ABSTRACT
The account of the loss of the great ship Santo Alberto at the Penedo das Fontes, 1 where the Land of Natal begins, and the narrative of the hundred days’ journey made by the Portuguese who were saved there from to the river of Lourenço Marques, where they embarked for Mozambique, are of great importance for our voyages, and very useful as a warning in them. For this shipwreck teaches how our navigators should behave in another like case, what useful measures they should take therein, what are the false and harmful ones that should be avoided, what precautions they should take to reduce the loss by sea and to render the journey by land safer, how they should disembark with the least danger, and the reason for the loss of this great ship, which is the same as that for nearly all of them. The narrative of the journey shows what route should be followed and what avoided, what preparations should be made in view of its length and difficulty, how to treat and deal with the Kaffirs, how the necessary trade with them should be carried on, and their barbarous nature and customs.
