_ 176 _ told by Gaspar, from whom you are taking a report. If you find this is so, you will tell the King that you already knew that there were heavy duties in his kingdom and that you think that they should not be so high for us because we are newly sending to his country and that when trade begins it is the custom everywhere to give free entry to those who come with merchandise, and that this is our custom in our kingdoms, and accordingly you think that he should behave in the same way to us and our merchandise. Point out to him some reasonable item which you have to buy and sell, telling him that it should be less than the others who pay him. Please God, the number of ships and quantity of merchandise will be such that his dues will bring him in much more than they do at present. If you think the King of Calicut is somehow unwilling to do this and you think that this is not turning out as well as you hoped, you will not persist, and will speak no more to him on this subject, because what you have said is enough, and he must not think that you are set on this and that he will lose some of the dues he receives from the Moors. If it so happens that he refuses to give you the hostages named here or others comparable about whom you have reliable information that they are trustworthy sureties for you in person to go ashore, you will not disembark.
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