_ 333 _ When Dom Fernando saw his way blocked, he took advice about what he should do, because the galleys were escaping by hugging the shore. Some said one thing others another, but an old and experienced pilot who was sailing with the fleet, to whom it seems the Holy Spirit spoke, said that as the winds were west-west-southwest on the bow. The galleys had no chance of making headway on that course or of reaching Muscat, because last year, when he was sailing in a carrack of the captain of Ormuz to Bengal during the same monsoon, he had followed that route and had found favourable winds on the other coast, with which he was able to sail at will, and he had crossed from Cape Jask and reached Muscat with ease. Everyone agreed with this, and they returned to the other side and made for Muscat, while the captain major left the lightest ships to keep watch on the galleys. When the fleet had arrived in that port, it dropped anchor in the bay and the captain major gave orders to take on water and wood, while he sent some more light ships to spy on the galleys. During the time the fleet was there. Two events were recorded; one of them was when the fleet was at anchor in the bay. One day, a marine monster, much larger than a whale, with an outlandish appearance never before seen, entered, and when it reached the galleon of
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