ABSTRACT
The king, Dom Sebastiao, had been so frequently urged to command that the conquest of the very rich mines of Monomotapa be undertaken that he was moved to do so, and for this expedition and conquest he selected Francisco Barreto, who had been governor of India, and was then general of the galleys of the kingdom. After the death of Barreto in Sena, the command of the army was given to Vasco Fernandes Homem, and this is the account of the march of his five hundred men from the Sofala coast to Manica – certainly the largest Portuguese armed force to enter the country until the twentieth century. Vasco Fernandes Homem succeeded Francisco Barreto as commander of the expedition to conquer the mines in 1573. His letter describing the campaign in central Africa is one of the very few private letters concerning Portuguese activities in Africa to have survived.
