_ 218 _ since the King of Calicut who was the emperor of the Malabar had aided him in the enterprise, believing that he (the King of Cannanore) was more likely to succeed in carrying it out than he had been. The prince contradicted him, saying that the King of Calicut was three times as powerful as him and in spite of it had not been able to defeat the Portuguese at the Cambalan Pass, although at the time they only numbered 80 men, possessed no fortress to defend them and had only two rotten ships. After he had been thus disposed of, he was now trying to avenge himself by using the King of Cannanore, regardless of the cost, furthermore he had not sent him much help and was trying to gain much without paying the full price, which was impossible. For how was he to succeed when the King of Calicut had been powerless against the Portuguese at a time when he had a great army and the Portuguese so few men, whilst there were now many more of them and they were behind fortified positions? He should take his good advice and pay no attention to the King of Calicut's foolish notions and the Arabs' bad counselling. The latter wished them to fight not out of any desire to make them benefit from the attack, but because they were our enemies. For if they saw that they were unable to throw our men out they had nothing to lose by going to live elsewhere,
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