ABSTRACT
At the receipt of these importunate justifications of the king and Cogeatar, Afonso Dalboquerque thought it a good opportunity to do the best he could for the service of the king, D. Manoel; and he made up his mind to desire the king [of Ormuz] to pay a certain tribute to him, and upon the settlement of this tribute, to send word, desiring space in the city to erect a fortress, because, with a fortress on land and his fleet on the sea, the affairs of Ormuz would remain in a more secure condition, and inconvenience and trouble would be avoided. On having come to this determination, his reply to the king and to Cogeatar, through 129the Moors, was that he thoroughly relied upon all they had told him, and he would ever preserve this confidence in them, from the love he had for the king; but they were to say to Cogeatar that he was much alarmed at his asking leave to retire to Calayate; for one of the principal reasons which had induced him to entrust the kingdom to their king was that he [Cogeatar] would have to govern it. If, however, this could not be so arranged, he would have to make some other disposition of it, and it must be on condition of paying some settled tribute every year to the King of Portugal, his master, towards the expense of a fleet which would have to cruise along that coast doing service for the King of Ormuz. Cogeatar sent word by the Moors to say that he would pay whatever was desired. Afonso Dalboquerque replied, that for all that he wanted to know what they could pay, and thereupon he would give his opinion. The king replied that he could not name any sum, but, as the whole kingdom was his, they would pay whatever he desired. When Afonso Dalboquerque perceived that the king was intending to make no offer, he sent him word by the factor and João Estão, that, since he left everything to his arbitration, it seemed to him, considering the greatness of the kingdom, and the nobility of the city, and the large sums which the custom house received, and the obligation which lay upon the King of Portugal to preserve and defend the kingdom from all his enemies—a thing which could not be done without great expenses—that he ought to pay thirty thousand xerafins, 1 every year as tribute, as well as to make good all the expenses which the fleet had incurred up to that day. The king, having considered the matter with Cogeatar and with his governors, replied, that the kingdom was quite ruined and impoverished, so that it was impossible to pay this tribute; but he begged very hard that he would be graciously pleased to accept sis thousand xerafins 130yearly, and five thousand towards the expenses of the fleet.
