ABSTRACT
When the chief captain had settled what course he intended to take, he made ready, and left Moçambique at the beginning of November with all the ships under the command of Afonso Dalboquerque, and those of João Gomez, and Ruy Pereira, and Job Queimado; the last named having arrived but two days before, for he was left behind, having been separated from the fleet in the tempest which struck it at the turn of Cape St. Augustine. He related that he had steered for the Island of St. Thomas, 1 and thence made his way along shore as far as Moçambique; and in his course, sixty leagues in the sea from the river of Angola, he had found a very large island, uninhabited and thickly 29wooded. The chief captain having started, in a few days sighted the reef of St. Mary, which is a crown of sand in 17½ deg. of latitude, sixty leagues from Moçambique, which Afonso Dalboquerque discovered the first time he went to India, and all the fleet sailed by that reef, the pilots with their sounding leads in hand, in from eight to four and a half fathoms’ depth; and coming upon this bottom, as it was night, they cast anchor. When morning broke they resumed their course, and so journeyed until they sighted land, and when close to land they put out their boats, and took a small Zambuco 1 with two Moors, whom they immediately carried before the chief captain, and these brought him to a place of the Moors, which was close by, and when they arrived there they disembarked. The Moors abandoned the place, and fled into the interior country, and our people followed them up, and killed some, whom they found hiding in the woods. And the chief captain ordered his men to keep together, and not go too far in, and they brought some women, whom he ordered to be set free. He then set the place on fire and embarked with all his people and sailed along the coast; and with the greatest precautions they could, they made for a bay which is called Lulangane: within which, at the distance of a bowshot from the mainland, they found an island, densely peopled, wherein the king had his residence, though his establishments and farms were on the mainland. And on commencing to explore the bay, because the people had not kept together, the chief captain gave orders that two boats with men should take up a position between the island and the mainland, and not suffer any Moors to pass over from the other side. And these being gone, he went with all the ships and anchored opposite the place, and disembarked with all 30his men. When the Moors saw the determination of our people, such a panic struck them, that, without fearing the boats, they came down to the beach to seek a means of crossing from the other side to the mainland, in zambucos, almadias, and some swimming; and such was the haste they made to cross, that the zambucos, and almadias, owing to the great rolling of the sea (by reason of the current of the water from a river which debouched there), upset, with all those on board, so that the sea was quite strewn over with dead men, women, and children. The chief captain attacked the place, and entering into it, found many Moors yet therein, with pikes and shields, waiting for him, and put them all to the sword. And after this engagement, he gave orders to sack the place, wherein they found many clothes, silver, and gold, for the ships from Melinde and Mombaça come thither to trade, and in exchange for these things bring slaves, and supplies: and such was the quantity of the rice that twenty ships could not carry it. The chief captain stayed there three days; and after all the ships had taken water and supplies, he embarked and went along the coast, intending to double the headland, wherein he wasted much time, without being able to double it, owing to the east winds and currents. In this course, he captured a Moor, who showed him cloves, and told him that there was much in the woods; the chief captain, however, was by this time so disgusted with their lying, that he attached no credit to the tale, and let the man go, and made his course with all the fleet for that part where Ruy Pereira had taken the negroes.
