_ 64 _ I have determined to write to the Grand Sultan of Babylon, whose name is Shah Tahmasp, who is said to be a very wise man, to challenge his learned men as to the superstition of their religion and the perfection of our own, or to ask him for permission to go there, or that he should send some of his men to visit; and also about the Russians and Poles and Hungarians and Armenians, who are his tributaries and whom he treats badly. A Portuguese ambassador was sent there from Ormuz, with other Portuguese, and while they were at the Sultan’s court a Christian bishop of one of those nations wrote to them asking for the love of Christ that they should go to a place where he was awaiting them, and that he desired very much to see them, since they were Christians The letter was written in bad Latin, and there was no one among all the Portuguese who knew Latin, so they did not go. Many captives are brought here from among those Christians, because they render one of every ten children as tribute to the Grand Turk. In this country I take as many as I can to reconcile them with the church. In India I sent some of them to the college of S. Paulo; and I do the same to the Janissaries I find here, and many Abyssinians from the land of the Prester, whom I make Christians, because
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