Page 41 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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62 HAlJll 6/BA KAN (

Alvaro de Noronha was well informed about the activities of the Otto-
\ fleet and had made all tho necessary preparations for resistance.
man
The Turks captured the city of Hormuz and bombarded the castle
intermittently. The Portuguese, seven hundred in number (it is also
said that they numbered more than the Turkish besiegers), defended
themselves, but never ventured out to attack the Turks.53 According
to Portuguese sources, Pin Reis then withdrew to the island of Kish in, *.
• V
having been informed that the richest peoplo of Hormuz resided there.59 •v
He found no resistance on tho island. The rich community of the island
3
consisted of some thirty merchants who had an average capital of
3
20,000 cruzados.®0 There was also a Spanish Jew who alone had no j
-
less than 80,000 cruzados in gold.®1 Towards the end of October, Piri
Reis sailed for Basra with all the spoils. Meanwhile, Goa had also heard
of tho impending Ottoman threat.®3 Therefore AfFonso de Noronha
decided to sail to Hormuz with more than eighty ships (over thirty of
them being of largo dimensions) and with several distinguished soldiers
at his side. On his arrival at Diu he learned that the Ottoman fleet had -■sS *
r:
sailed to Basra. So he decided not to go in person to Hormuz. Instead
he sent his nephew, D. Antao de Noronha, at the head of a squadron
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consisting of twelve large ships and twenty-eight light ones. D. Antao
reached Hormuz towards the end of November and found it relieved
3 ■V
from all danger. But he saw visible signs of tho damage inflicted during V
. .•
the recent siege.®3
On the arrival of Piri Reis at Basra, Kubat Pasha, the beylerbey of
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that province, sent the Sultan a report about Piri’s activities. When
he learned that Kubad Pasha’s report was unfavourable to him, Piri £
3
departed from Basra, taking with him on three galleys all the spoils • 5
t!
that he won during the campaign including his Portuguese prisoners.

u See Appendix II. '4
0
s* Cf. The Letter of Alvaro do Noronha, in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do
ri
Torabo, Corpo Cronologico, Porte la, Ma^o 89, Docuraento 9, fol. 2v; alao Couto, *?
Dec. VI, Liv. X, p. 426.
•° Cruzado was a Portuguese coin of this time worth 400 Reis (Antdnio de •3
Morais Silva, Granda Diciondrio da Lingua Portuguesa, (Lisboa, 1945) III p TJ
729, col. 2). 3
•l Couto mentions that 20,000 peoplo in the island wore taken, prisoner. This $
figure is no doubt much too high (Dec. VI, Liv. X, p. 426). 3
5 #1 Ibid., p. 427.
•J Ibid., pp. 439 and 465. •I
•4 The spoils are said to havo boon worth more than a million of gold:
“mais
i do hum milhao do ouron (Ibid., p. 468). jfl
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