45 fortune, for until now they have pursued but now They flee from it. They used to go their separate ways to plunder, and now they go together without daring to part, which is a great deprivation to them. If this fleet, and the determination with which it fights, is maintained, it is not likely that the enemy will come to alarm these ports. By way of conclusion to this account, I will observe that, even apart from trouble Nuno Alvares had with the responsibility and care involved in bringing this fleet in company and at the same time to India, and the work he then had with preparing the fleet in Goa, it is one and half years (taking all together the time he has been serving abroad) since he left this galleon, which seems to be as much his home as his dwelling at Chafariz dos Anjos, and I can bear witness to this. He has fought in it five times in eight months, as fiercely as has ever been seen on any seas of the world and has overseen the preparation of the fleet three times, never failing to work on it himself and spending infinite care and vigilance in giving orders to these men, spending on it all he has and running up more debt than he can afford. With all this, and much more that is omitted here, he is so constant in spirit to continue the war and defend the State as if he considered it the purpose for which God preserves his life. This is as much as can be said of this fleet, briefly and factually, treating a single year beginning from the day he sailed from Goa, leaving aside everything that happened before then, since it is not my intention to treat of anything
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