_ 109 _ João da Nova’s vessel, so that his ship might rest more securely on the sea. Although the journey would be very dangerous on account of the winter, Garcia de Sousa went, for he would be rendering a service to the King and Our Lord gave him such good weather that he reached the ship and handed the local king a letter from the Viceroy, asking him to provide our men with food and to look after them well which the king did, Garcia de Sousa sent a message to the Viceroy overland, informing him of all this. During the winter, the Viceroy made preparations to fight Mirocem in the coming summer, since it was impossible to go and seek him out overland. He wished to lower the Arabs’ morale by making them believe that in the course of the year many ships would certainly arrive from Portugal, and that he also had a great deal of money. With the King of Cochin’s permission therefore, he announced throughout the city that he would immediately buy all the pepper which anyone would care to bring to the factory he also warned them not to give it to the Arabs on credit, for otherwise they would lose it. This upset the Arabs a great deal, both because they now believed what the Viceroy wanted them to believe and because they were unable to obtain pepper on credit. This constituted a great loss for them, for this is how they used
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