_ 499 _ notable contrast here is between Albuquerque's attitude to the Shah of Persia: whereas in 1507 he showed the diplomatic representative military equipment, eight years later he is preparing to send Fernão Gomes de Lemos and João de Sousa as ambassadors to the monarch, taking a valuable present(A). The political and judicial definition of the new possession continued to trouble the Portuguese mind, undecided between 'empire', 'kingdom' and 'lordship', as it was between commerce and navigation to Europe or the benefits of regional trade, the control of seas or lands, collaboration with local peoples or a Portuguese monopoly, crossbreeding of racial purity(B), war or peace. After the supporters of Rais Hamid had left Ormuz and the city was at peace, and its King knighted, Pero de Alpoim tells King Manuel that 'from this day forward the King was so dominated by the Commander that he never again did anything or [bulio consiguo] without first telling (A) Ibid., fo. 3. (B) C.R.Boxer says that, in general, 'the Portuguese Kings took the line that religion and not colour should be the criterion for Portuguese citizenship, and that all Asian converts to Christianity should be treated as the equals of their Portuguese co-religionists' .Race relations in the Portuguese colonial empire 1415-1825, Oxford 1963, pp. 69-70.
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