_ 298 _ necessary it was to help in that emergency, because the fortress of Ormuz was the key to the whole of India and the leader in all the commerce with Persia and Arabia, a title which the Kings of Portugal always boasted about. The whole of the city in general and each of its citizens of his own accord, were ever ready to serve their King with their persons, property, ships, pinnaces and money and everything else that they could, as they had always acted thus in every past emergency, and in the present one which was the most important of all and, moreover, related to the Turks the enemies of the name of Christian, no-one could excuse himself, rather with renewed energy and desire they would now offer themselves with everything that fortune gave them, and they were sorry that their wealth did not match the wishes they all had. The viceroy thanked him profusely for this on his own behalf and that of the King. Then the councilors promptly began to collect money from the common people, not without some dispute, and they amassed twenty thousand pardaus which they took to the viceroy, with which he began to prepare and launch the fleet.
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