Estêvão da Gama (eldest son of the famous navigator Vasco da Gama and now Portugal’s Viceroy of India), returns to Massawa on May 22, 1541, to rejoin the ships he has left here.

While at Massawa, he attempts to salvage something from this raid by dispatching an expeditionary force under his younger brother Cristavão to assist the beleaguered Emperor of Ethiopia, who is now Gelawdewos; the Portuguese are mindful of their need for a mainland ally in East Africa.

Four hundred Portuguese men-at-arms are selected, seventy of whom are also skilled artisans or engineers, and one hundred and thirty slaves for this expedition, equipped with about a thousand arquebuses, an equal number of pikes and several bombards.

After being landed at Massawa and Arqiqo, the next port south of Massawa, the men began their trek inland to Debarwa, the capital of the Bahr negus, or Ethiopian viceroy for the northern provinces.