_ 478 _ because if we want to go to Persia we will be more cruelly treated than by the Turks themselves, and the people who take refuge in Arabia cannot trust their wives and children to the Arabs. So, as a lesser evil, we must die in our houses defending our bodies until they are bereft of their souls. Item: Your Lordship can remedy all the evils and fears that these people have caused us, if you decide to attend to this matter promptly. All of us are quite sure of this, not only to save this people of yours but so as to ensure the service of God and the security of all India. The King of [Gizaira] wrote a letter to Luis Falcão. It was a letter from a sensible and very considerate man, in which he shows that it is common knowledge that the Turks are an evil people. Since the situation provoked him to ask for help and to wish for the Portuguese in his lands rather than those wicked people, Your Lordship should take advantage of his friendship, because the security of this Strait is very much your responsibility and, you should send him, in good time and with the greatest possible speed, the help that both he and the King of Basra requested of you, by giving him the letter.
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