_ 51 _ It only remains to give an account of the galleys left over from the original fleet of twenty-five galleys entrusted respectively to Piri-bey, Murad-bey and Aleque-lubi by Suleiman. Couto is not clear. It is recorded that one galley was lost by Piri-bey, six were boarded and captured by D. Fernando de Meneses, two went around on the coast of Daman and seven were sawn up in Surat. Incidentally, Couto tells us that there were only seven in Basra, because two had been burned, though he does not mention when or where. It seems the story is correct, since of these seven, two were also captured by boarding in the waters off the island of Bahrain by D.Alvaro de Silveira, who was sent in February by D. Constantino de Braganca, with a fleet of two galleons and eighteen oared ships to guard the Strait, to attempt to destroy Zafar in Mocha, then winter in Muscat and withdraw in October as an escort for the carracks of Ormuz. A fresh and final attempt by Suleiman by way of reinforcing his military position in the Persian Gulf, with a view to launching an attack afterwards on Ormuz, altered the course of D. Alvaro da Silveira's voyage, caused his death and gave us two more of the seven galleys. We also frustrated the Turk's attack and inflicted a serious
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