_ 48 _ The Captain-in-Chief was very thoughtful about this letter and in his heart, he was glad that he had not gone to India when he had gone to Socotra, although he was eager to go to India to give the Viceroy his account of what he had done and to ask for justice to be done to the Captains who had fled /878/. Dom Antonio, his nephew and the captain of Socotra, thought it would be wise for him to do so, because he did not have the fleet and soldiers to do anything. But Afonso d’ Albuquerque was very experienced, and in this he took his own good counsel and decided not to go to India, because if he found himself before the Viceroy in contention with the Captains, with whom he would have arguments, it would lessen his dignity. They would have told the Viceroy and the noblemen and the people such things about him that he would be wrongly judged; and there were the grievances of João de Nova, who would have made his complaints before he told his side of the question, and when he arrived, he would be badly received by the Viceroy. That would be the worst thing to happen to him and other inconveniences could arise from it, and a result might be that the secret warrant that he carried from the King would not be put into effect.
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