_ 154 _ However, if Your Highness would favour me by making me a factor and give me a clerk and cashier, I would make a great deal of profit because your administrators know nothing about trade and they sell at too low a price, whereas my business has always been with merchandise and spices. Item 16: During the whole of our stay in Malacca, not a single one of those I brought to work in the fortress complained about me apart from a slave of Ninachato. I am convinced that Rui de Araujo, who envied me was behind this. In fact, it was he who should have done the work that I was doing, such as bringing the slaves to the fortress because he had been in Malacca for two years and I had just arrived. Despite this, within two months, I had learned the language of the country, as well as everything about the culture and the weights and measures. Rui de Araujo was astounded and often asked me in the presence of the Commander if I had been in Malacca before. Item 17: I went about Malacca circulating Your Highness’ money and discrediting that of the Moors and making sure that provisions were weighed only by weights bearing Your Highness’s emblem just as your inspectors of weights and measures did. I got on well with the local Moors and with my job. I predicted that eight measures of
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