_ 27 _ and make sure that they did not make a sudden attack. He ordered some food to be brought from the ships, not much because plenty of provisions were found in the town, and in the palm grove were ripe dates and plenty of good water in many wells. So, they ate and rested, and then they robbed the town of the little they could find and collected much rice and bunches of dates and plenty of fish. While this was being done the Captain-in-Chief went into a beautiful mosque that was there, its flag still on the tower. When everything had been stripped from it the Captain-in-Chief ordered the master of his ship with his sailors to bring plenty of wood and palm leaves from the straw houses, and put it in the mosque and the stone houses. Then it was all set on fire so that everything was reduced to ashes, with a hundred and fifty dead Moors, many of them old men and women and beggars; everyone was dead and nothing left standing. Then the Captain-in-Chief returned to rest and passed the night there. The next day they set sail along the coast and arrived at the port of Muscat which is a large town standing on the shore with an inlet which makes a good harbour, because to the left there is a hill so that the harbour is encircled ad sheltered all round. On either side the town is bounded by high ranges of mountains, and it
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy