eath, though their captain
took no account of it. Vasco da Gama replied that he took the same
account of death as any of them, but that they had heard his resolution,
and he intended to keep to it.

At this juncture a furious blast struck the ships, the sea again getting
up in such a way that they were frequently hidden from the sight of each
other, and could only be perceived as they rose to the top of a sea
before again falling into the trough.

Lights were hung out so that they might keep together, for the
Captain-Major had been warned before sailing of the danger of
separating, and his friends and relatives on board the other ships were
ever on the watch to prevent such a catastrophe.

Mutiny was nearly breaking out on board the ship of Nicholas Coelho; but
he was warned by a young boy who had overheard the discussions of the
malcontents, and he therefore took all the means in his power to defeat
their objects. Passing near the Captain's ship, the brave Coelho warned
him in language which the mutineers could not understand of their
intentions, and at the same time told him that it would be as well to
put about, since they had determined on doing so.

Vasco da Gama immediately comprehended the meaning of Coelho's words,
and replied, so that those on board his own ship might hear, that he
could not withstand the tears and lamentations of his people, nor did he
wish to have to give an account to God of their lives, and that he had
begged them to labour on for their own safety; observing that should the
weather again become bad, he would put back, but that to exculpate
himself with the King, he should draw up a document explaining his
reasons for returning, and should require them to put their signatures
to it.

On going to his cabin he desired his secretary to draw up the paper, and
then ordered three of the seamen who were the most clamourous to come in
and sign it. Immediately they did so they were seized and put in irons,
and the master and pilots were treated in the same manner. He then
returned on deck, and addressing his crew, told them that they had no
longer a master or pilot, that he himself would take charge of the ship
and direct her course aright.

Still further to convince his crew that he did not depend on the master
or pilots, he ordered their nautical instruments to be brought to him,
when, taking them in his hands, he threw them one by one into the sea,
exclaiming as he did so, "I need no ot