_ 210 _ rouse me into action, because some of the captain’s archers had carried off my musket. When I came near, they already had it in the orchard and were maltreating a Turk who was trying to hold on to it. Then the caravan pasha which means the captain of the caravan, who was a Persian Moor called Khwaja Hidar, and other Turks and Persians who were travelling with the caravan went to speak to the captain, complaining of the crime that had been committed in their presence, and asked him to have the musket returned to me; for I was a Portuguese, sent by the Captain of Ormuz with letters for the Shah Tahmasp, and that it was commended to them that no offence to me should be permitted. They had many relatives in Ormuz, a matter on which the captain could satisfy himself, and for this reason they begged him that my musket should be returned to me without further ado, and that it belonged to the Captain of Ormuz himself, who had lent it to me for the journey. The captain replied that they should show him the letters I was carrying, as he wished to see them. When they said that they were closed and private, so that they could not be taken out, he said that in the caravan were travelling Jews, Portuguese and Armenians whom he had no authority to let pass.
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