_ 84 _ burnt, of which there was much need in our ships. When the city was destroyed, which was a dreadful thing to behold, the governor set off for Aden, and when he arrived, he sent a word to Mira Mergena asking him to sell them water and provisions, for which the governor would pay with his money. But Mira Mergena, knowing how the governor had been acting and how he had done so little in Jidda, lost his fear of the Portuguese. In order to mock him he delayed ten or twelve days, promising the while to supply the provisions, but supplying only very little. Then the governor realised that he had used up already vastly more in this time than the city had sent, and the error he had made in not obtaining supplies in Zeila, and in having burnt the stocks of provisions there. Moreover, as many ships in the armada had no provisions left, he had to turn back and take them to Derbera for supplies. From Aden he crossed the coast of Ethiopia, which is twenty leagues from Zeila. This was bad navigation, because they should have gone to a position on the latitude of Berbera, that route would encounter favourable currents and make an easier crossing, but on the route to Ethiopia there were strong countercurrents passing through the Strait which made the going hard at
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