_ 425 _ Because I have been expecting António Pinto and Bastião every day, I have not made an agreement about what order should be given to Mathias Becudo in accordance with what Your Highness writes to me in reply to another letter of mine on this subject. With the testimony of these two men, one will be better informed as to the ability and means that Becudo has for intelligence, and the trust that should be placed in it about everything. I have decided to wait until they come, and with what I can understand from them I will be able to decide better in this matter and what to advise Your Highness. In accordance with this, I will also give orders to Isac in Aleppo. I am surprised not to have had a letter from him since his arrival there. The grant of forty cruzados more that Your Highness makes to Tomás de Cornoça for each year in your service, in addition to the sixty which he has as salary, was even more welcome to me than to him. I do not esteem it less than as something important to myself, such is my esteem for the service of Your Highness, and because what Tomás de Cornoça does is continuous and often of great importance it is right that he should be rewarded by Your Highness. Your ministers are very concerned to procure satisfaction for services to which they are witnesses. Tomás de Cornoça is not at present in Venice because he
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