_ 405 _ This journey is all overland, and they take about thirty days to reach his court. Thus it takes two months to go from the Persian court to Goa. When it is necessary to send information to His Majesty by land there is a very good system by which the captain of Ormuz makes arrangements for that purpose with Indians who are there, and it is taken by them. As a guarantee that they will carry this out, they leave their wives, property and children as pledges with the captain. They reach the eastern sea at Alexandria and from there sail to Venice, and from Venice to this court. The Ambassadors the Serene King usually sends to Shah Tahmasp are eminent men experienced in negotiations, and not caballeros who do not know who is there. The language in which the King of Portugal writes to the Persian King is Persian, there are very good writers in Ormuz, and in Goa the viceroys also have them. They know the style and how to address them, and letters must be given to them to translate. The King of Portugal addresses the King of Persia as ‘Highness’ and at the beginning of letters, where one puts the greeting, their titles are also given because that is the custom.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy