_ 391 _ I, then had another letter from Cornoça giving an account of the haste with which the Pasha of Cairo was preparing twenty-five galleys in Suez with the intention of attacking Ormuz. I received this information when it was unlikely that it could reach the ships leaving Portugal for India this year in time for them to take this news about Suez to Ormuz. The route to Ormuz via Aleppo and Basra is much quicker, and Isac Becudo was available as he had not yet left Venice because of the weather. I wrote to Your Highness about this Jew Isac, who brought the letter from the Licentiate Silva, and whom I have deputed to stay in Cairo and send information to Aleppo for India and to Venice for here. I thought it advisable to write again to Tomás de Cornoça, to send the Jew with an order that if he found in Aleppo that the news was true, he should then go on himself or send someone whom he could trust, very quickly to Basra and Ormuz and give this information to the captain of the fortress there. I also wrote to the Jew himself and charged him with as much of the matter as was suitable, and on Your Highness's behalf I promised he would be rewarded according to his service if he arrived in time and provided proof of this from the captain.
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