_ 563 _ they would rebel and kill Manuel da Gama, who was their commander. I assure Your Highness that all would have been lost if these men had rebelled, for the fleet would also have been lost, a fleet without men being as good as lost. The Governor was to blame for these things, for I swear to Your Highness by the truth I am bound to tell you that his actions have no order in them, and he is not a fitting person for such an office as that of Governor of India.(A) All the people who were left in Massawa suffered greatly from hunger and thirst and experienced grave illnesses, and no day passed without four or five of them dying(B). (A) D.Manuel de Lima was not the only person to pass severe judgment on D.Estévão. Manuel Coutinho, in the letter quoted, writes: 'The Governor does everything out of his head, he is extremely stubborn, he despises fidalgos so that they all get on badly with him'. As he goes on to add that 'he never shows any favour except to his kinsmen and those who side with him', perhaps this is the reason for his antipathy. As the chroniclers present him, D.Estévão da Gama does not cut an entirely bad figure, and the Vicar General, Miguel Vaz, writes of him: 'While he was Governor D.Estévão showed great zeal and desire to serve Your Highness.... As to taking anything from anyone, no one lived more cleanly than he'. He goes on to say that it was perhaps his excessive zeal for the Royal Treasury that made him unpopular. (Letter from Miguel Vaz dated 7 August 1543, published by A.da Silva Rego in Documentação para a História das missões do Padroado Português do Oriente, vol.II, p.387). (B) Gaspar Correia says that the men were 'in despair because the
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