ABSTRACT
We spent two years in that prison and they never spoke to us of ransom, even though they ransomed other Portuguese, and we never negotiated it so as not to leave those captives without support. At the end of that time the pasha’s wife wished to see us, so she told a eunuch servant of hers to wait until the pasha <[f. 341v/330v]> went to the gardens and then advise us, as if from him, to go and see a son that he had who was seven or eight years old. But the eunuch, who was Christian by origin, revealed the secret to us and said that we must be sure to go. We did as he said and, as we reached a false door in a small courtyard, the boy came out at once, as beautiful as an angel, wearing caftans made of silver fabric. Since it is the custom among them to take something the first time they go to visit some great man, we presented him with a flask of rose water, of which they are fond. The boy withdrew his hand, showing that he did not want to accept it, but the eunuch said to him, ‘{Take it, sir,} for even though they are your slaves, they are very honourable men.’ And so he took it {then} and handed it to a servant. We spent a long time there talking to him and, when he dismissed us, his mother called the eunuch (he told us later that she had seen us from a window) and told him to draw up a petition to the pasha in our name, saying that we were poor men and were of no use to him there and asking him to give us leave to go to Jerusalem. She asked him to give this petition to her son, so that he could present it to the pasha when he was alone with him. He did so, and the boy took the petition and gave it to his father. His mother said, ‘What does Mahamed ask?’ (for that was the boy’s name). The pasha replied, ‘The priests are asking us to give them leave to go to Jerusalem.’ ‘Give it to them, then’, said she; ‘for what purpose do you want them here? I shall give them {[f. 388v]} money for the journey as well, if you will do that.’ The pasha replied, ‘So be it, but they will have to go with the Constantinople post, so that they are not killed on the way.’ The eunuch at once sent word to us about what was happening, because he had been present. The following day, the pasha said in front of many Turks that his wife had taken it upon herself to send us to Jerusalem. At that, a captain, who was a friend of ours, sent word to us at once saying that we should be pleased, because we were without fail going to Jerusalem, and in a much better deal than with any captain. It seems that <[f. 342/331 ]> this woman was moved to do us such a good deed because not only was she very well inclined (as everyone said), but she was the daughter of Christians, and she had been captured to be the wife of the Grand Turk Sultan Murât, and later he had married her to that pasha and sent him to those lands.
