_ 142 _ On the way there he was also to discover the island of St Lawrence (S. Lourenco), to see whether it possessed any silver and ginger, as Tristan da Cunha had been told, and to assess whether it was a suitable place to build a fortress. The captains who went with him were Jeronimo Teixeira, Goncalo de Sousa, and João Nunes. He left Lisbon on the 5th of April 1508, whilst Jorge de Aguiar left on the 9th. As he navigated along the Vale (valley) das Eguas with the whole fleet there was a great storm, which scattered some of the ships apart one of these was that of Francisco Pereira Pestana, whose central mast was broken as a result of the strong winds, forcing him to return to Lisbon. Afterwards he left once more, on the 18th of May of the same year, and went to spend the winter at the first islands, 30 leagues from Mozambique. The flagship of the fleet however stopped in the island of Madeira, because its topmast was broken, and it had to be repaired there. Tristao da Silva’s and a few other ships stayed with it. After the repairs had been carried out, the commander-in-chief left, on Ash Wednesday. While still sailing-along the Quine coast, another storm separated a few ships from the fleet. Then he proceeded along his route, and as the rounded the Cape of Good Hope, near the islands of Tristan da Cunha, he met Alvaro Barreto. Another strong
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy