_ 81 _ As Afonso de Albuquerque, your highest captain was in India, he undertook this after it had been first planned here. Since this is so and must be so, it would give me the greatest pleasure, as I have already indicated to the king, if he ordered me to help in this. I would do it for little personal gain, no matter how old I was. So, between old age and death, I carried out what he ordered me to do everywhere in the world. Though ill with fever, I undertook adventures, at his command, because, in God’s eyes, where there is devotion and resolve, neither age nor sickness exist in his service. For, as St Paul says, “It is when I am sick that I feel myself stronger”. No further proof is needed for this, than to see what is being accomplished there by the Portuguese. I hope that more will be done in the future, so that in this way, God’s power and mercy may shine the more, as was done by twelve ordinary men, his apostles, through their faith and integrity. Now the Portuguese continue doing this out there and rivalling the apostles. Thus, just as idolatry was destroyed by the twelve apostles and the Catholic faith expanded. I am writing this letter to you, instead of the ones I write to him and to everyone out there each year. I would be grateful if you could show it to my son, so that he may
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