ABSTRACT
Onor is situated on the coastline south of Goa in a border region between that extensive yet decentralized kingdom to the south and east, and the Muslim kingdom of Bijapur to the north. It emerged from the Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan at the end of the fifteenth century. Pinto writes that he had been captured by Turks at sea, and sold in slavery to a Greek, and repurchased by the Portuguese in Hormuz. The queen, who is never named in Pinto's story, insists through her emissaries that she is indeed a friend to her Portuguese visitors; however, she is not a powerful one. Intriguingly, the queen punctuates her assertions of loyalty with two oaths. With 'God as her witness', she pledges her honesty. The various messengers, emissaries, and go-betweens in the story, of which Pinto is certainly one, only complicate these problems of interpretation.
