d cast everything into the sea];
and I do not require master nor pilot, nor any man who knows the art of
navigation, because God alone is the master and pilot who has to guide
and deliver us by his mercy if we deserve it, and, if not, let his will
be done. To him you must commend yourselves and beg mercy. Henceforward
let no one speak to me of putting back, for know from me for a certainty
that, if I do not find information of what I have come to seek, to
Portugal I do not return."

Seeing and hearing these things, the crew became much more terrified, and
with much greater fear of death, which they held as certain, not having
either pilot or master, nor anyone who knew how to navigate a ship. Then
the prisoners and all the crew on their knees begged him for mercy, with
loud cries; the prisoners saying that they, being ignorant men and of
faint heart, had come to an understanding to put the ship about and
return to the King and offer themselves for death, if he chose to give it
them, and they would have taken him a prisoner, that the King might see
that he was not to blame for putting back; but this was not to have been
done, except with the will of all the people of the other ships; but
since God had discovered this to him before they had carried it out, let
him show them clemency; for well they saw that they deserved death
from him, which was more than the chains which they bore. All the crew
frequently called out to him for clemency, and not to put the prisoners
below the decks, where they would soon die. Then the captain-major,
showing that he only did it at their entreaty, and not for any need which
he had of them, ordered them to remain in their cabins in the forecastle,
still in irons, and forbade their giving any directions for the
navigation of the ship, except only for the trimming of the sails and the
work of the ship.

Vasco da Gama then ran alongside of the other ships and spoke them,
saying that he had put his pilot and master in irons, in which he would
bring them back to the kingdom, if God pleased that they should return
there; and, that they should not imagine that he had any need of their
knowledge, he had flung into the sea all the implements of their art of
navigation, because he placed his hopes in God alone, who would direct
them and deliver them from the perils among which they were going, and
on that account, since he had now made his men secure, let them secure
themselves as they pleased; and w