_ 64 _ Portugal, slept for two nights in the sea; and we were all looking for ways of saving ourselves, for we were no more than half a league from the land. Fires were being lit on land using the objects we had jettisoned; for it seems that people came by night to see if the carrack had arrived on the coast. They customarily do this in order to steal something, and as the Moors had found only these things, they set them on fire. Another carrack which was sailing about half a league ahead of us when we rounded the cape spent the whole right under sail, went aground and was wrecked, and this would have happened to us if we had done the same. Our Lord delivered us, although we had neither bread nor meat as it was lent(A), and we had left Goa in November(B), nor even fish apart from what we caught, nor wine; for a barrel of it is this country costs four hundred cruzados at the cheapest; and we had dumped the water in the sea on the first day when we had hoped to reach Ormuz the same night. We celebrated Shrove Tuesday with rice as if we had been on land. (A) Ash Wednesday in 1564 was on February. (B) 22 November 1563 was on 15 February.
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