Inasmuch as it is expedient and necessary for those who would undertake the voyage to the East Indies to know the proper times and seasons for setting out, both on the outward and the homeward voyage, the things whereof they ought to make provision, and the manner of their governance, whereby to avoid the accidents which hourly befall, as indeed I have myself experienced many and many a time—on these matters I will give a short discourse which may serve for a conclusion to my voyage, and will treat in some measure of the excesses and lack of order attending our navigation, and the means of remedying the same. I begin by saying that voyagers must above all things take care to set out in season in order to successfully weather the Cape of Good Hope and the coast of Natal, where the winds and storms are both very frequent and very dangerous, and the more so when the passage of these regions is made out of season.

It behoves them also to be provided with good and experienced sea-pilots, who have made the voyage several times, and have a practical knowledge of it, for it is certain that if we had had a good pilot our voyage had come to happy issue.