ABSTRACT
At this news, which the great Afonso Dalboquerque received of the arrival of these ships off the Island of Lara, he sent immediately that night a despatch to Afonso Lopez da Costa and Manuel Telez to go and unite with Antonio do Campo, giving them notice (from the information he had of the Moors captured in the Island of Queixome) of the fleet and the people in it, who they were; and so also he sent to tell Antonio do Campo how he ought to act in approaching the fleet to fight with it, and by Men Rodriguez, constable of the Gunners, the bearer of the despatch, he was to send back word how he fared, for if he were in want of assistance he would go in person with all the rest of the ships. As soon as the despatch was given to them, Manuel Telez and Afonso Lopez da Costa weighed anchor and stood over to the Island of Queixome, where Antonio do Campo was stationed, and gave him Afonso Dalboquerque’s message, and then they all three agreed to proceed to attack the Moorish fleet; and as they sailed along, just beginning to espy a point of the island, directly the Moors caught sight of our vessels they slipped their cables and fled away by rowing and sailing, while our captains chased them for two leagues distance, but could not come up with them. And as it was now night they returned and anchored in the port of the island, where the Moorish fleet had been anchored, and from thence wrote, through Men Rodriguez, to Afonso Dalboquerque an account of what they had done, and how they were waiting his further orders for their future proceedings.
