The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 33 _ They set off for India and as they crossed the gulf, they took a rich ship of Cambay coming from Mecca loaded with rich merchandise, which they divided among themselves, and they took the women and slaves and everything else they sent to the bottom with the ship, and they went to the Viceroy in Cochin, where all three arrived, as has been told above. The next day the Captain-in-Chief went with his ship on a tour of inspection round the island, and he went all the way without seeing any sign of the Captains except Francisco de Tavora and João da Nova. When he saw that the others had fled, he was in a mortal fury and went to the anchorage with Francisco de Tavora and João da Nova. He summoned them to his ship, with the masters and pilots and men of rank, and before them all he made biting remarks about the Captains who had fled, saying to them that they were all witnesses that because of the absence of those Captains he could no longer blockade Ormuz and that the city was so hard-pressed that if he had maintained it for twenty days they would have surrendered or at least would certainly have given him fifty thousand xerafins. He could only suppose that all the money the Moors had promised him, and he had not wanted to take they had

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