BOOK VII [First Attempt to Return to Spain and Forced Return from Mozambique to . Account of Loss of Qeshm and Hormuz. D. García de Silva y Figueroa’s Final Departure from Goa. 19 December 1620–28 April 1624]

[December 1620] At daybreak on Saturday, the 19th of December, the caravel Nossa Senhora de Nazaré left the bar of Goa with a land wind from the north, standing west and north-west, but in such light airs that after three hours she made no more than one league from the harbor. The wind then veered to the south, though it too was so feeble that by five o’clock in the afternoon we had still not lost sight of land, which could not have been more than six leagues distant. [margin: The Ambassador] had fitted out this caravel, which had come that year from with advance warning, preparing her at his own ex- pense to return to Spain. He had gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that the caravel would be laden with nothing more than enough food and water for the sailors and his servants for the voyage. Yet she had been so greatly overbur- dened that as she made her offing from the bar, no room was found to mount eight small pieces of artillery that she carried for defense, even though two days earlier the Ambassador had ordered the master and the gunners to make them ready, as they would be necessary the first day of sailing in order to ward off Malabar corsairs, who always lay in wait just off shore. Sailing on this cara- vel were thirty-one mariners, along with the officers and three gunners, not to mention several slaves and fifteen or sixteen of the Ambassador’s servants, ten or twelve of his personal slaves and pages, and, lastly, the chaplain and a Franciscan Capuchin lay brother named friar Filipe. At the aforementioned time of day, the caravel being nearly becalmed, a grummet began crying out that he had sighted eleven Malabar prows off the bow. At once many others who were with him spied them as well. They ap- proached us both under sail and rowing. There was much shouting amid gen- eral confusion and commotion on our ship. Everyone was caught off guard, and the small waist of the caravel was so crowded with bundles of cinnamon, boxes, and barrels that there was no room to prepare all that was necessary in such a short space of time. The racket brought the Ambassador onto the deck. After remonstrating the sailors and servants for the agitation he witnessed, he

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/9789004346321_009 [Attempt to Return to Spain and Final Departure] 771 The Reconstructed Route of the Embassy’s Aborted Return Voyage, 19 December 1620 – 28 May 1621 20°0'0"E 30°0'0"E 40°0'0"E 50°0'0"E 60°0'0"E 70°0'0"E Vengurla Dep. 19 Dec 1620 Goa Ar. 28 May Nile 31 Dec 1621 Aden Socotra 27 May Cape 4 May Laccadives Guardafui 10°0'0"N Kochi 10°0'0"N Blue Nile Cape

White Nile Comorin Ubangi

Congo Mogadishu Maldives Baraawe 8 Jan 1621 5 Apr Equator 0°0'0" 0°0'0"

Malindi Seychelles Mombasa Pemba 15 Feb – 14 Mar Pedro de Baños Lukaga Mafia Diego Garcia Kilwa Zanzibar 15 Jan 19 – 20 Jan Quirimba Chagos 10°0'0"S 9 Feb Comoros Agalega Saya de Malha 10°0'0"S Ibo Lualaba Aldabra

7 Feb Mozambique Pinda Nazareth 22 – 26 Jan Cargados Carajos Angoche St Brandon Tete Sena João da Nova Zambezi Diogo 20°0'0"S 20°0'0"S Sofala India

Madagascar Tropic of Capricorn

Cape St Roman

Orange 30°0'0"S 30°0'0"S

Lagoa Bay False Bay 1 inch = 634 miles Outbound Voyage Cape Agulhas 0 500 1,000 N Return Voyage W E

S

20°0'0"E 30°0'0"E 40°0'0"E 50°0'0"E 60°0'0"E 70°0'0"E

Map 10 The reconstructed route of the embassy’s aborted return voyage, 19 December 1620–28 May 1621.

ordered them to mount the biggest guns in the bow and to ready the stern guns to protect the helm; there was no room or place for the rest of the artillery. The master of the caravel wore her round, putting her stern to the wind in order to gain time to make things ready. During the short space of time this provided, the Ambassador ordered the sides, prow, and veranda1 of the caravel to be stacked with bundles, boxes, and all the ship’s bedclothes. He also ordered the few people on board to take their places at these posts with twenty muskets and nine or ten harquebuses, and the ship-boys and slaves to take their places

1 The ornately carved balcony on the outer stern of the ship common to caravels.