The events at Bacente have alerted Ahmad Gragn, as Queen Sable Wengel had feared, that a hostile army has entered the area, and he marches north to confront it, meeting Gama at Jarte (which Whiteway identifies with the province of Wagarta).

The Imam makes the first contact, sending a messenger to Gama to demand that the Portuguese force either leave Ethiopia, join Ahmad Gragn, or be destroyed.

On the Imam's orders, the messenger produces the gift of a monk's habit, an expensive insult to Gama.

Gama responds with his own messenger, who delivers "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 Gragn] would see what the Portuguese were worth", and delivers 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 follow these exchanges at Jarta, the first on April 4 and the next on April 16.

The first battle is a victory for the Portuguese, although Gama loses one of his captains: Ahmad Gragn is wounded, which forces his troops to retire to the far side of the plain.

The Portuguese, finding their encampment on the battlefield becoming unbearable, move across the plain next to the enemy camp, which leads to the second battle.

This time, the Muslim army is 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 Gragn is forced to retreat further south, to a village Whiteway identifies as Wajarat.

With fortune against him, the local population now openly defies him by refusing to provide him supplies or soldiers.

Gama marches as far as Lake Ashangi, where, on the advice of Queen Sable Wengel, he makes camp on a hill in Wofla as the rainy season starts.