_ 142 _ justified, surrounded as it was by potentates who were rivals to the King of Ormuz and wished to divert to their ports and customs-houses the caravans which went to Ormuz. The fortress of Ormuz was, of all of them, the one with the largest garrison; it had a regiment of four hundred soldiers as well as bombardiers and the guard and relatives of the Captain. A fleet was maintained there for the Strait, consisting by statute of ten ships and ten terranquins, with a complement of six hundred and sixty soldiers [p. 104] and six hundred and sixty sailors(A) as well as other fleets in Goa appointed for the same purpose. Some of the soldiers, however, abandoned post in the fortress, the ships of the local fleet existed only on paper, and the fortress was poorly defended and in a poor state of repair. Only our misgovernment permitted people like the Persians, equipped with “nothing more than terradas customs-house so necessary for the defraying of the expenses of the State of India, that it will always in my service to pay great attention to the maintenance and defence of the fortress..... Arquivo Português Oriental, fasc 3º, Doc 25. (A) Falcão, Livro de Toda a Fazenda, p. 96-98.
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