IN TRADITIONAL OPHIR LAND	45
	Dias, was specially commissioned to seek the source of the gold stream. Dias was drowned in the storm which sunk four ships of this fleet, but Cabral took a vessel carrying gold from Sofala and sailed to Kilwa, where the Arab Ibrahim and his forefathers had been drawing gold from Sofala for a long term of years. Upon the report of Cabral, Da Gama turned out of his way to Mozambique in his second voyage, in 1502, to enter Sofala and take possession of Kilwa, and three years later Pedro da Nhaya sailed from Lisbon with six ships and built a fort and trading station at Sofala. Behind this persistent push to Sofala there was more than the actual showing of gold. Here was one of the traditional gateways to King Solomon's mines, and the Portuguese were quick to embrace the tradition. They gave the glittering name of Ophir to their fort. South of the fort there runs a river, called by the Arabs Sabi, and this was pounced upon as a
	probable twist of the old Hebrew Sheba. From those days Fort Ophir was the starting point of Portuguese adventurers in search of the fountain head of Solomon's treasures. The Portuguese then had uncommonly sturdy sea-legs and asked nobody to show them the way over the ocean foam, buc