Not Willing To Give Him The
True Cause Of His Absence, Lest It Might Lead To A Conversation
Respecting The Present, The General Said He Had Tarried At Home To
Recover From The Fatigue Of His Long Voyage.
On this the king observed,
that he pretended to have been sent on an embassy of friendship from a
rich and powerful king, and that he did not well understand what kind of
friendship was intended, since he had sent him no present.
To this the
general answered, That it was not to be wondered that the king his master
had sent no present to his highness, considering the extreme uncertainty
of his being able to come to this place by a way never before attempted,
and unknown till now. But, now that the way was discovered, and God
spared him to return to Portugal, his master would assuredly send him
princely gifts, worthy of them both: And if his highness would have the
goodness to give credit to the letters which he had brought from the king
his master, he would there learn the intentions of the king of Portugal
in sending him to Calicut. Instead of desiring to see the letters, the
king asked him whether he was sent in search of stones or of men; and if
sent to discover men, how came it that the king his master had sent no
present? And since it was manifest that he had brought him nothing, he
demanded of him to send him the golden image of the Virgin, which he
understood was in his ship.
The general, much concerned to find the king so much changed towards him,
on account of not bringing him a present and amazed at this strange
demand, said that the image of the Virgin Mary of which his highness had
been told, was only of wood gilt, and not of gold; and besides, as this
holy image had protected him during his long perils on the sea, and had
brought him so far in safety, he was unwilling to part with it. The
zamorin made no reply to this, but immediately demanded that he should
produce the letters from the king of Portugal. One of these was written
in the Portuguese language, and the other in Arabic; and the general
explained that this had been done, because the king his master did not
know which of these might be understood in the dominions of his highness:
And, since he now knew that Portuguese was not understood in India,
whereas Arabic was, he requested that some Christian of the Indies who
understood Arabic might be employed to interpret the letter, because the
Moors were known to be enemies to the Christians, and he was afraid lest
they might purposely give it a wrong interpretation. The king gave orders
to this purpose, but no Indian could be found who was able to read the
letters, or at least who would acknowledge that he could read them.
Seeing that it was now necessary that it should be read by the Moors, the
general requested that Bontaybo should be one of those appointed for the
purpose, placing more reliance on him than the others, as he was an
acquaintance.
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