_ 160 _ His Highness also loses a thousand horses that can come from there, as well as many bales of cloth, chamalotes, brocades that pay duty in the Custom House and with which the merchants of India make their profits, because if they did not come, they would not be able to sell their goods or get rid of them. This then is the worst war that the Turks can wage against us, driving our India into poverty and need. So, even if we see their galleys in Basra and observe that they have implements of war, I am still not sure if such a great risk as that of abandoning trade with which these regions of India have supported themselves up till now is in the proper and best interests of India. Moreover, at the moment there is nothing for us to fear, as they cannot build galleys or ships in Basra, since there is no timber, and even if there were, they could not build them in such secrecy that we would not know about it. Although we were afraid that a fleet might come to them from Suez, the capture of Aden has allayed our fear. The claim that if ships were prevented from sailing there, the Turks would abandon Basra, cannot be believed, since it is the best and most fertile country in the world. Rather would it give them an excuse to capture the entire
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