_ 102 _ of Goa. The day following this council meeting I mentioned, the governor left the bar of Goa and headed towards Cape Guardafui this was the month of March 1513; as there was no wind in the Gulf (the Arabian sea to the west of India, not the Persian Gulf) he was detained longer than he had intended, as a result of which he ran out of water. For this reason, he had to go and take some at Socotra, where he saw some Fartaq; Arabs who ran away in fear of our fleet. Before the governor dropped anchor lie sent João Gomes to go and spy round the Calancea headland, to see whether there was a ship from Fartaq there. If so, he was to capture it, in order to prevent it from telling the news of our arrival to some. Arab ship from the strait which came to take water in the island João Gomes did not find anything but on his way back he saw a ship from Chaul sailing towards the strait. The governor made it stop so that its pilot would help him to find the way to Aden, since he himself had no pilot. Since he knew that Aden was a very important place and that its defences were ready, he wanted to decide exactly how to lead the attack in advance; this he could do because he had some information about the locality of Aden. He therefore assembled his captains and told them: "My lords, all of you know that an unexpected danger inspires much greater fear
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