ABSTRACT

Now that the great Afonso Dalboquerque was aware that the captains had incited to mutiny all the men in their ships, principally masters, pilots, mariners, and gunners, who were the people of whom he made the most account, for they were always the best in the work upon the fortress, in order to remove all disaffection from them, he ordered all of them to be summoned, and showed them the instructions he carried from the king, D. Manoel, and told them that it had come to his knowledge how the captains incited them to anger against him, by saying that he had robbed them of their shares in the fifteen thousand 1 xerafins, paid as tribute by the King of Ormuz, and that by these instructions, as he demonstrated to them, they might see what the king’s 155pleasure was in this matter, and he was not the man to appropriate anything except what belonged to himself, but that, on the contrary, he was willing to deposit as much as their claims would amount to with two responsible men, until the viceroy should decide the issue of the affair. But as they had been incited to mutiny by their captains, they would not accept any of his proposals, and began with loud voices and great tumult to cry out that they would not labour at the works, nor yet fight, as long as he refused to pay them their dues.