_ 185 _ This fortress greatly needs gunpowder. I went to see the buildings where the powder is kept and found seventy barrels. Because this place is very hot and the powder dries out, the barrels are half-full and there are certainly forty full barrels. The fortress greatly needs this. Your Lordship should send some as soon as possible, for it is a very necessary item. There is also a need here for two barrels of vinegar and large stone cannon balls of all kinds, five hundred stone cannon balls for the light cannon, iron from Portugal and local iron, lead and wheels for heavy artillery, which should not be too small. This fortress also needs cannon balls for siege-artillery and [...] and it needs a [lion?] (A)and a siege-cannon, a dozen long timbers for artillery and half-a-dozen ropes and cables for double slings for the cannon, half- a-dozen bombardiers, for the fortress gravely lacks any. If rifles and arquebuses arrive from Portugal, Your Lordship should send those you (A) This is presumably a term [liam in Portuguese of the period] signifying some item of artillery (translator's note). Francisco Pires is much needed here, as I have already written to tell Your Lordship. There are many things in this fortress which can be put right. There are battlements blocked with earth nearby, from where it would be possible to bombard this fortress.
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