_ 155 _ send them the Jew who is in Cairo. The Jew was making preparations, and as soon as he had finished building seven or eight galleys he would send them towards Aden. The Turk ordered him that if he could not then go to India, he was to send thirty sail to Cape Ras el – Had to look out for the carracks coming from India. The captain of them was a Moor named [Mocomo], a holy man […]. When he was recently passing through Damascus he was told that Diogo de Mesquita had made a peace treaty with the Turk for two years but he did not believe this. He said that if I was unwilling to believe these things, he should tell him to write to Your Lordship and tell him his name was Khwaja Mohammad Shams, and that you had once released for his sake a merchant you had captured. This is what my servant wrote. If Your Lordship recognizes his name and did him this favour he mention, you may well believe him, but I do not believe it at all. But I still think that these men may come when they like. I do not think it is a good sign that this Jew was in Damascus for so many days [or so many days ago?], nor that galleys are still being built, as they are. So far, I have had no message from the Strait by any means, for from the man I sent there. I hold it as certain these men will still come, but I do not know from where they will come, not when.
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