84 both Mouros and gentile inhabitants who are all great merchants. Many ships from Hormuz come to this port every year to load up on white rice and powdered sugar, great quantities of which are harvested here. They do not know how to make the sugar into loaves, and so they bundle up the powdered sugar into small parcels. An arroba of sugar sells for two hundred and forty reais, give or take a little, and they also take a lot of iron on board. Thus, these are the three main types of merchandise they buy here, in addition to some pepper and spices which the Malabars bring from India. There are a lot of fine cherry plums here and some of them are made into conserves to sell to the Mouros from Arabia and Persia, who pay a good price for them. These ships from Hormuz, which as I said come every year, bring a lot of horses and pearls which they sell here to the Kingdom of Vijayanagara. Now, because of our people, they take them to Goa, along with a lot of other merchandise. Some ships belonging to the Mouros from Mecca also come here to load cargoes of spices. They run the risk of doing this, despite their being banned from doing so by our laws and instructions; zambucos from Malabar come here every year to load iron and sugar, bringing with them a lot of palm-sugar; coconuts; their oil and palm-wine, a lot of pepper and some other remedies that they secretly conceal, and others which they have a licence for, from the captains of our fortresses. This is a very wealthy town which brings in a lot of money for the king and the governor who he has appointed here, and whose name is Damachate. He is a very rich Mouros, with a great deal of money and some beautiful precious stones. The King of Vijayanagara gave this place to a nephew of his, along with many other surrounding villages. He is a great lord and keeps a fine house. His name is Reimas and he fully obeys the King of Vijayanagara, his uncle, and the local people obey both him and his governor. Theyfight many duels here and accept them over the slightest matter.
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