Faced with a Spain buoyed by its successes in the Americas, and with vast reserves of silver now at its command, the Ottomans began to display some curiosity about the New World. Around 1580 a History of the West Indies was written and presented to the Sultan Murad III. Relying mainly on Italian and Spanish sources, the author wrote: ‘Within twenty years, the Spanish people have conquered all the islands and captured forty thousand people, and killed thousands of them. Let us hope to God that some time these valuable lands will be conquered by the family of Islam, and will be inhabited by
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