on Thursday evening, and lasts till Saturday at six o’clock, during which time great numbers rise; but after that no more appear.  When they do rise, some are rolled about with linen bandages in the manner in which the ancients swathed their dead.  It must not be imagined that these dead bodies move, and still less that they walk about.  But, one instant you may observe and touch the arm or the leg of one, or some other part, and going away for a moment, you will find at your return the part you had formerly seen and touched still more exposed, or farther out of the ground than at first; and this will happen as often as you make the experiment.  On that day, many tents are pitched about this mount, and thither many persons repair, sick as well as healthy; and near this place there is a pond in which the people bathe on the Friday night, in order to get cured of their infirmities. For my own part, I did not see these miracles.

[Footnote 251:  The 15th of August, the Assumption of the Virgin.—­E.]

CHAPTER III.

THE VOYAGE OF DON STEFANO DE GAMA FROM GOA TO SUEZ, IN 1540, WITH THE
INTENTION OF BURNING THE TURKISH GALLIES AT THAT PORT.  WRITTEN BY DON
JUAN DE CASTRO, THEN A CAPTAIN IN THE FLEET; AFTERWARDS GOVERNOR-GENERAL
OF PORTUGUESE INDIA[252].

INTRODUCTION.

Don Juan or Joam De Castro, the author of the following journal, was a Portuguese nobleman born in 1500; being the son of Don Alvaro de Castro, governor of the Chancery, and Donna Leonora de Noronha, daughter of Don Joam de Almeyda, Count of Abrantes.  In his youth, Don Juan de Castro served with reputation at Tangier, and on his return home had a commandery of 500 ducats of yearly revenue conferred upon him, which was all he was ever worth, though a man of high birth and rare merit.  He afterwards served under the Emperor Charles V. in his expedition against Tunis, and refused his share of a pecuniary reward from that prince to the Portuguese officers on the expedition, saying that he served the king of Portugal, and accepted rewards only from his own sovereign.  After this he commanded a fleet on the coast of Barbary, and was sent to join the fleet of Spain for the relief of Ceuta.  On hearing that the Moors were approaching, the Spaniards wished to draw off, on pretence of consulting upon the manner of giving battle, but Don Juan refused to quit his post; and the Moors retired, not knowing that the fleets had separated, so that he had all the honour of relieving Ceuta.

[Footnote 252:  Astley, I. 107.  Purchas, II. 1422.]