_ 221 _ Your Highness found yourself in paying off the debts in Flanders(A), and the great cost you incurred in fortifying Ceuta and Mazagon(B), I came to an agreement with Martim Afonso that he should calculate this year's outgoings and leave me sixty thousand gold pardaus at the factory at Cochin to aid the outgoings next year, but take all the rest of the money for Your Highness. He will cover the expenses on this, which will be on 16,000 quintals of pepper which were already in the house, and I have ordered the Chief Treasury Officer to write very clearly to Your Highness on this. In the castle in this city I found a Moorish prisoner, [Meale] Khan by name, to whom the Kingdom of Achin belongs(C). The summary of what happened to him is as (A) On the subject of the debts in Flanders see Letter III, p. 27, note 4. (B) In 1541, after deciding to abandon the strongholds at [Safi] and [Azamor], D João III decided to carry out extensive works on the fortification of Mazagon, which the Count of Castanheira calculated at about 200,000 cruzados. (see História de Portugal, ed. Barcelos, Vol IV, p. 101). Ceuta was also strengthened, and D João de Castro himself supervised this work in 1543, as confirmed by the King's letter to him of 9 August of the same year, (published by Saraiva, work cited above, p. 203). (C) [Meale] Khan was the son of Yusuf Adil Khan, the Sabayo at the time when Afonso de Albuquerque took Goa. Yusuf Adil Khan left three sons, the eldest of whom succeeded him in the Kingdom. This succession was, however, contested by Captain Ased Khan, the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy