1 March 1510
Khoekhoe forces defeat a Portuguese punitive expedition at Salt River
After an initially cordial exchange, Portuguese sailors attempted to take livestock and captives from a Khoekhoe settlement near Salt River; Francisco de Almeida then led an armed punitive expedition that was defeated.
Francisco de Almeida, the former viceroy of Portuguese India, stopped at Table Bay in late February 1510 while returning to Portugal. His crews needed fresh water and provisions. Initial barter with Khoekhoe pastoralists was reportedly cordial: iron was exchanged for cattle. The relationship broke down when Portuguese sailors went to a nearby settlement and tried to take cattle and two children. Khoekhoe defenders drove them back to the ships.
Almeida accepted his sailors’ demand for retaliation even though, according to the later account, he recognised that they had provoked the dispute. He led roughly 150 armed men—carrying swords, lances and crossbows—towards the settlement. The expedition seized livestock and set fire to huts before Khoekhoe forces surrounded it. The defenders used stones and assegais and turned the captured cattle into a moving barrier. Almeida and many of his officers and men were killed; the commonly repeated total of about 64–67 Portuguese casualties should be treated as approximate.
This was a Khoekhoe victory achieved through local knowledge, collective mobilisation and defence of valuable livestock. It followed earlier encounters in which Portuguese crews tried to combine barter with control of water and animals, including Saldanha’s 1503 visit.
The defeat changed the practical calculation facing Portuguese crews at Table Bay. Ships still needed water, meat and repairs on the Cape route, but sending armed parties ashore exposed them to resistance in a landscape whose water sources, grazing and livestock were locally controlled. Later summaries describe Portuguese vessels as tending to avoid direct landings at Table Bay after 1510, using Robben Island or other anchorages and watering points more often. Portuguese contact continued, and later English and Dutch voyages re-established more regular shore trade.
Significance
The defeat limited Portuguese freedom of action at one of the Cape route’s most useful watering places and influenced how foreign fleets provisioned themselves while continuing to use the wider Cape corridor.
Why it matters
The defeat checked Portuguese attempts to secure Cape provisions by force and contributed to a longer pattern of offshore provisioning and alternative anchorages.
Disputed interpretations
Some older accounts call the encounter a misunderstanding; the punitive character of Almeida's armed return to shore is important context.
Perspective notes
The surviving narrative is Portuguese and records Khoekhoe defence of livestock, pursuit of the sailors, and mobilisation against Almeida’s expedition. Reported Portuguese casualty totals vary across retellings; the earliest account should be checked before treating any total as exact.
Terminology notes
European records used “Hottentots” and related labels for Cape pastoralists. This entry uses Khoekhoe for the communities described near Salt River.