_ 577 _ the rocks were large, and the foist was soon carried out to sea in a thousand pieces. By a great miracle Our Lord saved us, and such was the mercy He showed me that I lost not a single Portuguese. We were safe, and most of us do not know how it happened, except that we found ourselves on the top of the reef, where the sea had flung us. With us was a holy statue of Our Lady which I had brought from EI Tor, and when we were all in safety we saw this statue, between two rocks. Here Our Lady showed us great mercy in saving us. We were all very cut and bruised by the rocks, but it pleased Our Lady to save all the Christians; five seamen and a black slave were drowned. In the Gulf a galliot was wrecked the captain of which was Luís Freire(A), and with him was his brother Gaspar de Sousa. The galliot was lost with all the (A) The Registo da Casa da India, no.594, dated 1564, concedes the captaincy of Chaul to one Luís Freire, fidalgo of the King's household 'having regard to his services... and to the services rendered in India by João Freire, Miguel Freire, Gaspar de Sousa, all five [sic]sons of Gomes Freire'. The LuÍs Freire of the Registo may be a son of the man of the same name whom D.Manuel de Lima describes as lost at sea in 1541 with his brother Gaspar de Sousa. Diogo do Couto (Década 5a,p.510), mentions this shipwreck: 'On the very first day the galliot of Gaspar de Sousa was unable to withstand the seas because she was old; her seams opened and she was engulfed by the waves, and he was drowned together with his brother and other fidalgos who were embarked in her'.
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