ABSTRACT
The first Portuguese account of the interior of east-central Africa had been the letter of Alcacova, which had been compiled from reports reaching the Sofala factory. With the decline in the quantities of gold reaching Kilwa and Sofala, the Portuguese began to carry out a major reappraisal of their East African operation. Antonio Fernandes was a degredado – a convict sent overseas to undertake any dangerous mission that the Portuguese required. The rambling letter from Vaz de Almada makes further reference to the travels of Antonio Fernandes and provides the first clear indication that the Portuguese understood the significance of the trade that was moving along the Zambesi. This chapter describes the eastern Africa, trying to fit the new geographical knowledge into the traditional Ptolemaic geography of Africa, gathering information on gold mining and trying to understand the political context of Portugal's attempts to exploit the gold of central Africa.
