_ 189 _ held highly in the country. We have agreed to provide the fortress with a new guazil. Khwaja Muhammad Hasan, a nobleman and one of these leading men of the country. I am telling Your Lordship how this has come about for your information, and also because it is necessary that a place as important as Kalhat should have a Fidalgo every year, since there are few such possessions in the kingdom. Yesterday, the seventeenth of this month, I was called to the fortress, where I found the Captain in council with many Portuguese over not allowing merchants from Persia who are not bringing horses to cross in India. They were all, or almost all, in agreement over this, and in truth they had reasons, because each one want to sell his goods. I, Sir challenged this, because it could result in a great loss to this kingdom, both because Shah Tahmasp will not be at all pleased and will not think it good because he is our ally, and a person whom we must not alienate, and also because there is a risk that the customs house here will bring very little since it is certain that when this is know in Persia it will prevent many merchants from coming here. Trade with Persia must be encouraged, because what comes from Basra is gradually being lost.
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