_ 224 _ eye on the galleys, issuing them with standing orders for one of them to bring news of what they discovered and the other to remain there until his message arrived, while Dom Antão equipped and supplied his fleet again. When the Turk (Piri Reis) left Ormuz with the riches that we mentioned, he went to Basra where he decided to stay. As soon as the Pasha of Basra learned that he had disembarked in Muscat and Ormuz against the instructions of the Grand Turk, he straightaway sent a report overland about it to Constantinople. Piri Reis was apprised of this and, as he was astute and resourceful, he took all the wealth of Muscat, Ormuz and Larack, which amounted to more than a million in gold, and loaded it onto three light galleys. He clapped all the Portuguese that he had captured in Muscat in chains, and he departed from Basra planning to go to Constantinople and throw himself at the feet of the Turk with all these riches so as to appease him with them, because he was convinced that if he waited for his reproof in Basra, he would undoubtedly have him beheaded. Having left Basra, he followed a route along the Arabian coast, and on reaching El Katiff, one of his galleys hit a sandbank where it broke up and was destroyed. As this
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