The great Afonso Dalboquerque, having carefully gathered together all the information he could obtain concerning the affairs of the straits, and being now very desirous of performing his voyage to India, commanded the captains to get themselves ready, and on the fifteenth day of the month of July, in the year [one thousand] five hundred and thirteen, warped his ships out of Camarão harbour, and without touching land anywhere, steered his course direct to the gates of the straits; and having passed through, proceeded to cast anchor with all the fleet behind the island, which lies athwart the mouth of the straits, as I have already shown. And, in order that he might leave nothing unexplored in this voyage, he desired also to find out what islands these were, and what harbours there were in them. One day, therefore, before sunrise, he got into his boat with Domingo Fernandez, the pilot, and D. Garcia de Noronha, Lopo Vaz de Sampayo, and D. João de Lima in theirs, and all together in a party made their way to a harbour which the island possesses, looking towards the land of the Preste Joao, that makes a large bay, eating away, as it were, part of the island, and making within itself three smaller bays; the mouth of the harbour being so situated that when it has been entered the land appears to close in around it in such a manner that the open sea can no longer be seen.