ABSTRACT
I was informed in Coimbra of my assignment to the India mission on the Friday before Low Sunday, April 16, 1621. The order had made its way from Lisbon to Coimbra at the rate of 20 leagues per day, the mail arriving at the College at eight o'clock in the morning; and I was called to the College from a farm where I was staying. I was notified at a quarter to ten, and at three in the afternoon of the same day I left the College and began my journey. On the following Monday at midnight I arrived at the main door ofS. Antao. 1 On Tuesday morning I was ordained a subdeacon by the Inquisitor-General, Dom Fernao Martinz Mascarenhas. 2 On Wednesday and Thursday, Dom Jeronimo de Gouvea 3 ordained me a deacon and priest. On the following Sunday I said my first Mass; and, although on the following Wednesday the weather was foul and it was raining heavily at nightfall and it had already been decided in the Council that the fleet could not leave that year since it was already the end of April, from midnight onwards the weather improved so much that at dawn the flagship4 began to fire the signal-guns for the fleet's departure. It was a beautiful day: clear skies, a north-east wind - an opportunity not to be missed. What with the great agitation of the people and the still greater desire for the voyage felt by the prospective voyagers and by the authorities on land as well, it was felt that a day so long awaited should not be lost. Between eight and nine o'clock in the morning, the flagship cut cable and set sail followed by the rest of the fleet, which had been waiting more than a month to cross the bar; it was indeed a great moment, but our sanguine desires and hopes were, unfortunately, not to be answered by the event.
