ARABIC LETTERS. S89 English merchants that are here resident, shall satisfy all their debts, which being done, none of them shall remain in my country.

Letter III.

Captai7i Shovel's Answer, May it please Your Majesty, We, the King of England's captains, return Your Majesty humble thanks for your kind wishes to us. Your Majesty by this may know, that we have received your letter, and by it we understand, that Your Majesty is informed that most of these people that are taken are not your subjects. We perceive by this, as well as in other things, how grossly Your Majesty has been deceived by those people you trust ; else, we doubt not, but that, long before this, our Master, whom God preserve, and Your Majesty had accommodated all differences, and we should have had a firm peace.

Of those fifty-three slaves that are here, (ex* cepting two or three,) they are all Moors of their own country, as they themselves can make appear ; but, if they are to be disowned because they are poor, the Lord help them ! ! Your Majesty tells us, that we may throw them overboard, if we please : all this we very well know ; but we are Christians, and they bear the form of men, which is reason enough for us not to do so.

c c 3