_ 26 _ circle the island, João da Nova said to him “Sir, this affair has now reached such a point that you can certainly excuse me from taking part in any more work, so I ask for your permission to leave, with letters for the Viceroy to whom I shall take good news of great things you have achieved.” The Captain-in-Chief, who knew that all this had been planned by the Captains and he could not punish him as he deserved, replied “Sir João da Nova, I do not think that you will find such good winds as you expect to have for this voyage. You are wrong to ask to go with your ship now, for you will leave such a large hole that these fish we now have surrounded will escape, and you will cause us to lose all that we have won with such labor; so you must not ask me for such permission.” João da Nova said to him “I see, sir, that I am wrong in this, because I have permission, I do not belong to your fleet nor am I obliged to you.” The Captains agreed, saying that João da Nova was right. The Captain-in-Chief was walking on the quarter-deck, and everyone was standing, and with João da Nova's answer he turned very pale and went up close to him and said “João da Nova, do you say that you have permission and that you will go although I do not give it you, and so disobey me?” He said, “If I had known that we would have these arguments about it I would not have spoken and
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