ABSTRACT
The great Afonso Dalboquerque, having gone on board his ship, gave orders on the following morning to signal to the captains that they should weigh anchor and set sail; and while all were going on in this manner with a land breeze, a thunderstorm from the land struck them, and the wind dropped. So, because there was a violent current towards a bay which the land makes there, all the fleet re-anchored. And with this storm so much rain fell for the space of two hours that the water got in between the planks of the deck, which had opened by reason of the heat, and spoiled some provisions. They remained there all that night, and on the following morning the wind veered round to land, and they sailed along the shore as before. After two days they reached Cape Macinde, 1 and having doubled it in one day, by the afternoon they sighted two small islands, not inhabited, lying on the route to Ormuz; so when they were just opposite to them, a Moorish pilot (who had been taken on board at Orfação to be carried to Ormuz) advised Afonso Dalboquerque to order the sails to be furled, and all to remain with their foresails at most, for that night they would be off the island of Ormuz. 2 This 102same Moor related to Afonso Dalboquerque, when he found himself carried away to sea, that it was but ten days since he had come from Ormuz, and that the king was already aware of his approach, and had a large fleet to fight with him, and in the city many soldiers and many munitions of war. Afonso Dalboquerque was not pleased at this news, and commanded the Moor not to mention to any one what he had told him. The other Moorish pilots, whom Afonso Dalboquerque had brought from Melinde, advised him to go as before, and not shorten sail, for if he did he would not come in sight of Ormuz until next day.
