers , losing only eight men . 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 Gurey himself . As Queen Sable Wengel 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 Pedro Paez identifies with Sahart , although Whiteway locates it in the Wajirat Mountains ) . The Imam made the first contact , sending a messenger to Gama to demand that the Portuguese force either leave Ethiopia , join Ahmad Gurey , or be destroyed . On the Imam ' s orders , the messenger produced the gift of a monk ' s habit , an expensive insult to Gama . 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 [ Ahmad ] would see what the Portuguese were worth " , and delivered Gama ' s own insulting gift : a pair of " small tweezers for the eyebrows , and a very large mirror - - making him out [ to be ] a woman . " 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 Gama lost one of his captains : Ahmad Gurey 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 Somali - 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 . " Ahmad Gurey 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 Wajarat , while J . Spencer Trimingham places it in the Zobil mountains overlooking the Afar Depression . Gama marched after him as far as Lake Ashangi , where on the advice of Queen Sable Wengel , he made camp on a hill in Wofla as the rainy season started . At some point late in the rains , Gama was approached by a Jew ( possibly one of the Beta Israel ) , who told him of a mountain stronghold that Ahmad Gurey ' s followers controlled weakly ( identified by Whiteway as Amba Sel ) . It was also at this time that Gama was accurately informed about the Emperor Gelawdewos ' s true strength : the Ethiopian monarch was living as an outlaw in the south , with only sixty to seventy men in his army . However , the mountain was the major barrier between the two allies , and Gama also learned that the garrison had a large number of horses — a resource he had badly needed at the second battle of Jarta . Gama swiftly marched south with about a hundred men , and seized control of the mountain . Leaving thirty men behind to bring the horses , Gama led his victorious men back to Wofla , to find Ahmad Gurey 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 , Gurey received 2900 musketeers ( 2000 from Arabia and 900 handpicked Ottomans ) , many more than Gama had . Despite their bravery , the Portuguese were heavily defeated 28 August at the Battle of Wofla , with only 170 surviving the assault ( counting the thirty men escorting the horses from the Hill of the Jews ) . And Gama , his arm broken from a bullet , was captured that night with fourteen companions by a Somali patrol . Gama ' s death and aftermath . Cristóvão da Gama was brought to Ahmad Gurey ' s camp , where the Imam produced the tweezers Gama had given him and began to pluck out his beard . There Gama was tortured in an attempt to force him to convert to Islam . Castanhoso ' s - - and Jerónimo Lobo ' s account after him — describe Gama ' s fortitude and death in language worthy of a hagiography , complete with miracles . In the end Ahmad Gurey chopped off 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 the spring covered with a cairn of stones ; Lobo confirms this detail in describing the account of a party sent to retrieve Gama ' s remains and send them to his nephew , Vasco da Gama Conde da Vidigueira . ( Lobo gives the impression that he accompanied this expedition , but a letter of Manuel de Almeida states otherwise . ) Certain that the surviving Portuguese were scattered , without their firearms , and alone in a foreign land , Ahmad Gurey 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 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 ; with the promise of their ability , Gelawdewos was able to raise a new army , which met Ahmad Gurey 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 , all agree that Ahmad Gurey was killed by the men of Cristóvão da Gama to avenge their commander ' s death .