_ 185 _ were sailing in them. I also left Manuel de Lacerda with power to command all the captains at sea so that when August arrived, he would set out immediately and guard the coast of Calicut well. It was at that time that the Turks invaded the island of Goa. Manuel de Lacerda arrived there; so did Diogo Fernandez, who came from Ormuz with three naus and people from Socotra. By that calculation, Your Highness would have found eighteen ships with the new nau that was in dry dock in Goa, and a thousand men in the fortresses of India and Goa. Of these, Cristovão de Brito and Dom Aires found nearly seven hundred men in Goa. These were the best, most worthy people I had brought to India and the finest naus in the fleet. I left things organised in this way because Your Highness instructed me in a section of my standing orders that, when sailing to the places designated by you, if I went far from the coast of India, I should leave a man with some ships to guard Calicut and the Indian Coast. Although the fortress of Goa was meant to repulse all the people of India who might attack it, I left behind the whole of the fleet for its greater protection. This was because of the fact that it was very new and because one should always fear the Sultan’s fleet. Thus, I only took with me from Goa the
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