_ 54 _ Our men were helped in this by a few Moors belonging to the Sheikh of Hengem, who had accompanied Simão da Cunha throughout. When the embarkation was complete, Simão da Cunha himself set out last of all in such sorrow and anguish over this disaster that it seemed he wanted to die of grief. When he pulled alongside his carrack and the ship’s master came to help him aboard, he said to him: “Master, there is one thing I would advise you, where your reputation is at stake, do not heed the opinion of anyone other than yourself.” Then the whole fleet hoisted sail and set out on their voyage and every day they threw overboard fifteen or eighteen men who had died of disease, Simão da Cunha, in his grief and disgust, shut himself away in his cabin without wanting to speak to anyone; weary of life, giving tearful sighs and groans, he wasted away so badly in sorrow that after nine days he died without having suffered a fever or any other sickness, and his death caused great sorrow and distress to everyone. Seventy men died on Simão da Cunha’s ship, leaving just two or three healthy men, and things reached such a pass that they weren’t able to handle the sails and the carrack only moved at the whim of the winds; no doubt they would have been lost altogether if Our Lord God had not brought along Fernão Alvares Sarnache, who was
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