_ 153 _ Malacca; under his flag went one Antonio Carvalho, Don Estevao spent the monsoon season in Mozambique and the others quit labours and went on to India where they arrived that year at different times and with many sick aboard. In the fleet sailed a Bishop called Don Fernando who had been a San Franciscan friar. He was going out to reorganize the ecclesiastical establishment in India, to give orders and to carry out confirmations. I heard him preach very well in Goa. The governor dispatched Antonio de Saldanha as commander of the cargo ships, which numbered three, together with a junk. They left at the end of December of the same year. Whilst the governor was in Diu, he learnt with certainty that Malik Tocan had built a very strong fortress in Bassein, and that he was creating there another Diu. He was hoping to take there the fustas from Diu to prevent our ships from passing along the coast. The governor feared that if the Turks came to India, they might take that fortress, finding it such a fertile land as it was and situated on such a good river as that of Bassein. In that way India would be in great danger if they became such near neighbours. He therefore determined to attack and destroy the fortress, and without taking the
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