Cristóvão da Gama ( 1516 – 29 August 1542),óvã anglicised as Christopher da Gama, was a Portuguese military commander who led a Portuguese army of 400 musketeers on a crusade in Ethiopia (1541–1543) against the Adal Muslim army of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (also known as Ahmad Guray).
He, along with the allied Ethiopian army, was victorious against Adal forces in four battles, but he was seriously wounded in his last battle and was captured, tortured, and executed by Imam Ahmad. Richard Burton, in his First Footsteps in East Africa, referred to Gama as "the most chivalrous soldier of a chivalrous age".
Early career
Cristóvão (or Christopher) da Gama was the son of navigator Vasco da Gama and the younger brother of Estêvão da Gama. He first came to India in 1532 with his brother, returned to Portugal in 1535, then joined Garcia de Noronha in sailing to Diu 6 April 1538. Many times in these travels he demonstrated a quick mind that saved his companions. In recognition of his usefulness, in 1541, his brother Estêvão, then Viceroy of India, gave him command of a ship in the fleet Estêvão led into the Red Sea against the Ottoman naval base at Suez. He was defeated along with his brother in the ensuing battle against the Ottomans.
Ethiopian campaign
After this crushing defeat at the hands of the Adalites and Ottomans, he returned with his brother back to Massawa on May 22, 1541, to rejoin the ships they had left there. While at Massawa, his brother Estêvão da Gama attempted to salvage something from this expedition by dispatching an expeditionary force under Cristóvão to assist the beleaguered Emperor of Ethiopia, Gelawdewos. Four hundred Portuguese men-at-arms were selected, seventy of whom were also skilled artisans or engineers, and 130 slaves for this expedition, equipped with about a thousand arquebuses, an equal number of pikes and several bombards. João Bermudes, who had represented himself as the Patriarch of Ethiopia to the Portuguese, accompanied this expedition. An account of this campaign in the Ethiopian highlands was later written by Miguel de Castanhoso, who accompanied Gama and was an eye-witness to almost everything he recorded. The men were landed at Massawa and Arqiqo, the next port south of Massawa, and began their trek inland to Debarwa, the capital of the Bahr negus, or Ethiopian viceroy for the northern provinces.
The Portuguese reached Debarwa after a march of eleven days on 20 July, to learn that the rainy season (which Castanhoso, as well as the natives, referred to as "winter") made further travel impossible. Cristóvão would not allow his men to pass the months in idleness, employing them in constructing sledges for the bombards and in raiding nearby villages that had accepted Ahmed Gragn's rule. He also learned from the Bahr negus that Queen Seble Wongel was camped nearby on top of a mountain that Ahmed had not been able to reduce by siege. (R.S. Whiteway identifies this mountain with Debre Damo.) With one hundred men, he marched to the mountain, and invited Queen Seble Wongel to join him; she did so, bringing her entourage of thirty men and fifty women, all of whom were received with careful ceremony.
Once the rains ended, the Portuguese continued south. After months of being slowed by their equipment, Da Gama decided to leave half of it in an arsenal on Debre Damo. His army passed the Church of St. Romanos around Christmas of 1541, and celebrated Epiphany in the province of Agame (January 1542). Gama's first encounter with the Imam's troops was 2 February 1542 at the Battle of Bacente, which Whiteway located on Amba Senayt in Haramat. The invaders had taken possession of a hill from which they made raids into the countryside. Although Queen Seble Wongel advised Gama to march around this hill, advising him to wait until her son Emperor Gelawdewos could arrive from Shewa and join him, he believed that failing to engage the invaders would make the natives distrust his troops, and that they would then stop bringing food and supplies. Fortunately, the engagement was an unquestioned success, and Gama's men took the hill despite superior enemy numbers, losing only eight men.
At the end of February, two Portuguese arrived from a ship anchored at Massawa, escorted by six people native to the area. Gama responded with a detachment of forty men to make contact, obtain supplies, and exchange news. This group failed to reach the ship before it sailed, and the only outcome was that these soldiers and their captain were absent for the next battle, which was against Ahmad Gragn himself.