_ 565 _ Moors(A). The Governor sent him four hundred soldiers, but what we all thought wrong was that he sent D.Cristóvão as captain of these men, when an expedition of this sort, to go and conquer and restore a lost kingdom(B), required an older and more experienced person. The mistakes made by the Governor D. Estévão da Gama throughout this voyage are innumerable, and they cannot all be described save on many sheets of paper. Your Highness may believe that any kind of man who came to the Strait with the Governor came committed to do something that would be celebrated; but he came to the Strait to forfeit the esteem enjoyed by Your Highness's governors, who were more feared than any other captains in Christendom, in India, where we were held in such high (A) Writing many other piteous and wretched letters, all in his own hand, that Our Lord Jesus was being crucified. (Roteiro, p.70). (B) Diogo do Couto writes: 'The Governor, without paying attention to anyone, chose his brother, D. Cristóvão da Gama, which everyone took badly, not because he did not have all the qualities needed in a good captain but because he was still very young.' (Década 5a, p. 504). According to Gaspar Correia (Lendas, IV, p.199), D.Estévão had nobly asserted 'that he had to send D.Cristóvão his brother and no one else, for he wished to sacrifice him to our lord the King in this service and not risk anyone else's son', because 'it was doubtful whether anyone would escape death', a pessimism which was largely justified, as it transpired.
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