Mombasa more than three passengers may be carried. A "boda-boda" is originally a bicycle taxi but have long since been replaced by motorcycles. Mombasa's port is the largest in East Africa, with 19 deep water berths with two additional berths nearing completion and two oil terminals. Rail connects the port to the interior. There is little or no scheduled passenger service. International cruise ships frequent the port. There is no bridge between Mombasa Island and south coast, instead the distance is served by ferries operated by the Kenya Ferry Service from Kilindini and Mtongwe to Likoni in the south coast of
Mombasa Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent and China. 16th-century Portuguese voyager Duarte Barbosa claimed, "[Mombasa] is a place of great traffic and has a good harbour in which there are always moored small craft of many kinds and also great ships, both of which are bound from Sofala and others which come from Cambay and Melinde and others which sail to the island of Zanzibar." Vasco da Gama was the first known European to visit Mombasa, receiving a chilly reception in 1498. Two years later, the town was sacked by the Portuguese. In 1502, the sultanate became independent from Kilwa Kisiwani and