_ 168 _ When Amir Hussain read the Sultan’s letters, he assembled fifty dromedaries for the men he was taking with him, and one for himself, and they travelled to Cairo in sixteen days. This delighted the Sultan and he told him that he should go and see the fleet that he had built to transport him. Amir Hussain rode to Suez where the ships were being built to see the fleet. This is a two days ride on horseback and three by camel. After viewing the said ships, he turned to the Sultan and told him that this was not the fleet to oppose the Portuguese and he gave his reasons. Item 40: He informed him about all the forces that Your Highness has in India, and the fortresses, namely Goa, which is an enormous enterprise and the key to India. I can assure you, Sir, that when I was in Aden and the news arrived that Your Highness had captured it for the first time, a group of Algerian Moors from Oran and Tremecem, who happened to be there, were panic-stricken. They said that Goa was a second Rhodes and that from there it would be possible to secure the whole of India. About Malacca I say nothing because without doubt, it is the repository of all the spices and drugs in the world. All the Indians flock there just like rivers flowing into the sea.
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