_ 101 _ bread. He stayed ashore and spoke so much and mentioned so many things that at times he contradicted himself. Paulo da Gama then went to the Christians of that country, who received him, and he asked them who the man was. They told him that he was a pirate who had come to attack us here and that his carracks were ashore full of men. Armed with this information and figuring out the rest, we seized him and took him to the said ship, which was beached, and began to whip him to make him confess that he was the pirate who had pursued us, and his reason for coming to us. He revealed that he was aware that the entire country wished us ill, and that many armed men were around hidden in those creeks. Nevertheless, none of them dared to come and attack. They were waiting for some forty ships, that were being armed, to assault us. However, he did not know when they were going to attack us. He said nothing more about himself apart from what he had said at first. He was later interrogated three or four times. Though he had not stated it openly, we understood from his body language that he had come to see the ships so as to learn about the men and the arms that they carried. We spent twelve days in this island, where we ate a lot of fish that the natives brought to sell to us, and many
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