There were already communities of traders from close to home; among the first voices he heard were those speaking in a familiar tongue. “The Devil take you!” shouted one of two Muslim merchants from Tunis who could speak Spanish and Genoese; “what brought you here?!” After exchanging pleasantries, what they said next was music to his ears: “What good fortune you have, what good fortune! There are so many rubies here, so many emeralds! You should give great thanks to God for bringing you to a land where there are such riches!”
