_ 116 _ impoverished that there is no way of raising it. I therefore beg that Your Lordship allow me leave for four or five ships to come from Patane to my port so that I can maintain my country with the dues from them, and that this be so whether there is war or peace. If you grant this I shall regard it as friendship and favour; and also, when ships sail from my country to Patane, if Your Lordship will give me four safe-conducts for those that sail from my country to Patane, so that they can come and go in war or in peace with all the Gujerati traders who wish to come and go in them; for I shall receive profit from them, and so that none of your captains either of the sea or the fortresses of Diu or Bassein or Chaul will interfere with them. I am sending Sheikh [Maquame] for you to learn from him what the King of Mombasa is doing about Pemba, which I do not specify in this letter so as not to anger him. So, all the things he tells Your Lordship you may take from him as coming from me and in my name, as I say. May Our Lord increase your life and estate with great honour as you desire. From Melindi on 30 August 1547. [Signed in Arabic]
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