_ 89 _ instead. However, the Moor managed to send Lourenço de Brito a letter hidden in a small ball made of wax informing him that in Goa they were building fifteen ships like our own and also atalaias and that the Sabaio was leaving for one of his cities which was being besieged by a King with whom he was at war. Before leaving, however, he summoned the officers who were building the ships and ordered them to make a list of all that was needed to build them. Whatever they needed was to be supplied immediately so that when he returned, they would be ready. If they were not ready, he would punish them severely. When the officers had completed the lists, he gave them to one of his Governors ordering him to deal with them as he was about to depart. About ten or twelve days later two ships arrived here a place which is next to Aden called Shehir, laden with cloths and stays; all this, my Lord, is true. Item: A year before the departure of Victory for Mecca, Jidda, Berbera and Zeila, seven ships full of spices left Calicut, three of which were lost in a storm. The rest went to the aforementioned ports. The spices were worth three hundred and eighty reis and bahar of ginger worth sixty xerafins. These ships returned to Calicut. Khwaja Bakin, to whom one of the ships belonged wrote to Lourenço de Brito about all this with total reliability.
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