_ 14 _ a person was needed with whom the men would be pleased to go, and serve in his company, because the people of India are so badly accustomed and so full of pettishness that unless with the Governor, or his son, or nephew, they venture out with difficulty and very unwillingly. In Goa I mustered seven hundred men all picked ones and I then arranged with Ormuz to muster ready the three hundred that were waiting to complete the number, for at that place there were sufficient men, and I wrote to Ormuz to the King and to the Guazil, to get ready the native men, and I sent Jeronimo Ruiz in advance with this message and with powers from the Comptroller of the Exchequer to make ready the ships, men and food supplies, so that as soon as Dom Amtão should arrive, he must be able to depart. The fleet was got ready with such diligence, that albeit he had arrived to Goa at the end of February and there was found there such great news and in all India, as I already wrote to Your Highness, Dom Amtão departed on Easter Day, the fleet he took consisted of the Galleon in which he went, and a ship with munitions and artillery with which to combat Catifa and set the camp, and four caravels of which the Captains were Manuel de Vasconcellos and João Fernandes de Vasconcellos, and Martinho de Melo, and Pero Affonso do Alvalar, and eight foists with their
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