_ 60 _ pepper. And, as if this were not enough. a few days later a man went about the town wearing a mask and leading by a rope a goat wearing another and, where he found a concourse of people, he said that the latter was the comptroller of the Treasury and that when he arrived he would make him pay and bleat and at this time Jeronimo Ruiz was in Bassora with Dom Antão. They say that João Fernandez de Vascoconcelos (sic) had this done by a servant of his because there had been an exchange of words between them, and that he was then in Ormuz having come sick from Catyfa. It is also said that it was Dom Alvaro who ordered it to be done but it is believed that it was more likely to have been João Fernandez because Dom Alvaro said, in the presence of many people, that he had not ordered it to be done but that he could not deny that it was a very good joke. And this is how Your Highness's officials are trading here and this is the inquiry that was held and what was done in this regard. And if Jeronymo Ruiz were not very well-known before, he nevertheless had these powers and he served very well this voyage not only as comptroller of the Treasury but as a magistrate and a soldier, as everyone agrees. It is true that he did not go there on my advice.
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