ABSTRACT
At dusk the Viceroy and most of the fidalgos on board went onto the ship's balcony for the usual relaxation at the end of the day, some to gamble, others to converse. After long hours, doubtless after ten o'clock at night, when we were still ten or 12 leagues from the fortress, the Viceroy was informed that a pangaio had been sighted. (They call pangaio the boats that navigate that coast, small, fragile, sewn with coir and without any nails at all.) The news was received with great joy and there were many people who gave a reward of several reales to the bearer of the news, as was the custom. They would doubtless have given more willingly if that pangaio had not appeared or had not been what we afterward found out; for, as all aboard were running to the bow wanting to see new, strange people and to hear news of land, but with the light afforded by the moonlight at that time and in the calmness of the night they could see another one, which, being the second, did not yet cause the slightest suspicion of what it was. However, the rejoicing of the people was abruptly interrupted when after the second they saw the third and then the fourth, which, as they came near our bow were clearly seen to be large ships which were crossing from land to the sea. Since they were all heading for the open sea they began to exchange signals whereby we clearly recognized them as warships, especially when one of them leaving the others behind made directly for us in order to observe us. At this time everyone was on the foredeck, and as the ship kept coming and we did not know what its intentions were, the captain ordered two cannons to be made ready for any eventuality. 2 Since they had been ready for days, they
pointed both of them through the porthole to greet the strangers according to their intention which we soon knew on seeing that it was also preparing its artillery as was revealed by the light that appeared from time to time in the portholes. The ship was approaching us with this intent, and when it was beside us we fired a shot overhead to which it courteously replied in kind. Since it was now at our stern quarter, a cannon at that same location fired a second shot and trained on its hull, the effect of which we did not know, only that it did not reply with a second shot because it had already separated from us. The other carracks and the galleon that were following us did so, however, exchanging shots because the ships in our company, seeing the reception we gave the stranger, treated him in the same way. The admiral had the worst of it because, being the last1 and receiving three or four cannon shots, it responded only with one because it was not ready with its upper artillery and the Admiral was very sick. The challenge was thus issued and the naval battle engaged and we now recognized the pangaios for the Dutch ships that they were, whose admiral had come to reconnoitre us, that being its only purpose in coming· near us. We later learned that a month earlier six ships, three Dutch and three English, had cast anchor in Mosambique harbour, sent from Jacatra, 2 in their New Holland as they call it and which they possess in the southern parts, for the purpose of doing battle with the carracks that might come from the Kingdom - and they consider it certain that they would have to come to that port - and even if they should not gain all the success they desired they would at least succeed in disturbing the pleasure and diminishing the forces with which the Viceroy came to India. For this purpose they had waited a whole month in that place raising anchor in the mornings with the wind from the land and putting out to sea to find it, and with the evening breeze they came back to anchor in the same port, the Dutch and English alternately flying the flag of the command-ship, each doing so for a week at a time.3 The English, however, were unfortunate, for in the week of their
command appeared a pangaio coming from the island of Sao Louren~o with meat and raw hides, and because the route they follow is the Cuama river's, 1 thinking that this strategem might be employed and that it was carrying the usual large quantity of gold, they made every effort to prevent it from escaping them. To this end the English flagship closest to it was so hotly in pursuit of it that, because it was keeping so close to the shore, it was forced to sail over a shallow place that was a large shelf. As the English ship was sailing furiously, greedy for the spoils without realizing the danger, it ran aground on the rocky bottom and was stranded so that it remained there with no way of extricating itself. 2 The people, artillery and goods, however, were saved. Setting fire to what was left of the ship, they destroyed what had been the most beautiful ship in the convoy. And it was no small blessing from God that they were so diminished in strength; for, considering the desperate plight to which they afterward reduced us, it is obvious that our plight would have been all the worse if that ship had not been kept from adding to their strength, in view of the fact that the five remaining ships soon gave us so much trouble. Since we were sailing so close to land and were already so close to the place where the enemy ships lay at anchor, we almost did not see them nor they us; for, as they were in the shadow of the shore we could not see them because our full sails were on the landward side with the wind coming from the open sea, so that it was they who first spied us. And even though they could have come out that evening, they were unwilling to do so because they did not want to do battle with us in the open sea where they would have been at a disadvantage, preferring to meet us near land where, because of the great currents, our carracks, being so heavy, would be in great danger and where they might have some stroke of good fortune, as it afterward happened, in punishment of our sins, so much to their desire that, even if they had arranged the events themselves, the outcome could not have been more favourable for them.
