_ 426 _ has gone to Friuli, although he is expected any day, and for this reason he has not yet received the news, with which he will be well pleased, and I do not have the news that no one but he can give me. If the fleet at Suez did not leave last summer, as we were informed, I do not think that for this reason it will fail to leave next summer, if the rumour is true about preparations that were being made in Cairo and so it seems necessary that Your Highness's fleet that will go in March, if it pleases God, should carry enough soldiers and necessary material to be of great assistance to what can be gathered in India. If the Suez galleys are not more than twenty-five, as they write from Cairo, it seems that they have no other intention than to join up with those that the Turk already has in Basra, doing as much damage as they can do by surprise attacks on the way there. This way, they can make use of those that were lying idle in the shipyard, and of those at Basra, taking on fresh soldiers because they have them there for this purpose, and they may have some surplus. The convenience of the Euphrates aids and favours them with support and provisions which may be necessary
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