Under
These Assurances Of Protection, Which Were Given With Your Consent, These
Men Were Left In My City; And Yet, Because You See The Zamorin Coming
Against Me With More Men Than I Have, You Would Have Me To Break My
Promise.
Were I so unjust, you of all men ought to abhor me.
If you dwelt
with any sovereign on the assurance of his word, how would you conceive
of him, if he were to treat you as you would now have me to act by these
Christians? Is it because you are afraid of the great power of the
zamorin? Be assured it were better for us all to die in the discharge of
our duty, and the preservation of our promise, than to live dishonoured.
To me no evil can be greater than to break my word, nor can there be a
greater dishonour to yourselves than to be the subjects of a false and
treacherous king. These Christians have brought much profit to me and my
country, and the zamorin might have kept them in his own city, if he had
permitted their factory to settle there in peace. Were it his intention
to drive the Christians out of India, and to make war on all who receive
them into their dominions, he ought to have begun this war with the rajah
of Cananor: But his cause of war is the envy he has conceived at seeing
me benefited by the trade which he has lost through his own misconduct,
and because he believes in his pride that I am unable to withstand.
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Words from 192451 to 192717
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