_ 423 _ men, to make up the 400 that the King ordered me to leave behind. However, it is only right for me to have this ship so that the King and the Viceroy who represents him in this area and under whose authority I act, may be aware of the straits and trouble in which Tristan da Cunha left me. I maintain of the straits and trouble in which Tristan da Cunha left me. I maintain that, when Tristan da Cunha departed, I sent Joao Nestao, scribe of the fleet, under oath taken on the Bible, to see if the ships of my fleet had bread, wine or flour. The quartermasters were also question under oath as to whether they are withholding any of these foodstuffs, He found that there was nothing to eat in the naus, nor even in the ‘Frol de la Mar” and that the fortress of Socotra, which is my responsibility, was in as much need as the fleet. When I found in this predicament, the fleet without supplies and 120 sick men without anything to eat, and in addition, with 100 men whom the King had ordered me to leave behind; it was my duty to prevent the loss of the fleet and the fort by changing my plans and abandoning the route to Cambay and going in search of supplies in the straits of Ormuz. Better to die like gentlemen than to wander about slowly dying to hunger until we perished with our ships.
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