The 19th Of The Same Month Of September, A Caravel Arrived At Tercera
From Lisbon, Bringing One Of The Kings Officers To Cause Lade The Goods
That Were Saved From The Malacca Ship, And For Which We Had So Long
Tarried There, And To Send Them To Lisbon.
At the same time Don Alonso
de Bacan sailed from Corunna for the Azores with 40 great ships of
War,
to wait for the fleets from the Spanish and Portuguese Indies, which,
along with our Malacca goods when laden, he was to convoy to the Tagus.
But, when he had been some days at sea, always with a contrary wind,
only two of his ships could get to the islands, all the rest being
scattered. When these two ships arrived at Tercera and did not find the
fleet, they immediately returned in search of it. In the mean time the
king changing his mind, sent orders for the commercial ships to remain
in the Indies, and for Don Alonso Bacan to return to Corunna, which he
did accordingly, never once coming near the Azores except the two ships
already mentioned; for he well knew that the English lay near Corvo, but
would not visit them, and so returned to Corunna. Thus our goods from
Malacca remained unshipped, and were trussed up again, having to wait
some other opportunity.
The 23d October in this same year 1590, a caravel came from Portugal to
Tercera, bringing advice that of the five ships which sailed in that
year from Lisbon for the East Indies, four of them had returned to
Portugal after being four months at sea: the admiral ship, in which was
the viceroy Mathias de Albuquerque, having only got to India after being
eleven months at sea without ever seeing land, as was afterwards learnt
by news over-land, having arrived in great misery at Malacca. In this
ship there died 280 men during the voyage out, according to a note sent
by the viceroy to the cardinal at Lisbon, with the names and sirnames of
every man, likewise giving a narrative of the voyage, and the misery
they had endured. This obstinate perseverance was entirely occasioned by
the anxiety of Albuquerque not to lose the government of Portuguese
India, as he had sworn to lose his life or arrive in India, which indeed
he did to the great danger and loss of his company, many of whom paid
with their lives, and that chiefly owing to want of provisions.
Albuquerque knew well, however, if he had returned to Portugal with the
other ships, that he would have been deprived of his government, as the
people began already to murmur at his proud and lofty demeanour. Among
other instances of his pride, he caused to be painted over his gallery,
the figure of Fortune and his own picture, with a staff standing by, as
if threatening Fortune, with this motto, _Quero que vencas_; that is, _I
will have thee to overcome_[383]. When this was read by the cardinal and
other gentlemen, who accompanied him on board out of respect, they
thought it an instance of foolish arrogance:
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