_ 12 _ they make up a large fleet and come to this coast of Kalhat, where there are light winds and calms, to rob the ships making for Ormuz. The Nautaques overtake them and go round the vessel shooting so many arrows that they overcome and rob them, or else the ships agree to give them a certain sum; and when they cannot take a ship they go astern of it, shooting showers of arrows, and tie ropes to the rudder and tow them so that they run aground, and leave them to perish on the land. Because of the harm done by these Nautaques the King of Ormuz orders his fleets to defend and guard the ships, and the Nautaques flee from them because the Parsees are better fighters than they are. Sometimes the ships carry cannon which prevent them from tying the rudders, and then the Nautaques have another trick: they take long ropes, which they carry for this purpose, and they place themselves in many terradas on each side the run the rope under ship so that it catches in the rudder, and so they move the ship. Because the ships carry divers to go down and cut the ropes, the Nautaques have the ropes twisted with iron chains, which they cannot cut. The ships have these difficulties because they have to have long rudders half a meter below the keel and they are built in such a way that they could not be steered
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