The General Suspected Some Mystery In This Man, Yet
Ordered A Cheese And Two New Loaves To Be Given Him, Which He Sent Away To
His Companion.
He continued talking with great volubility, and sometimes
so unguardedly as to raise suspicions of his being a spy.
On this Paulo de
la Gama, who particularly suspected him, inquired of some of the natives
if they knew who this man was; they immediately told him he was a pirate,
who had boarded many other ships while laid aground. On receiving this
information, the general ordered him to be carried on board his ship, then
aground, and to be whipped well till he should confess whether all that he
had said was true or false; also, what was his purpose in coming thither,
and whether he were actually a Moor or a Christian. He still insisted that
he was a Christian, and that all he said was true, declaring the
information given by the natives to be entirely groundless. The general
now ordered a more cruel torment to be inflicted to extort confession,
causing him to be hoisted up and down by the members: when at length he
declared he would tell the truth. He then acknowledged himself a spy, sent
to discover how many men the general had, and what were their weapons, as
he was much hated on all that coast for being a Christian; and that many
_atalayas_ or foists were placed in all the bays and creeks of the coast
to assail him, but dared not till they were joined by forty large armed
vessels that were getting ready to fall upon him.
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