_ 475 _ so hard to produce more, the matter be taken seriously and attended to immediately. I am convinced that these reports are wrong and that in Suez there are no more than the twenty-five ships, in poor conditions, that Matias Becudo told me about on 4th April last, and that others are not being built. Nor could they possibly know more in India when Francisco left than, what the futas said that from Cristovão Pereira’s squadron and reached the mouth of the Straits. Since there were no foreign Moorish ships entering or leaving the port, they were unable to lay their hands on any interpreter who had been to Suez at that time, so as to learn what was really going on there. Our men passing through the Straits cannot have an accurate idea either, unless the fleet in Suez is so big and the preparations so far advanced that the news travels widely. Even if our fleet only heard a faint rumour of this, they could have obtained the true picture by capturing a ship bound for Jeddah with Turks aboard, because they would know the truth about Suez. For that reason, I am convinced that what Matias Becudo wrote in the aforementioned letter of 4th April was right, and that they are badly informed about this matter in India.
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