The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 165 _ On the next day, we sighted Rhodes, eighty miles from this castle. On the following Saturday, with light winds, we arrived off the first headland in Crete, where we went about frequently until 15 May, when we sent a gondola ashore to fetch water. We went ashore for a rest to a hamlet near the shore, where we stayed in a cool garden like one of ours. The whole island is plentiful in provisions and livestock, and above all renowned for its wine. It has more people than Cyprus. On the other side of the island, sixty miles from where we were, is the city of Candia [Heraklion]. The inhabitants still bear the ancient name of Kriti. They are Greeks who practise the same rites as the Cypriots, and their language differs very little. Item: On the next day, we sailed again in bad weather of west and north-west winds, so that we went about frequently, at times sighting the coast of Barbary, at times that of the island itself. On 1st June, with an east wind, we passed the island, and on the next day, we arrived at the island of Kythira, which is sixty miles from the last point of Crete, called “cape of the sword”. In the afternoon, we came in sight of the fortresses of Methoni and Koroni on the coast of Morea, thirty miles from Kythira, and on the following day we passed a great peak like a small island, called Sapientza, near a headland which projects far out

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