_ 222 _ from Kashan were returning there, that he should punish them as they deserved. I advised him not to permit a single Jew to enter the fortress, and that it would be a great service to God and the King to make known to them what he had heard about them. They were the most treacherous people in the world, without truth, without shame, and, finally, without any kind of virtue, or any other good characteristic. They were even more our enemies than the Turk s themselves. I have very good relations with the last-named, and with the Moors in the caravan. I had told them with great ceremony that the Mother Superior was carrying with her, as far as I knew, no more than she had publicly said in their presence. They said nothing, believing me more than what they [the Jews] had said, for Our Lord did not wish that all should be lost that that virtuous and saintly old lady had put together thorough so many hardships in her life, through such travels, and over such a long period of time. I told the Captain that just the jewellery in her bag was worth more than three thousand gold pardaos of the kind in circulation in India, according to what the Mother Superior had declared in the inventory, and that I had seen this afterwards from the notes with each item, when they were handed over, apart from other things, which were worth nearly another thousand.
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