_ 51 _ When the Viceroy heard all this, he replied against the Captains, saying “You have so great a stain of guilt in deserting your flag and leaving your Captain in time of war, that weighing it in the balance I do not know which is of greater, your guilt or the wrongs of which you accuse Afonso d’ Albuquerque. But since you want impartial witnesses not here present, I direct that you may ask them as much as you wish”. He had this written at the foot of the petition by Gaspar Pereira and signed by him as his ruling. Then in the presence of all he ordered that Gonçalo Fernandes, Francisco Lamprea, the judicial notary, and Pero Vaz, who were all three notaries, and João Cermenho as investigator should swear on the gospels that they would well and truly write down what the witnesses said. When this was done, he learnt from some letters, no one knows who gave them to him or whether they were real or false, that the King of Ormuz wrote to the Viceroy also complaining of Afonso d’ Albuquerque, about the contents of the Captains’ petition. The Viceroy spoke contemptuously of these letters, saying that the Moors were always complaining more than was necessary, but because Ormuz was a new acquisition, he wanted to pamper them.
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