of 1439–40. As his eldest son was still in Portuguese captivity, the government of Asilah-Tangier (and notional control of Ferdinand) was passed to his brother Abu Bakr (known in the chronicles as Muley Bubuquer). Álvares reports that Abu Zakariya tried to lay claim on Ibn Salah's lands, provoking a quarrel with Abu Bakr. In turn, Abu Bakr conspired with a certain "Faquy Amar", who as tutor to a Marinid prince had access to the palace of Fez, to break Ferdinand out of prison. But Abu Zakariya got wind of the plot, and Faquy Amar fled the city. Things got more confusing when Gonçalo de Sintra, an agent of Henry the Navigator, arrived in Salé and told the Marinid authorities there that the Portuguese intended only to provide cash, not Ceuta, for Ferdinand. This caused the Marinids to accuse the Portuguese of double-dealing and reneging on their earlier offer. A letter finally arrived from the dowager-queen Eleanor, but it only pertained to some minor matter relating to the transfer of some lands back in Portugal and made no mention of the Ceuta swap. Each of these incidents infuriated the Marinids, who felt the Portuguese were being false and toying with them, and their anger fell harshly on Ferdinand, who was threatened and subjected to tighter conditions of confinement. Even the sympathy of the Marinid sultan Abd al-Haqq II and his wives – who had previously mitigated Abu Zakariya's harshness, and gently treated the prince, occasionally inviting him to eat with them in the palace gardens – was now alienated. Despite the undermining missteps of his relatives, the regent Peter of Coimbra was determined to undertake the swap, and he dispatched two emissaries, Martim Tavora and Gomes Eanes, to Asilah to negotiate the logistics. As a preliminary, Abu Bakr demanded that the governor of Ceuta, Fernando de Noronha, be relieved from office – his reputation was such that the Moroccans believed Noronha would contrive to prevent the swap. Peter had little trouble agreeing to it – the Noronha family, closely allied with the Braganzas, were among Peter's keenest political enemies; indeed, Noronha's brothers had led the conspiracy of nobles which tried to deprive Peter of the regency back in 1438. In early April 1440, Peter of Coimbra dispatched Fernando de Castro, a notable diplomat, to take over the government of Ceuta from Noronha and undertake the evacuation of the Portuguese garrison. The