The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 161 _ from one side amidst shouts that could be heard above the artillery fire. They threw themselves into a hail of arrows fired at random at our men, many of whom were pierced by them. They would attack again and again in this way, going from one nao to the other in an organized fashion. They warmed to their task because they knew our men were powerless in the naos to pursue them and even attempted to board the naos. They paid for their darling as our naos moved away more quickly than they could reach them, at the same time firing their small artillery so low that they sent many of their boats. Thereupon they gave up that form of attack and went instead to the shelter of their large naos nearer land. Duning the whole of this operation Khwaja Attar together with his captains was in a well well-equipped boat close to land, encouraging his men and sending them messages telling them to enter our boats by using the small ships. However, as he saw the damage received by the terradas he did not dare to go ashore. He gave all his orders from a safe point between land and the big naos where he was protected from our artillery. From there he ordered more men to come from land and use these terradas ad although the Moors had already been severely punished by

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