_ 331 _ Farinha, and three or four merchant ships, in which he put artillery, and a lot of munitions and troops. He embarked in the galleon with the idea that as soon as the galleys passed, he would station himself at the entrance to the Strait of Basra, so that if they fled from the fleet of Dom Fernando de Meneses, he would close the entrance so that they could not retreat, and thus none of them would escape. He informed Dom Fernando of this by light terranquins, saying that “if the galleys fled from him to the inside of the Strait, he should pursue them as far as Basra, where he would be waiting, and thus the galleys would be caught in the middle and all of them would be lost” the words and wile of a very great Captain. As soon as Dom Fernando left Muscat, he scoured the inner coast of Arabia looking for the galleys and he sent some light cutters ahead to search for them. When they reached Cape Mussendom they caught sight of the galleys, fifteen in all, sailing in a line, and they returned to the captain major and told him that they were coming up behind. Dom Fernando prepared his galleons and gave instructions about how they were to attack the galleys. Being in the vanguard, he met up with them and sent the foists and
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