_ 99 _ and fruit to this city, and these could bring into the city as many men as they wanted without anyone knowing. This important matter is in the hands of the Harbour Master, whose job is to see to these terradas, and he is a Moor like the rest. The whole kingdom is controlled by Rais Sharafa and Rais Nur Al-Din, the former Guazil, and all this coast of Arabia from Kalhat as far as Bahrain belongs to them. Please God they will be loyal. Twice Portuguese have fled from me here in small terradas which they buy from the Moors. I shall work to get them back into my hands from Muscat, and if I have them they deserve heavy punishment for leaving His Highness's fortress at such a time. I shall send their names to Your Lordship so that you can order severe penalties, if I cannot get hold of them here. They did this in the time of Luís Falcão. I was told here that a terrada had taken on pepper and ginger at Cape Jask, and also some steel, and was going with these things directly to Basra. The very day I was told this I ordered one of His Highness's caturs to sea, and the same day everything was ready and they sailed. The terrada was seized ninety leagues from here, when it was already near Basra, and they brought it here with all its cargo, without a
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy