_ 110 _ from Ormuz was in Basra, he was told that this Factor was going in a terrada, which will anchor off Basra, and that Muhammad Pasha had sent a small vessel with many provisions, thinking that the Factor was in the terrada but the terrada belonged to some Arabs. I asked this nacoda why Muhammad Pasha wanted a factor of mine so much and he told me that merchants would not come to Basra until they saw a factor there, and it was for this reason that he wanted it. Ayyaz Pasha, Captain of Baghdad, was writing to him every day saying that if merchants were to come from Ormuz to Basra, he would do them no harm, but he would do them many favours, and that if a Portuguese or someone from Ormuz went there, he would pay him many honours. He had written this to him from Baghdad many times. I have not yet discovered for certain the reason why they are doing this, but when I do, I shall write and tell Your Lordship. Hajji Fayat told me that a nephew of his had written from Basra that a captain of three hundred Turkish horsemen from those who were in the town had words about payment of wages that were not being made to him and his men with a factor whose responsibility it is to make them these payments, and he had attacked him with these three hundred horsemen and inflicted many blows on him.
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