On April 1, 1498, Dagama's fleet finally arrived at the port of Mombasa in Kenya, the eastern coast of Africa, and stopped there.

Columbus was shocked (or frightened) to speak when he looked at the "sailing secrets" handed over to Marin. Because Marin calculated that the Dagama fleet would arrive in Mombasa on the day it would arrive in Mombasa.

Then, Columbus saw the following instructions - ignore the Da Gama fleet, take advantage of the Da Gama fleet stopping in Mombasa and head north to Malindi at full speed...

Then, Columbus did as he did. Instead of approaching the port of Mombasa, he led his fleet around Mombasa and headed north directly. In this way, Columbus' fleet finally stopped hiking at Gama's fleet, but began to explore his own route...

However, Dagama's fleet was coldly treated by locals in Mombasa. Because the local chief believed that the Portuguese were their competitors in maritime trade, they naturally would not have a good face.

The locals certainly knew about the Indian route, but at the command of the chief, no one revealed the news about the Indian route to Da Gama. After staying and resting in the local area for a few days, Da Gama had to start an anchor again and sail north with his fleet.

At this time, there were already people in Dagama's fleet who still had scurvy. Of course, Dagama did not know the origin and treatment of scurvy. Moreover, scurvy is not a rare thing these days, so I can only admit that I am unlucky...

But what Da Gama didn't know was that when they were docking in Mombasa on April 1, Columbus had already started sailing with his fleet and sailing north along the coast at full speed.

Marilyndi is only 104 kilometers away from Mombasa. Although Columbus doesn't know the specific distance, Marilyn said that there is not far from Mombasa.

Although the wind direction was wrong and I had to keep observing the situation on land, on April 6, Columbus's fleet arrived at Port Malindi. Columbus's way of finding it was very simple, that is, sail along the African coast, and when he saw the port, he would send a small boat to the Arabic translator to ask.

In this era, the coastal areas of East Africa were invaded and colonized by Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula. Many small coastal emirates were established by Arabs or descendants of Arabs. For example, Mombasa and Malindi are of this nature.

Moreover, Arabs sold black slaves in the eastern coast of Africa for a long time and transported them to all over the world. Not only that, Arabs treated black people much more cruelly than Europeans. Europeans were just more cruel to black slaves, while Arab slave traders directly castrated all male black slaves and then sold them...

Therefore, in the Arab world, especially in the West Asia region, although black slaves are used in large quantities, no black slaves have left behind their descendants. Because male black slaves have been castrated by Arab slave traders, and female black slaves and Arab men disdain to infringe on them. Because Arab men have several wives themselves and cannot take care of them, how can they have time to infringe on female black slaves?

However, in East Africa, the Arab conquerors did not kill all the local blacks, but also merged with the locals. Therefore, there are more people in the local black and white race, such as the Swahili, the main ethnic group in Malindi, which is the black and white race produced by Arab conquerors and local blacks. However, local chiefs generally use Arabic as the official language.

After Columbus arrived in Malindi with his fleet, he was not immediately welcomed. At the beginning, the Malindi people were still very alert to Columbus and his party.

However, Columbus had a "trick of tricks" given by Marin. After meeting the local official, Columbus began to translate Arabic and began to curse the Mombasa people, saying that they were incompatible with the Mombasa people...

Soon, this remark reached Chief Malindi's ears. After the local chief Ali heard that Columbus and the others were enemies of Mombasa, he was very happy. He quickly invited Columbus and his party to the palace of Malindi to discuss matters related to dealing with Chief Mombasa.

Seeing this, Columbus sighed, and with great admiration for Marin, he began to follow Marin's written instructions and generously gave 6 bronze Franc machine cannons to Marindi Chief Ali on the spot, and sent someone to guide them on how to fire.

Seeing such a powerful weapon in the sea, Chief Ali was extremely happy and regarded Columbus as the most honorable guest of honor, and was entertained with delicious food and drink every day.

However, Columbus knew that the Dagama fleet was coming according to Marin's written instructions. So he began to slander Malindi chief Ali, saying that the Portuguese of Dagama fleet had formed an alliance with Mombasa and might come to Malindi to spy on the news...

Now Chief Ali was angry and ordered that whenever he saw the fleet that was flying the Portuguese royal flag depicted by Columbus, he would be prohibited from docking...

After ignoring Gama, Columbus proposed to borrow a navigator from Chief Ali and take them to India. At the same time, Columbus swore that he would bring more artillery next time he came to Malindi...

Chief Ali expressed great appreciation for Columbus' initiative to provide naval warfare artillery, so he found his most powerful navigator Ahmayron Ibn Majid, and asked him to lead Columbus's fleet to Karikat, the busiest trading port in southern India, which was where Zheng He landed.

On April 12, Columbus' fleet added a batch of fresh water in Malindi, heated the wooden barrels containing fresh water and sealed them with mud to load them. At the same time, he also purchased a lot of food that was not easy to break.

Then, under the guidance of Majid, Columbus's fleet began its voyage across the Arabian Sea...

After Dagama's fleet arrived on the coast of Malindi on April 14, history changed drastically - because of Columbus's slander, Chief Malindi believed that Dagama's fleet was a spy sent by Malindi's archenemy Mombasa. Therefore, the Malindi rejected the request for the Dagama's fleet to dock.

In desperation, Dagama had to take his fleet to continue sailing north along the African coast, looking for stops, and inquire about India...

While Dagama's fleet was still inquiring about information on the east coast of Africa, Columbus' fleet had already set off from Malindi and headed straight for Karikat.

Along the way, Columbus recorded the captain's log westward every day, recording the course, the wind direction and hydrological characteristics along the way. As Marin said to Columbus before departure, he could not always expect the Malindi to lead the way. By the next voyage, Columbus would need to lead his own sailing. Therefore, Columbus recorded the sailing information from Malindi to Carrikat in detail.

At the same time, Columbus spent a lot of money to buy Majid, and asked him about various information about the Arab waters, such as monsoons, natural disasters, and pirate problems.

For the sake of gold coins, Majid gave a detailed answer and presented Columbus with a guide to navigation in the West Indian Ocean that he wrote. Columbus was so excited that he arranged a translator on the ship to help him translate it into European text. At the same time, Columbus also asked the trade leader of the fleet, Draka, to learn Indian from Majid with the help of the translator, and to understand the local customs and trade habits of India.

During the voyage, Majid was very interested in several solar stoves carried by the Columbus fleet. Because the solar stove was too practical for the Arabs.

Whether it is the Arabian Peninsula or North Africa, it is a very arid and sunny place. In these places, practical sun stoves are very convenient. Moreover, because they are semi-desert areas, there is less firewood. Therefore, the sun stove has a great significance.

When Majid expressed his desire to study the solar stove, Columbus decisively agreed. Majid is an Omani native, and the Oman area is on the Arabian Peninsula, a semi-desert area with plenty of sunshine. Therefore, Majid obviously wanted to bring the solar stove back to China for use. In this regard, Columbus, who was determined to obtain navigation technology from Majid, naturally could not refuse.

Of course, it is difficult to keep the sun stove secret. Because everyone cooks on the Arabian Sea by relying on the sun stove. Moreover, the Arabian Sea is full of sunshine. Majid is not a dead person. How can I not study it when I see sailors cooking with the sun stove?

However, Columbus' most important secret - the telescope, was not disclosed to Majid. Every time he used a telescope, Columbus would quietly climb into the observation room above the captain's room before taking out the telescope. In front of Majid, Columbus never used a telescope. After Majid discovered a novelty like the sun stove, he was extremely interested, so he naturally did not pay attention to Columbus' use of a telescope...
Chapter completed!