The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 199 _ in Goa or in Cochin, in order to oversee the building work at Calicut, where the fortress was to be completed in the course of the same year. During the meeting it was agreed that Dom Garcia should spend the winter in Cochin with some of our forces, so that he could go and rescue our men in Calicut, should the need arise; the governor and the remainder of our forces were to spend the winter in Goa, because there was not enough money in Cochin to pay for the upkeep of the Lascarims, nor was there enough merchandise to give them in lieu of payment, since the factor had sold it all to the Arabs. As a result of the factor's dealings with the Arabs, the latter had profited largely (they were only to pay the factor in three years' time), whilst the King of Portugal did not have enough money to pay his own servants, for this the governor reproached the factor very harshly, how come he didn't have any money, considering he had received the funds from six ships which had been lost, but whose coffers had been saved? Furthermore, the Arabs owed him more than 15,000 cruzados from the previous year; none of this money had been spent by the fleet, nor had any of it been used to pay

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