Page 79 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

TURKS ...N't) rORTUOUKSK IN TICK PKIUSTAN GULF 81

tho fortress for six days. At the ond of that time his father [Piri Bey]
arrived with thirteen galleys. The son [Mehrned Boy] had begun to
bombard the fortress with six galleys only. On the second day following
the arrival of Piri Bey, Joao do Lisboa and all the Portuguese yielded
on condition of boing allowed to depart safely for this fortress (i.e.,
Hormuz]. But Piri Boy managed tho affair with such address that he
put thorn as galley slaves bound to their bench with iron chains and
subjected to tho lash. For a man who [like Joao do Lisboa] showed
such weakness, it was merited judgement. The [Ottoman] admiral
would never discuss a ransom for them, even though on a number of
occasions there were offers made for the women only-but these
infidel dogs treated the matter in such a fashion that it seemed there
would never be a successful result.
After this event Piri Bey, on a Monday morning—the 19th Sep­
tember—arrived at this island [of Hormuz] with twenty-five galleys
and one galleon with which he departed from Suez; also another
\ galleon which he was bringing, together with two quaridos4 and nu­
merous guns and all the powder, cannon balls and munitions—[this
vessel] was lost in shallow water at Aden. After Barba Negra had set
i out for this place [Hormuz], he took two ships and one catur at Muscat.
: What he did here [at Hormuz] I have already written to Your Lord-
: !
ship. Moreover, he captured here a large ship of a certain Joao Nunez
! a man from Chaul. Having stayed at Hormuz for sixteen days [the
! Turks] went to the island of Kishm (Queyxome) which is three
leagues from here: At Kishm w’ere the principal people and merchants
from this town [of Hormuz] with a great quantity of goods, of gold
and silver, and of cash. The Turks took all these things, nothing
escaped them, and Your Lordship can be assured that this was the
:
:
richest prize that could be found in all the world. Piri Bey did all these
things with only seven hundred fighting men and two thousand or
two thousand and five hundred sailors and galley crews. In this fortress
l
} [of Hormuz] there were seven hundred soldiers much esteemed and the
r
r
best arquebusiers that there were. If we had known more about the
Turks, it might have been possible to seize their guns and to inflict
much harm [on them]. According to what we have learned, the [Great]
Turk ordered Piri Bey not to seek out Hormuz before he had gone to
f
Basra to take on board other troops there-but as a result of the
weakness he found at Muscat, Piri Bey thought it would be the same

4 Quartdo-i.o., an old typo of gun (cf. Pieris and Fitzler, op.cit., p. 302).

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