_ 98 _ fear of the Roumeliotes he himself had been so afraid that he wished he had wings to be able to fly, let alone a boat to escape in. When Pero Barreto saw the enemy ship had stopped, and that its fleet was coming to join it he decided to hoist his foresail and left with Payo de Sousa, seeing which the enemy followed in pursuit, when they reached the bar they saw our other ships, which were quite far from it. If they had delayed a little longer in leaving it they would not have been able to escape Mirocem, for the latter thought, our men were fleeing out of fear. As a result, he became even prouder than he had been after the death of Dom Lourenco and wished to pursue us with his fleet alone. He decided that if he couldn’t catch up with our fleet, he would spend the winter in the ralanda of Goa, so that when the following summer arrived, he would be closer to the Viceroy and could then attack him. By then he would have the island of Goa on his side, Goa had a good harbour and plenty of provisions. On the other hand, if he did catch up with our fleet and destroyed it, he would then go to Calicut, where he would join forces with the King, thereby increasing in strength. He told Meliquias about this, but the latter advised him not to do it because
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