On 4 November 1497, Vasco da Gama reached a bay near the mouth of the Berg River which they named Bahai da Santa Elena (St Helena Bay). It was here that they had their first encounter with the Khoikhoi.
Due to a misunderstanding, the Khoikhoi attack them and wounded Da Gama in the thigh.
They set sail and reach the Cape on 22 November 1497 – three days later. Da Gama traded gifts with the Khoikhoi, but when they took fresh water without asking the chief’s permission, they were attacked again. After a couple of cannon blasts to dispersed the Khoikhoi, they set sail further east.
By Christmas that year they reached the coast of Pondoland, which they named Natal. They enjoyed good fishing near today's Durban. After headwinds blew them out to sea and when they managed to reach the coast of Mozambique.
While they replenished their water barrels, they met the iron-working ancestors of the Tsonga people which they found friendly and generous. The named the area Terra da Boa Gente (‘land of the good people’).
The Tsonga are a group of the Bantu-speaking population who live in areas extending from St Lucia Bay on the northern KwaZulu-Natal coast and inland to the Soutpansberg, and Waterberg. In Mozambique (where Da Gama met their ancestors, they live in the Delagoa Bay (today Maputo) and northwards up to the Limpopo River mouth.
Little is known of their early history.
Some Tsonga think they came from the north in remote times 'along with a wide, white straight road' until they reached the sea. Other clans believe they came from Natal or Swaziland. The Tsonga are traditionally an agricultural people. Cattle are valued but do not thrive for the Tsonga live in areas that are prone to stock diseases. Goats and fowls are kept for food and ritual sacrifices. The Tsonga also enjoy fish and Tsonga men build weirs at the river mouths, placing the baskets with the mouths leaning against the outgoing tide. Tsonga boys shoot fish with bows and arrows.
Their traditional culture and customs endured until the nineteenth century when the Tsonga came under the influence of the Zulu nation.
Their cultural change has been slow, but since the industrialisation of South Africa during the twentieth century, their communal and national life has been fundamentally altered by conversion to Christianity, schooling, and labour migration.
Though there are similarities between Tsonga and Zulu, it is not merely a dialect of Zulu.
Unlike Zulu there are no click sounds, for the Tsonga apparently had no contact with the San. The Tsonga language has some affinities with Sotho, particularly with the Pedi dialect.
Like the Khoikhoi, the Tsonga is one of the tribes who were one of the tribes the encounter the earlier European explorers for a sea route to the East.
Sources:
https://v1.sahistory.org.za/pages/governence-projects/vasco_da_gama_expediction/vasco_expedition.htm
http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/tsonga