Jalof, Mandinga, and the Gambia
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" Por aqui rodeando a larga parte De África, que ficava ao Oriente, A província Jalofo, que reparte Por diversas nações a negra gente; A mui grande Mandinga, por cuja arte Logramos o metal rico e luzente, Que do curvo Gambeia as águas bebe, As quais o largo Atlântico recebe.
Rounding this way the broad stretch of Africa that lay to the east, we passed the province of Jalof, which divides the black people among various nations; and great Mandinga, by whose craft we obtain the rich and shining metal, and which drinks the waters of the winding Gambia, waters that the broad Atlantic then receives.
Gama, telling his voyage to the king of Melinde, is running down the West African coast. Here he names the Senegambian kingdoms the fleet passed: Jalof, the great gold country of Mandinga, and the river Gambia.
This is coastal reckoning. Gama is naming what the fleet went past, in order, the way a pilot would: Jalof, then Mandinga, then the river that waters it. Two of the three names carry a fact attached. Jalof is where the black people of the region sort themselves into separate nations. Mandinga is where the gold comes from.
The word to slow down on is "Logramos" — we obtain, we get the good of. It is the only first-person verb in the stanza, and it does not describe sailing. Every other action here belongs to Africa: the province divides, Mandinga works its craft, the land drinks the river, the ocean receives the water. The Portuguese do one thing in eight lines, and that thing is acquire. The catalogue looks like geography and reads like an inventory of what a coast is worth.
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