sentences:  The first European to come across the Zambezi river was Vasco da Gama, in January 1498, who anchored at what he called "Rio dos Bons Sinais" ("River of Good Omens"), now the Quelimane or Quá-Qua, a small river on the northern end of the delta, which at that time was connected by navigable channels to the Zambezi river proper (the connection silted up by the 1830s).In a few of the oldest maps, the entire river is denoted as such.But already by the early 1500s, a new name emerged, the "Cuama" river (sometimes "Quama" or "Zuama").