_ 344 _ disembark belongs to the Turks, who guard(A) it carefully. To enter it we need many soldiers, and a fleet strong in numbers, since the Turks also have a fleet in the strait.(B) But I trust that the mercy of Our Lord, in order to help those people, will ease the route so that what appears impossible to men will become very easy. For it already seems to me that He has begun to facilitate things, with the great victory which the Portuguese have recently had over the Turks who were in India, since they put them to flight and took many galleys and burned others, as others have already written(C) at greater length, so that the sea of India has become safe. 7. We have very good news of the Viceroy Don Pedro;(D) and he is very well-liked. They tell us that he is putting together a large armada although at the moment no-one knows where it is to sail. Some say that it is to go to take Aden, which is a large, very strong city at the mouth of the strait of Mecca. It would be very fortunate if all those whom duty ordered to Prester John should go in the same (A) Vigiar in Portuguese, vigilar in Spanish. (B) In a strait near to Aden, called Bab el-Mandeb; here it is called The Strait of Mecca. (C) Cf doc 53, 10. (D) D Pedro Mascaranehas, who in fact went to Goa on 23 June 1555.
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