_ 98 _ restored, and his revenues increased, without cost to him; they only fall short for the King because they grow for his ministers and neglect in his treasury grows with the greed of his ministers. The commerce of Ormuz is the greatest in all India because every year many horses are taken there from Persia and Arabia which supply Christians, Hinduism, and Moors throughout India. They are beautiful horses well accoutered, especially the Arabs which come from Muscat and Bahrain, and are very agile and graceful. A great deal of silk and velvet from Persia, carpets and rhubarb and quantities of many other things and money. What the Persians take from there is cloth of every kind, porcelain, tin, sugar, drugs and indigo. From Basra comes money, silver in coins and ingots, much camelhair cloth of every kind, much [rossamalha] saffron, paper, textiles, and also by way of Basra come the Venetians, with glass and trinkets and other things from which the King receives little profit in the custom house. What goes from Ormuz to Basra and the regions of Syria, Mesopotamia, Turkey and Armenia is cloves, mace cinnamon, cardamom, cloth and porcelain, all in large quantities, and a great deal of indigo, so that Ormuz is the port of call for all merchandise coming to India from
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