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her supplies and placed some 400 soldiers inside the fort, resisted
the Ottomans. With the help of some guns he repulsed several de­
termined Ottoman assaults. The Ottomans now sought to fill in the
ditch surrounding the fortress and, to this end, began to excavate
approach trenches - a difficult task because the ground was of loose
sand. nvr

Meanwhile, the news of the Ottoman descent on Bahrain had •
reached Hormuz. D. Antao de Noronha, the Portuguese governor of 9
Hormuz, discussed the situation with the other Portuguese captain^
and requested them to get together soldiers and munitions for tha
relief of Bahrain. He made his nephew D. Joao de Noronha, capitaa1
mor, i.e., the commander-in-chief for the campaign against the Ot7
tomans. D. Antao in order to expedite the sending of aid to Bahrain-
instructed D. Alvaro da Silveira to go to the island of Angan (Angao)
or Hengam, near Kishm'1. He also sent to this island Francisco'Jav
come, Escravao da fazenda, from Hormuz with munitions and supp^
lies for da Silveira, who, having taken them on board set sail at once'
towards Bahrain. D. Joao, capitao mor, sailing for Bahrain, halted
at the island of Sarnaim, described as two leagues from Bahrain1^
The Portuguese fleet consisted of twenty-two grabs'* in all. Mehmed
Beg, who was in command of the Ottoman galleys which had coma
from Basra, having on board, for this campaign, a force of janis­
saries from Baghdad14 moved towards the Portuguese fleet, but
withdrew and took refuge in the harbour of Bahrain. D. Joao de No-’
ronha, on the advice of his captains, now sought to lure the Turkish

tion on Bahrain see J. Aubln, «Le Royaume d’Ormuz an D6but du XVI* Sl&cle>,
Mare Luso-Indicum, II (Gen&ve, 1973), p. 99.

V _ 11 Couto, Dec. VII, Llv. VII, Cap. VIII, p. 115.
l-.’
12 Ibid, p. 115.
13 In the Turkish document It Is stated that these grabs were
size as the Sultan's kagxk and had on two or three zarbuzan (Orhon u* a
Seferl, p. 12). A grab was a kind of oared ship. Large grabs resem
galleys, and small ones are shaped like oared galleota- (cf. .H. zuns _
Osmanh Devletinin Merkez ve Bahriye Te^kilatx, Ankara 1948, P- • 3
Serjeant. The Portuguese off the South Arabian Coast, Oxford U.P..
p. 143.
\ 14 Couto states (In p. 117) that each galley had 150 men on board.
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