_ 171 _ and silver, Just as there was a lot to be seen and admired in the Persian, so too the Portuguese brought much to be desired. Above all they brought with them their victory which enabled them to be present at such an illustrious occasion as that in which their king would become subject to another King Don Manuel. It was not merely that they were subjecting people like the brutal Moors of barbary, the Ethiopians of Guinea, the Heathens from Malabar or other primitive provinces ruled from Europe, who though in size of territory and numbers of people were very powerful, barely covered their bodies in cheap woolen or cotton cloth and whose household goods and personal adornments were of the most primitive kind. They were subjecting a king of the ancient and royal lineage of the Persians. They were a people so proficient in science, arms and government, so refined in their dress and customs that Xenophon writing in his Cyropedia, could not find more illustrious kings nor a more noble people by whose example he could educate the Greeks. Though at present these Persians have in some measure been barbarized by the religions of Mohammed and the entry of the Arabs into their region, they are still great and magnificent in their ways, and their wares are made of gold, silver, pearls precious stones and silk. They and
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