_ 27 _ their abundance, the size and beauty of the city of Lisbon, its buildings and fine houses, the immense quantities of gold and silver in the kingdom, the wealth and number of its inhabitants, and how the King, our Lord, has two gold mines from which every year large quantities of gold come to his treasury, the abundance of ships there are in the kingdom, their great size and the large fleets that he sends every year to India, and how sometimes he raises large fleets to send to the Levant against the Turk. Item: You will also tell him that the King, our Lord, has many possessions and towns won by force of arms in Africa, and how his dominion is continually spreading through many towns, large and small, all along the coast as far as the Cape of Good Hope and how the fortresses he holds reach into the Indian Ocean: that of Sofala, which is a gold mine with a fortress, and the fortress of Kilwa in Mocambique; and how the Kings of Melinde and Cannanore and Cochin owe him obedience and how he has fortresses and soldiers in those places. Item: You will tell him of the great strength of the fleet and soldiers and artillery that I have in India, and also of the beauty, size and quantity of the artillery that the King has in his kingdom and how in Portugal all the fighting men are mounted on horses; and of the gold and silver harnesses and the saddles and trappings of the horses,
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