_ 299 _ Pages: 118-34 Ormuz is the fortress over which greater care should be taken than any of the others in India, and this for many reasons. The major one is its importance as a restraint on navigation in the strait which prevents communication from India to Basra and vice versa; if this is not required at the moment, it can at least be done at any time it may prove necessary. It is also important because of the large income the port generates, as it usually takes in more than 300,000 pardaus in customs duties, and it would bring in still more if there were someone of the royal treasury who could prevent the large thefts there, as will be shown later. It is also important since the neighbouring countries are greater warring enemies than around any other fortress. For usually one finds great numbers of Persians on this island as well as Tartars, Uzbeks and those of many other nations who come there, both by land and through Basra under a tacit truce which the captains of Ormuz have (with the consent of the viceroys of India) with the pashas of that city. Each is able to communicate with the other as though it were Lisbon communicating with Seville. For if the terradas from Basra which steal from the land all kinds of wealth, be it drugs or clothes, do not come to Ormuz, then nothing would reach there from
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