_ 55 _ Thus the last serious attempt by Suleiman the Magnificent and Turkey against us in the Western Indian Ocean, or by any another in its north-eastern gulfs, was frustrated. First, they were swept from the high seas and finally from an enormous gulf, virtually an inland sea. They remained with a foothold ashore in Basra, but in a precarious position because of being surrounded by their Portuguese and Persian enemies, which weakened their very extended and fragile lines of communication to their nearest center of large military reserves, situated in Baghdad. Of the five remaining galleys, if in fact they still had any and they amounted to that number, nothing more is heard in our chronicles. Ormuz was still to remain another sixty years under our control, until it was wrested from us during "The Captivity" by the joint action of the Persians and English, mainly the latter, after a heroic defense by sea and land. To paraphrase Francisco I of France in Pavia, we could justly write in 1623: "Ormuz was lost - the honour of Portugal saved".
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