ABSTRACT
On the 20th of June the Armada arrived off the Point of Turumbaque which is one league distant from the City and Fortress of Ormuz, and on the very next day there came on board Dom Francisco de Sousa, Captain of the Fortress, and Manuel Borges, Comptroller of the Exchequer, both of whom were amazed at the sight of the living corpses into which the men had been turned by the famine endured when wintering at Mozambique and the rigours undergone during a 15 months’ voyage; being reduced to envy the natural covering of brutes, by their not having where-with to cover themselves in their misery, so that the merciful release of Death was all that they had longed for. After the Captain and Comptroller of the Fortress had visited the Captain-Major and Armada, they agreed that it was not mete that such should be seen in a land where foreigners of most nations of the world were to be found, in a far better condition than they were, and that no one of the soldiers should go ashore without first being paid so that they could straightway clothe themselves; this was carried out without delay, with the assistance also of the Brotherhood of Mercy with their customary zeal and of the Chapter of the Cathedral. The payments made amounted to 45 patacas [a man], and the condition of the men changed so greatly, and they became so healthy, that they were improved out of recognition.
