ships went out under Italian captains - Tomásio da Cremona ('Thomas de Carmona') and Giovanni Buonagrazia ('João da Bonagracia') of Florence. Both were likely privately outfitted by Italian consortiums (although Buonagrazia's ship is identified as formally belonging to Ruy Mendes de Brito, a gentleman of the royal chamber, he might be a mere figurehead of an underlying foreign investment group) Lopo Dias is identified by Barros as an employee of D. Álvaro of Braganza, who had privately outfitted ships in earlier armadas in conjunction with the Marchionni consortium, so there is reason to presume Dias's ship was outfitted the same way. The Leitoa Nova is said to have been privately outfitted by the powerful nobleman Tristão da Cunha in conjunction with the mysterious Lisbon merchant-woman Catarina Dias de Aguiar Eyewitness accounts suggest three more ships were also privately outfitted. Aboard the ships, as passengers, were Gaspar da Gama (the Goese Jew brought by Gama's first journey, who had also served as translator in the Cabral armada), an ambassador from the Kolathiri Raja of Cannanore and one of two noble Cochinese hostages taken inadvertently by Cabral's Second India Armada back to Lisbon (the other Cochinese hostage elected to stay in Lisbon, dispatching a letter to Trimumpara Raja, prince of Cochin relating the useful role he might serve Cochin by remaining behind in the Portuguese court.) There were two Italian passengers on the armada - both military engineers, and probably secret Venetian agents - that would play a sinister role in India. They were known by their Portuguese names as João Maria (Gianmaria) and Pêro António (Pierantonio). The 4th Armada is unusually blessed with multiple eyewitness accounts to supplement the standard chronicles: (1) an account by an anonymous Flemish sailor aboard the Leitoa Nova in the second squadron, (2) an account by anonymous Portuguese sailor; (3) a brief account by an anonymous German sailor; (4) a detailed account by Thomé Lopes, clerk of the ship of Giovanni Buonagrazia in the third squadron; (5) two letters dispatched from Mozambique in April 1503 by an Italian agent Matteo da Bergamo, who, by deduction, was travelling on T. Carmona's ship (6) letters dispatched from Lisbon by Italian agents Francesco Corbinelli and Giovanni Francesco Affaitati drawn from interviews with the newly returning crews in August 1503. The mission The principal mission of the 4th Armada was to settle scores with the Zamorin of Calicut. This was