_ 92 _ but only to take their men to Portugal. They should look after it well because he expected to return soon to Calicut and that then they would learn whether we were thieves, as the Moors had told them. Since we had already discovered what we had come to find, namely, spices and precious stones, the captain and the other captains decided that we should take our leave and should depart on Wednesday 29 August, despite being unable to establish peace and friendship with the country and its people. We should also take those men that we had with us, because when they returned to Calicut they would help us establish cordial relations. We then set sail and left for Portugal, everyone travelling joyfully, because we had been fortunate enough to make such a great discovery. On Thursday at midday, while we were becalmed about a league below Calicut, some seventy ships full of infidels made in our direction. These men carried as protection a sort of shield reinforced with folded red cloth. This constituted their armour for their body as well as their hands and head. Which sail in a river called the Nile, running in the land of Prester John, in Lower India. They travel in this river for two days until they come to a place called “Roxette”,
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy