_ 191 _ procession, the converts in the middle with candles in their hands, to the altar where they were baptized, and the young people sang Laudate pueri Dominum [Praise the Lord, O ye children] and other psalms. The converts were very well dressed, for the Portuguese had given them clothes, and some of them already knew all the catechism, I was surprised that they had learnt so much in a few days. 6. When we reached Ras Mussendum we found four or five catures which were protecting the coast on account of the people called nautaques [nôdhaki] who seize the vessels that sail there if they are not well prepared. These catures told us that our fleet was a dozen leagues ahead of us and the captain-in-chief was Dom Antão de Noronha, the nephew of the Viceroy, and he was going to the aid of Ormuz with a large fleet. Father António had been his confessor father in Cochin(A), and when we came up to where his ship was, he went to see him with the boys. He received us very warmly, and at once ordered that all the sick in the fleet should be taken aboard the ship in which we were travelling because the Father was coming here, and between thirty-five and forty sick men came aboard. He gave us some of what little he had for them (A) Herédia was in Cochin from the autumn of 1551 to the beginning of 1553.
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