_ 493 _ the state of affairs. I feel confident that he will make good use of the information and take defensive measures. In this way, with nothing to fear, they can relax and avoid costly precautions. I wrote to Your Highness on 14th of last month, notifying you of the arrival of Gonçalo de Araujo. He was captured in his youth on the Algarve coast and spent fourteen years in different parts of Africa and Turkey, where the Turks forced him to change his religion. When he fled from Constantinople and offered to serve Your Highness, I decided to send him to Cairo with Antonio Pinto for the reasons I mentioned in my letter. Antonio Pinto is slowly recovering, and a suitable ship is ready to take him from Venice to Alexandria, so I have decided to send him there. I hope that he has already left Venice or will do so in a few days. I have given orders for thirty cruzados to be given him for the voyage. He has been thoroughly briefed about everything he needs to know so that he can enter Suez and see for himself what is going on there. He has been told to return after spending four or five months and report on what is happening in the manner prescribed. If all goes according to plan, it will prove very
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