_ 330 _ to this task, that at the end of February [1554], he had launched the fleet with one thousand two hundred men paid to sail in it. It consisted of six galleons, six caravels and some thirty foists or more... The Viceroy sent five hundred more men to Ormuz, whom he instructed to be paid. He divided them among four or five high-sided merchant ships, which were to sail with Barnardim de Sousa, to whom he gave a beautiful galleon as his ship, whose captain was Rui de Castro, in which three hundred men were embarked. He gave him two more oared vessels, through an official order. When they arrived in Ormuz, he was to hand over the men to his son Dom Fernando and the galleon to Don Antão de Noronha for him to sail to India in it. All these captains left Goa during the month of March. When the fleet of Dom Fernando de Meneses, the Viceroy's son, which had departed from Goa, a short time earlier arrived at Mount Felix it was left to patrol there with vigilant lookouts while awaiting carracks from Achin and Cambay. He ordered some light foists to go as far as the mouth of the Strait to gather news about the galleys. These foists seized some merchant ships and learned from the owners that there were no more than three or four galliots
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy