goes ashore, initiates some trade in the local markets while seeking out the local ruler, the sultan or shiekh Isuf of Sofala (Yçuf in Barros; Çufe in Goes). An audience is arranged and Aguiar draws up a commercial and alliance treaty between Portugal and Sofala. Matters settled and gifts exchanged, Aguiar takes aboard a Sofalese ambassador to meet Vasco da Gama back in Mozambique. In other accounts, (principally Osório (p. 192), mildly corroborated by other chroniclers and the anonymous Portuguese eyewitness and Matteo da Bergamo) it is Vasco da Gama himself, and not Aguiar, who goes to Sofala. According to this alternative account, Gama did not go to Mozambique immediately after the Cape crossing; rather, most of the fleet met at some unnamed bay just a few leagues north of Sofala (possibly the 'Rio dos Boms Sinaes'); Gama ordered Vicente Sodré with the main fleet ahead to Mozambique Island, while he remained behind The construction of the new caravel was thus overseen by Sodré, not Gama. After accounting for all the ships and sending them on to Mozambique, Vasco da Gama himself sailed south with four ships to Sofala, conducted some trade and opened the first contact with the Sofalese ruler. That would mean Gama was the last to arrive in Mozambique. In this alternative account, the lost ship of Mendonça (or Fernandes) was one of the four that went with Gama to Sofala, and capsized while exiting the Sofala banks. Late June, 1502 - Vasco da Gama makes arrangements to leave Mozambique. A Portuguese factory is established on Mozambique Island, with Gonçalo Baixo as the factor, with some ten assistants, to capitalize on the results of the Sofala trade mission. The new caravel finished, Gama christens it Pomposa and places it, together with some 30 crew, under the command of João Serrão (of future Magellan fame), with instructions to take any goods from the Sofalese trade. According to Correia, Gama was unwilling to wait around for the results of Aguiar's mission to Sofala, and set sail out of Mozambique before Aguiar's returned from Sofala. As a result, Aguiar was forced to leave the Sofalese ambassador in Mozambique (letting him find his own way back home) and set sail for Malindi, hoping to catch Gama there. Extortion of Kilwa Gama had gone first to Kilwa (Quiloa). The dominant city-state on the East African coast, Kilwa Sultanate was the formal overlord