_ 211 _ He said he would send a message to another captain who was three days journey away, and that if he so ordered, he would let them go. If not, he would take from them all their property and would send them back to Ormuz. On this matter many words were exchanged and as the captain of the caravan and the others were aware that all this was bargaining to take something from them, which was what he the captain did to all the caravans that passed that way, they gave him five turbans, four waistbands and a sugar-loaf. At this he was more content and a little more relenting, and he told them they should go where the musket had been taken, which was a little way from there, and that there lived another Persian Moor, whom they should ask to give it to them. The caravan pasha, two more Turks and an Armenian rode off and were with him almost the whole night, and there they had with this other one the same reverses and arguments. In the end because there were present three other subjects of the King who were on their way with letters for the far corners of the districts, and they were afraid they would be discovered, and that if this reached the ears of the Shah Tahmasp, he would maltreat the caravans and the merchants they finally agreed they would let us go, and that they would give us the musket, but that a present should be sent to him.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy