_ 344 _ would forgive me, I could leave him to report and avoid writing about things in this letter of which he will give a more detailed account to Your Lordship, as far as he can truly know and understand them and I will help with them, as he will inform Your Lordship. I am well aware of how much Your Lordship wants and is keen to know about the state of this kingdom and its affairs in order to deal with everything that the occasion and the country needs, and in the best interests of Our Lord the King and the good and preservation of this kingdom. So, taking into account all these things that oblige me to write to Your Lordship, I do not consider the affairs of the kingdom as unimportant and the rank and name of the King I consider to be sufficient justification to give a full and accurate account of them. I shall do what Your Lordship orders me as best I can and understand, for which I plead that the business is of such a nature that everything is covered by it as the people mentioned in it agree. Sir, thirty-two years have passed since I arrived in this kingdom and city with Afonso de Albuquerque, God rest his soul. At that time, it was very rich and prosperous, and during the intervening years, I have returned there several times with the governors and fleets sailing there. I was
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