ABSTRACT
Amighty armada appeared suddenly in the Indian Ocean in the fifteenthcentury, establishing its command with overwhelming force from Java to Calicut to Malindi, the richest port in east Africa, north of Mombasa and south of Mogadishu. From a distance, their sails seemed like massed and billowing clouds and their drums sent tremors through any port they
neared. The treasure ship that held their cargo had nine masts and was 400 feet long; by comparison Colombus’s Santa Maria was only 85 feet. This armada was not proof of any European prowess. It had sailed from China.
