25 one in this city can remember anything similar in years past. Many people took such good fortune to indicate that God would grant us many favours against the European enemies who are making themselves masters of trade in these parts, and oppressing this new Christendom. May his Divine Majesty grant that events will come about as we hope from His Infinite Greatness. With these reinforcements the Viceroy, Count Admiral D. Francisco da Gama, at once set about preparing a powerful fleet against the European enemies, who were assembling in the bay of Surat to raise the siege of Ormuz and to help the Persians keep the stronghold that they had taken from us with the help of those same enemies, which Captain Rui Freire was blockading with some ships he was leading in the Strait. Doing all that can be done by way of preparations it is not possible to match the power of the enemy, but trusting that God will aid us with His Infinite Grace, and that the valour of the commander, Nuno Alvares Botelho, and the other captains, and the good spirit of our soldiers, will make up for our smaller forces, he marshalled what he had. Captain General Nuno de Botelho crossed the bar of Goa making for the North on 9 December of the same year, 1624, with six fighting galleons and with the order to wait in the roadstead of Bassein for two more, which were still refitting, and to take on further provisions of which he was short, for they were needed for three or six months. What with waiting for the two galleons and further delays which were caused by
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy