Page 73 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

73 SAl.in OZHARAN
~T
not let him go outside the gates so that lie should not warn the 'fustas’
which Your Lordship had sent to the strait [of Mocha]; [he stated]
that the Turkish vessels were waiting there, thinking that the ‘fustos’
might outer into the harbour. It seemed to him that the eight [Turkish] 1
ships which came to Kalhat and Muscat [last year] were there then.
I bcliovo that this information may well be true. I have ordered to
be made ready nine fiujtas and catures, which are here [at Hormuz]. At *
the end of this month of July they will leave for Muscat, in order to lie :^j
in wait there for the fustos of the Turks, in case they should come in
August or at the beginning of September. I am writing to sheikh Rabia
and also to the guazil of Kalhat [bidding] them hold in readiness the J
best terraquis which they have there. And these are ships which [can] *
hold ten or twelve Portuguese and which row well; for the rest, if there %
is a need, Arab archers [can] be put in them, to give aid in what may |
be necessary. To Muscat, according to what I was told by peoplo on
the ships which have arrived from those parts after I passed that way, ij
there came forty of fifty Portuguese [soldiers]-this is an excellent v|
reinforcement which can go on board whenever it is most needful, in ^
order, with the aid of Our Lord, to fight the Turkish ships, if they
should come to Muscat. And over the Turkish ships Our Lord will
surely give us a complete victory. A
It seems to me that [it will be for] the service of His Majesty and J
of Your Lordship to send these ships to sea, because the vessels which ;3
are setting forth from [Hormuz] for India carry [each of them] two or
three Portuguese and much money; and if these Turks succeed in i
plundering Muscat, and in finding the ships [which have on board] ^
many xerafins and tamgas,17 and then in making off with their prizes to *•
the strait [of Mocha], it will be an inducement for them to come each :
year against Muscat. I
Dom Payo thought that he had better stay here [in Hormuz] and \
he asked me for [command of] the fleet, for it seemed to him that in i
this manner he could do better service for the King. And I gave the «
fleet to him and he is going with it as admiral-in-chief (capiido mor). ,’j
The captains and the soldiers who are on board can be expected to act \
as honorable and reliable men.
At the beginning of August I am going to send to the cape Ras al- i
Hadd (cabo do rroqalgate) two calures, the ones with the most oars, •

17 Tamga (or tanga)-a Portuguese coin worth 60 rti& (cf. Dalgado, op.cit., II,
p. 365).

.
* . • *::