_ 247 _ The "Marie de Bon Secours" belonged to Rouen traders. She sailed from Hon fleur, the pilot being a well-known Portuguese, Estévão Dias Obrigas. According to the crew, the lading contract specified a destination which was a usual one for competitors with the Portuguese,i.e. São Tomé and the Congo or, failing that, Brasil. On 20 November 1527, the ship was in fact at Kilwa(A). Some months earlier another ship from Hon fleur (of 250 tons and with twenty-four cannon), which had come by the Cape and was under the command of the Portuguese Santiago de Castro, who was familiar with the Indian Ocean, had also taken refuge at Kilwa. The Governor of Sofala mentions that an expedition sent from Mozambique to dislodge this ship had failed(B). The French were able to evade the vigilance of the Portuguese and to make their escape from Kilwa; this was reported in a letter to João III written by Cristóvão de Mendoca from Ormuz on 11 July 1528(C). On 25 May 1528, (A) Torre do Tombo, Col. S. Vicente, vol.l, f.407; published by Sousa,p.84; by L. de Matos, op. cit., pp.225-8; and by M. Mollat, 'Choix de documents relatifs à la Normandie pour servir à l'hist. du commerce maritime (XV-XVIe)', Mélanges publ. by the Soc. Hist. Normandie,16th series, Rouen-Paris 1958, pp.169-71. (B) A. Lobato, op. cit., pp.76-8. (C) Torre da Tombo, Gaveta 15-17-22 (kindly communicated by M. Jean Aubin).
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