could portray themselves as merchants while traveling in the Arab world. Afterwards, they sailed to Alexandria. Following a fever that struck both men, the two explorers took a boat up the Nile to Cairo and later a caravan across the desert to the ports of El-Tor and Suakin. They sailed across the Red Sea to Aden where, as it was now the monsoon, they parted. Covilhã proceeded to India and Paiva to Ethiopia. They agreed to meet again in Cairo at a later date. Covilhã caught a trading dhow across the Indian Ocean to Calicut, the hub of the spice trade. By 1488, he was in Goa and later sailed north to Ormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, another hub of the Indian Ocean. This reconnaissance allowed Covilhã to collect and record information about sailing routes, winds, currents, ports and politics. From Ormuz, he sailed down the east coast of Africa and eventually to Sofala, the farthest point of Arab navigation in the southern Indian Ocean. At Sofala, Covilhã investigated the feasibility of rounding Africa by sea and how best to navigate its east coast. By 1491, he had returned to Cairo, having successfully scouted the major trade routes of the Indian Ocean. Back in Cairo he learnt that Paiva had died, somewhere on the way to Ethiopia. Meanwhile, King John II of Portugal had sent two Portuguese Jews: Rabbi Abraham of Beja and José Sapateiro, a shoe-maker of Lamego with letters for Covilhã and Paiva outlining further instructions. The King ordered that both men return to Lisbon but not before that "had seen and found out about the great King Prester John". Through José Sapateiro, Covilhã replied with an account of his Indian and African journeys, and of his observations on the cinnamon, black pepper and clove trade at Calicut, together with advice as to the ocean way to India. He recommended that the Portuguese should sail south along the coast of Africa and the seas of Guinea. The first objective in the eastern ocean, he added, was Madagascar; from this island one could reach Calicut. Ethiopia With this information José returned to Portugal, while Covilhã, with Abraham of Beja, again visited Aden and Ormuz. At the latter he left the rabbi; and visited Jeddah, the principal port of Arabia, and penetrated (as he told Francisco Álvares many years later) even to Mecca and Medina. Finally, via