_ 144 _ thought our men would disembark for, he knew what they had done in India. In Cairo there was a great commotion, because it was rumoured that just as the governor had sailed into the strait, so too would the Christians in Europe attack them from the Mediterranean, by landing in Alexandria, it was also reported that Sheikh Ishmael had pitched camp at Alepo; which lies at the edge of the desert. After hearing this news the governor of Damascus, who had been summoned by the sultan, refused to go to his master and rebelled against him. The Arabs were all very frightened, thinking that the sea-routes to the House of Mecca, were being closed to them, which would result in great losses; all the Sultan's tax revenues were always brought to him by sea, in a ship called Musumeri.
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