_ 198 _ On 2nd May 1504, Lopo Soares ordered the fleet to heave to off Cape Verde so that he could acquaint his captains, pilots and crew masters with their precise dispositions in order to avoid collisions and to regroup the ships that had strayed. Thus, the flagship would go at the head, escorted by two other vessels(A). At night his navigation light guided the whole squadron that was following him(B). None of the vessels was permitted to pass another(C). If two fires were lit it meant that they were to go about, three ordered them to strike the studding-sail, four to take in the sails. When several fires burned on the poop deck they were to undo the rigging of the ships(D). All these signals were to be transmitted and repeated from ship to ship. But between each manoeuvre only the flagship's navigation light was to burn; the rest of the fleet sailed in the dark, by the light of the single candle allowed in each commander's cabin(E). can be dated even more surely when it is established that Dom Manuel did not know, at the time of its compilation, of the serious events that had taken place in Cochin and that he would not know about until August 1504, when Afonso de Albuquerque, in his turn, came back to Lisbon. (A) Castanheda, I/90, p. 191. (B) BM Anonymous, p. 116; Castanheda, I/90, p. 191. (C) Castanheda, I/90, p. 192. (D) The Regimento of Lopo Soares, CA, III, p. 187. (E) Castanheda I/90, p. 192.
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