_ 111 _ time. But as it was late and there was no time left to do anything that day, he also decided to play the same game; he said that there was no need for them to meet except when he went into the city, and told the merchants once more to go to their ships because he promised to give back whatever had been stolen from them. As Mira Mergena saw that on this day the governor would not be able to attack the city, and that he would therefore have time to fortify the city, he at once wrote him a letter to put matters straight. In it he said that the merchants of the land obeyed only the instructions of their ruler or governor he should therefore write to one of them and not to the merchants; he also said that he could scarcely believe that the Portuguese had come to take Aden merely for the sake of a few pickings. After reading this letter the governor understood that he would have to capture the city by force. He called the captains of the fleet alone to a council meeting and said to them. Since Our Lord in His mercy has favoured us by making us the first Portuguese to attack Aden, it is right that we should place our trust in his mercy, and that we should do our best; let us behave in such a way that nobody will be able to say that if others had come they would have done better.
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