_ 198 _ gave him ten pardaus and a fardo of rice. There we came across a ship of merchants going from Goa to Ormuz, whose pilot came over to ours our ship, at the request of the Governor, and went in her to Ormuz, where we arrived on 26th May. To indulge my curiosity, which was always more a matter of having new experiences and seeing the world than of acquiring money and riches, I accepted to make this journey because the Governor commanded me to. I did this without accepting from him anything for my expenses, in order to place him under more obligation to make me a reward. He gave me letters to the King and Queen, [telling them of his safe arrival, and to nobles and gentlemen of the Kingdom Portugal, friends and relatives of his, and with others letters from D Pero de Souza, the Captain of the fortress, I started to put myself in order. When we arrived in Ormuz, a caravan was being made ready to go by way of Persia, because Basra was surrounded by Arabs, and one could not make one’s way through there, although it is the proper, short, and correct route. That way went Joao Jorge Arguzeo, who, in the year ‘64 had taken to India from Cairo twenty or so Portuguese prisoners who had been captured in Muscat together with Joao de Lisboa, Captain of the fortress, a very good man,
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