the completion {104} of this
affair of Malacca: for when we were committing ourselves to the
business of cruising in the Straits of the Red Sea, where the King
of Portugal had often ordered me to go (for it was there that His
Highness considered we could cut down the commerce which the Moors
of Cairo, of Mecca, and of Jeddah carry on with these parts), Our
Lord for His service thought right to lead us hither; for when
Malacca is taken, the places on the Straits must be shut up, and
they will never more be able to introduce their spices into those
places.

'And the other reason is the additional service which we shall
render to the King Dom Manoel in taking this city, because it is
the headquarters of all the spices and drugs which the Moors carry
every year hence to the Straits, without our being able to prevent
them from so doing; but if we deprive them of this, their ancient
market, there does not remain for them a single port nor a single
situation so commodious in the whole of these parts, where they can
carry on their trade in these things. For after we were in
possession of the pepper of Malabar, never more did any reach
Cairo, except that which the Moors carried thither from these
parts, and the forty or fifty ships, which sail hence every year
laden with all sorts of spices bound to Mecca, cannot be stopped
without great expense and large fleets, which must necessarily
cruise about continually in the offing of Cape Comorin; and the
pepper of Malabar, of which they may hope to get some portion,
because they have the King of Calicut on their side, is in our
hands, under the eyes of the Governor of India, from whom the Moors
cannot carry off so much with impunity as they hope to do; and I
hold it as very certain that, if we take this trade of Malacca away
out of their hands, Cairo and Mecca will be entirely ruined, and to
Venice will no spices be conveyed, except what her merchants go and
buy in Portugal.

{105} 'But if you are of opinion that, because Malacca is a large
city and very populous, it will give us much trouble to maintain
our possession of it, no such doubts as these ought to arise, for,
when once the city is gained, all the rest of the kingdom is of so
little account, that the King has not a single place left where he
can rally his forces; and if you dread lest by taking the city we
be involved in great expenses, and on acc