_ 483 _ The fleet sailed incomplete because some ships were late, and while Francisco de Almeida, having written his letter to the King, was waiting for Job Queimado [...], messengers from Timoja arrived, having come in a carrack of his from Ormuz with this letter from Afonso de Albuquerque. The Viceroy added this at the end of the letter published here. As the vessels commanded by Tristão da Cunha reached Portugal in June 1508,and those sailing with Job Queimado only returned in January 1509,the news of the conquest of Ormuz was spread 'by rumour' from the first of these dates, and that based on Albuquerque's long letter, at the beginning of the following year. The destiny of the letters from Francisco de Almeida and Afonso de Albuquerque and the diffusion of their most important contents give some indication of the slowness of 'mail' at that time, the element of luck involved in the delivery of correspondence, and the hunger for news from the East felt in Portugal and Europe(A). Barros, Década I, book I, chap.6; Aubin, op.cit.p.100;António Alberto Banha de Andrade, História de um fidalgo quinhentista português, Tristão da Cunha, Lisbon 1974,pp.96-97. (A) A.A. Banha de Andrade, Mundos novos do mundo. Panorama da difusão pela Europa,de noticias dos descobrimentos geográficos portugueses, Lisbon 1972, vol.I, pp. 447 ff., passim.
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