_ 51 _ Our men kept up the bombardment but since they had little gunpowder to spare it started to run low, much to the annoyance of Simão da Cunha who was exasperated at how little he had achieved and because he had not accepted the fort when it would have been given to him. So now he sent a ship with letters to Nuno da Cunha, giving an account of all that had happened and asking him to send gunpowder and ammunition. With favourable weather this ship delivered the letters to Nuno da Cunha in a few days. When he saw the way things were going, Nuno da Cunha was very angry with the captains who had brought about such disorder and he promptly sent the ship back again with everything he had been asked for, and pointing out to Simão da Cunha the mistake that he had made. However, the winds, were unfavourable and the ship made slow progress, so our men were waiting for the ship’s return without doing anything at all because they didn’t have ammunition. The Moors in the fort could see this and every night from the tops of the walls they made fun of our men, jeering at them and pouring scorn on them, saying that since our men didn’t want to come into the fort, they would all have to stay there where they were. And that is what happened because fever soon broke out among them (this came with the start of the monsoons) and many of them began to die.
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