_ 145 _ Brother with our most beloved Cristovao da Costa to go every evening to teach, catechise and instruct them in the faith. Through God's kindness, almost all are already, little by little, becoming Christians. I am not relating here the news of the success of affairs in Ormuz and the results which are produced in Bassein and in all the other regions as I understand that Father Superior Gaspar instructed that everything, including a lot of news and many items about Prester John(A), should be collected in a lengthy transcript which will cause you no little enthusiasm. I shall now relate something no less worthy of feeling and pain as well as full of admiration and instruction, which he offered me for your greater perseverance. Our Lord decided to give us clear evidence and many proofs of his justice. When we had been here many days, we were informed that Ormuz was besieged and that the Mamluks had entered the city. Having seized more than two hundred and fifty thousand pardaus there, [228r] they burned the churches and captured the wife of the Captain of Muscat with others who were accompanying her to the fort of Ormuz.(B) (A) About Ormuz see Doc 87 (see also the Introduction under III), about Barzeu Doc 103: about Ethiopia BECCARI X 23-24. (B) Ra'is Nur al-Din [Reis Nordim], D Alvaro de Noronha and Sebastiao
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