_ 491 _ the aforementioned letter of 4th April was right, and that they are badly informed about this matter in India. I also believe neither they nor we know what is happening in Basra. The number of galleys on that island cannot increase unless they come from the Red Sea. Some went there after the capture of Muscat, but Matias Becudo’s letter does not mention that they returned there. I do not know where any others could have come from, because there is no wood anywhere in that region as far as Damão. Neither is there any along the Euphrates that could be transported to Basra, according to what I have been told, nor is there a sufficient supply throughout the whole of Syria. Wood for galleys cannot be provided, unless it is brought by sea from Constantinople to Tripoli and from there to Aleppo by camel and later transported with great difficulty along the Euphrates to Basra. There has been no news in recent days that any wood had gone to Tripoli and thence to Aleppo in that way. Such activity could not go unnoticed, because those two towns are frequented by merchants from everywhere, and the Indian enterprise and the designs of the Turks are widely known.
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