35 Suez Leaving this land of Prester John, which [1] is [2] also the coast of Arabia Felix, and heading along the other shore of the Red Sea, which is also called Arabia and which the Mouros call Bar-al-Mahr, one comes to a seaport called Suez, where the Mouros would bring all sorts of spices and medicinesand many otherfine goods from India to Jeddah, the seaport of Mecca, and from there to Suez in very small craft. They would then take them overland by camel to Cairo, from where other merchants would take them to Alexandria, and there the Venetians would buy them and take them to Venice. This trade was undone by Our Lord and King because hisfleets cut off the Mouros ships which can no longer reach the Red Sea from India, which is why the Great Sultan of Cairo, who loses the most from this, ordered a huge navy to be assembled in this port of Suez. Thus, he brought wood and artillery by land, and all the other munitions at great expense, which was quickly made into square-rigged carracks and oared galleys. Once ready, hisfleet under the command of Mirocem passed the first India, which is in the kingdom of Cambay, and with the purpose of cutting off Portuguese shipping, it engaged Our Lord and King’s navy off the coast of Diu, where they fought so intensely that there were injuries and deaths on both sides, with the Mouros having been defeated and their vessels captured and burned and sunk. Through this exploit and many other subsequent ones of ours, they gradually lost control of the routes to the Red Sea, and the port of Suez was left without any business in spices, and is now greatly damaged and almost deserted. Mount Sinai There not very far from Suez in the same land of Arabia, one comes to Mount Sinai overlooking the Red Sea, where the body of Blessed Saint Catherine lies in a church where some Christian friars are in the 1. Andwas corrected towhich 2. Is added between the lines.
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