_ 102 _ the bastions at one point, and from one shore to the other is eighty braças, which is the width of the parade ground in front of the fortress. It is possible to make a ditch wide enough for the sea to enter at both ends so that the ditch is always flooded, and the fortress becomes a sort of island. From the ditch which the fortress has at present to the houses of the city on the parade ground, is sixty braças. There is also the possibility of building another wall and bastions, like those Your Lordship ordered to be built for the fortress of Diu, even if the order Your Lordship gave for that was that it should be the best of all. Your Lordship must believe that it is essential for this fortress to be strong because there is great need for it. In the prison here in Ormuz is one Gomes Eanes, who was imprisoned as the result of a writ which made it an offence to carry sulphur. The terrada which I ordered to be seized near Basra was carrying pepper, ginger and steel, which were also goods belonging to this Gomes Eanes. In the terrada was found one Henrique Velho, whom Gomes Eanes was sending dressed in Moorish clothes, and he was also imprisoned. One Mir Diogo was also guilty by the writ about sulphur, and a certain Baltasar Lobato, who came from the Strait with a prize carrack commanded by António da Cunha, carrying ginger. This Baltasar Lobato had taken most of this ginger from
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