_ 43 _ in-Chief set sail and went on his way, leaving this town, which was called Sohar, in peace and subjection. Having dealt with this town the Captain-in-Chief continued along the coast and came in sight of a town called Khor Fakan, situated in open country at the foot of a great range of mountains. It is an area of open ground where people from the mountains come to sell horses, and they are bought by merchants in ship who take them as cargo to India. Because the people of the town are sometimes at war with those of the mountains at either end, with a gate and above it a lower to guard the gate. The town has fine houses and many soldiers, both foot and horse, and as our fleet arrived, they put on a great show of skirmishing and brandishing their weapons and challenging our men to come ashore. But when they saw our fleet, the Moors began to take their possessions and their families into the mountains and made themselves strong behind the wall. The town stretched along the shore, and outside it to the right there was a large grove of date palms with many wells of good water, and in the fields, there was much livestock large and small. The Captain-in-Chief spoke with the Captains and it was agreed to land the next morning, as they did. Before daybreak all of them with their armed men joined the
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