_ 37 _ Since it would have been impossible, withthe natives alone, to complete such a great project in the short space of time to which he had limited me in his instructions, which ordered part of his men and ships to enter the Straits. I encouraged everyone to pick up a spade and a handbarrow. Sir, so that you may be aware of how well served you were by your captains who remained here, I testify to Your Highness that I did not ……… to finish in six months…. and it was finished in two, because the captains and noblemen carried handbarrows on their shoulders a spade in one hand a lance in the other. Others carried the gypsum that had been brought from afar in your ships. Because they served you, Sir, with as great an enthusiasm as if Your Highness had been present, I name all of them for you here. Aires da Silva stayed to take the remainder of the men in the naus that were to go to India on 1st January. These were the ones over and above the five hundred in six ships, earmarked for the fortress. The other captain, who were to sail with Aires da Silva, were as follows: Jorge de Brito, Lope de Brito, Antonio Ferreira, Antão Nogueira, Cristovão Mascarenhas. Those that stayed behind to guard the coast and the fortress were these:
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