_ 488 _ As Your Lordship has just written me this letter and I have made my complaint to Dom Alvaro about all these wrongs, I swear that no more bitterness remains in my heart, but rather a desire and wish to serve Your Lordship, my master and friend. With a little luck and fortune, I believe that if anyone claims that you are not my Lord and friend and I am not your servant, even though you do not appear to treat me as your servant, it is merely to disconcert those who think that they serve and can influence you with their many bad habits and manners. It was right for me to complain, the more so since I profess to be your servant and wish to serve you well. I know that you will judge me by this, and I say you will derive greater pleasure from my friendship than from that of such vulgar relatives with so many bad qualities. So, I have stopped talking about these things, because when, with Our Lord's help, I join Your Lordship, which will be very soon, I shall give you an account of this fortress of [Zaquia], about which I have already written to you. According to the news from Basra and what the letters, that those Portuguese who are there write to me, there is no doubt that the Turk has ordered the capture of Basra. There is a great deal of evidence for this, because they have prepared fifteen ships and are having them equipped with
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