_ 298 _ in men, and this would have caused no difficulty to the Niquelus if they had had any seagoing ships. The fleet returned under oar and sail to Ormuz, and from there to Goa. Our fleet entered Goa with such celebration of cannon fire, flags, streamers, banners and other demonstrations of joy as if they had returned from achieving some glorious victory. And what was most surprising was the fact that the captain, through whose inability and poor leadership the fleet had reached such a miserable point, was given great and extraordinary gifts by the viceroy in money to the value of as many thousand pardaus as the number of years he should in truth have spent in exile.(A)But this levity did not mitigate the feeling generally caused by such a catastrophe, since as the Portuguese have so few forces in India, the loss of six hundred men was no less to that country than was the defeat at Pavia for the French. (A) I recommend the captains of the fleet to you. They retreat with their noses broken and some ships lost. And on entering the bar of Goa the cannon-fire is such that there is not one person who cannot hear it. On stepping ashore, there is such ridiculous pride and extravagance that one might think they had destroyed the world. And in truth, as I have already said, they are all braggarts, having committed, destroyed and wasted so much. Couto. Soldado Pratico, 1, p. 129.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy