339pp., colour illus., paperback, Reprint, London, (2017) 2018
Fernão Lopes was a young nobleman from Lisbon who in 1506 sailed to India, converted to Islam and fought his former countrymen as a soldier of fortune for the Sultan of Bijapur. Captured, tortured and disfigured by the Portuguese Governor Afonso Albuquerque, he was deported back to Portugal, but chose voluntary exile on Saint Helena, where he lived in almost complete solitude for more than 30 years.