The General Was Much Pleased To Find That One Of The Moors Taken By His
Brother At Mozambique Was A Pilot, And Was Acquainted With The Navigation
To Calicut.
Proceeding on their voyage, they came, on Sunday the first of
April, to certain islands very near the coast,
To the first of which they
gave the name of _Ilha da Acoutado_, because the Moorish pilot of
Mozambique was here severely whipt by order of the general, for having
falsely said that these islands were part of the continent, and likewise
for not shewing the way to the watering-place at Mozambique, as before
related. Being cruelly whipt, the Moor confessed that he had brought them
to this place expressly that they might perish on the rocks and shoals of
these islands, which were so numerous and so close together, that they
could hardly be distinguished from each other. On this the general stood
out to sea, and on Friday the 4th of April,[36] standing to the north-
west, he came in sight, before noon, of a great land, with two islands
near the coast, around which were many shoals. On nearing the shore, the
Moorish pilots recognized it, and said that the Christian island of
Quiloa was three leagues astern; on which the general was much grieved,
believing certainly that the natives of Quiloa had been Christians, as
represented by the pilots, and that they had purposely taken a wrong
course that the ships might not come there. The pilots, to conceal their
treachery, alleged that the winds and currents had carried the ships
farther than they reckoned.
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