_ 175 _ them to swear on the Koran, handing them a few cast iron artillery shots, some spearheads and bundles of arrow and said that they should swear they had received these things and would present them to the envoys. They should say to them on behalf of the commander in chief that the kings and princes who were tributaries to the King of Portugal his master when they received request for tributes from others, paid them in this currency because he had magazines full of them for his enemies. For his friends he would open his treasury’s if they had need. If the King of Shiraz wanted something from King Saifuddin of Ormuz he Afonso d’ Albuquerque was building a fortress there which he would fill with that kind of money, and with very brave and diligent gentleman. He could require such payments to be made for that purpose because they had to reply for King Saifuddin. Khwaja Attar was not very content with this reply as he was acting for these fourth envoys which Afonso d’ Albuquerque learnt afterwards. As this work on the fortress continued and uncomfortable pain grew in him, as he saw in it a heavy yoke round his neck, which in his thoughts represented an end being put to his tyranny, part of the people in the city were against him and he stayed at the fortress whilst another part did not dare raise their eyes to
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy