_ 564 _ I assure Your Highness that each one of your captains who went to Suez with the Governor ordered food to be given to those they had brought from India, even though many were so poor that they could only maintain their people with great difficulty. If this had not been done, Your Highness can be sure that all would have been lost. One thing I wish to tell Your Highness is that of all the men I brought from India only one died, and he was already very old and had been ill when he left India. When we reached Massawa and the lascars saw the captains, they were so pleased that it was as if they had left hell for paradise. Here in Massawa the King of Abyssinia sent to ask the Governor for men to help him, saying that his kingdom belonged to Your Highness and this being so, he had lost it all, and his gold mines had been seized from him; but that all this was nothing compared with his sorrow that the Moors had captured his people, who are Abyssinians and Christians. He begged the Governor by the honour and death and Passion of Our Lord to help him, for many of his people from towns he had lost had been forced to become Governor had left them defenceless, who should have protected and made them comfortable and relieved them of the poverty and hunger from which they were suffering'. (Lendas IV, p. 184). The unhealthy climate also contributed to their discomfort.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy