Being
Desirous Of Procuring Pilots To Navigate The Fleet To Calicut, The
General Commanded To Come To Anchor, Meaning To Use His Endeavours For
This Purpose.
For, hitherto, he could not learn from the Moors he had
lately captured, whether any of them were pilots; and though he had
threatened them with the torture, they always persisted in declaring that
none of them had any skill in pilotage.
Next day, being Easter eve, the old Moor who had been made prisoner in
the pinnace, told the general that there were four ships belonging to
Christians of the Indies at Melinda, and engaged, if the general would
allow him and the other Moors to go on shore, he would provide him, as
his ransom, Christian pilots, and would farther supply him with every
thing he might need. Well pleased with the speeches of the old Moor, the
general removed his ships to within half a league of the city, whence
hitherto no one came off to our fleet, as they feared our men might make
them prisoners; for they had received intelligence that we were
Christians, and believed our ships were men of war. On the Monday morning,
therefore, the general commanded the old Moor to be landed on a ledge, or
rock, opposite the city, and left there, expecting they would send from
the city to fetch him off; which they did accordingly as soon as our boat
departed. The Moor was carried directly to the king, to whom he said, as
instructed by the general, what he chiefly desired to have. He farther
said, that the general desired to have amity with the king, of whom he
had heard a good report, hoping by his aid, and with the will of God, he
might be enabled to discover the route to India. The king received this
message favourably, and sent back the Moor in a boat to the general,
accompanied by one of his own servants and a priest, saying, that he
would most willingly conclude a treaty of amity with him, and should
supply him with what pilots he needed. These messengers likewise
presented the general from the king, with three sheep, and a great many
oranges, and sugar canes, which he thankfully accepted; desiring the
messengers to acquaint their master, that he gladly agreed to the
profered amity, and was ready to confirm the same between them, and
promised to enter their harbour next day. He farther desired them to
inform the king, that he was the subject of a great and powerful
sovereign in the west, who had sent him to discover the way to Calicut,
with orders to enter into peace and amity with all kings and princes on
whose territories he might happen to touch by the way. That it was now
_two years_[40] since he left his own country, and that the king his
master was a prince of such puissance and worth as he was convinced the
king of Melinda would be glad to have for a friend.
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