ABSTRACT
Now, as these captains had come to the determination of leaving the great Afonso Dalboquerque many days before they actually did so, and meant to go to India to the viceroy, as soon as Men Rodriguez quitted the Island of Lara, they furnished their ships with water and supplies, and set sail, and arrived in a few days at Cochim; and when they had disembarked, all three proceeded together to the viceroy, and made before him a great outcry, exclaiming that the king, D. Manuel, had sent them in Afonso Dalboquerque’s company to proceed with him to Cape Guardafum, and lie 206in wait for the ships that went to Meca laden with spices, but he had quitted this road and made his way to the coast of the kingdom of Ormuz, and cruised continually about there, contrary to the advice of them all, carrying on a perfectly unprofitable war but, not content with this, he had begun to erect a fortress, although the king, D. Manuel, had not ordered him to do so; and they, when they saw how little to the interest of his majesty this was, and that he only did it of his own free will, had sent him a remonstrance, which he had answered with very evil words, for he was a very harsh sort of man, and very hasty, without bearing in mind the honour of his men; and as he would do nothing but insist upon the building of the fortress, they had made him a second remonstrance, to which he in like manner bad not deigned a reply; and to show how much he despised them, and made light of what they said to him, although it was all in the interest of the king our lord, he had ordered the remonstrance to be placed beneath a gateway of the fortress, which was just being laid, as if, forsooth, his lordship intended to tread beneath his feet the remonstrance they had there presented to him, signed by themselves and by Francisco de Tavora, who was left behind in prison. They therefore begged his lordship that he would give orders to have depositions of all this taken down, as they had told it to him, by those heads of accusation which they there and then laid against him, and when the truth had been arrived at, that he would do them justice, and order their necessary papers to be made out for them to go to Portugal and demand from the king, D. Manuel, reparation for the injuries he had done to them, and for the shares of booty he had taken from them without being willing to pay them. And the viceroy ordered Gaspar Pereira, who acted in the capacity of secretary, to read him the requisition, which contained the following:—
