The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 53 _ there were more than sixty, and over a hundred smaller vessels, and many armed terradas. The Captain-in-Chief anchored and did not fire, and the others followed suit. The Moors were shouting fiercely, and sounded many drums and trumpets as they saw the ships approaching, but when they saw them entering harbour and anchoring without doing any harm they all fell silent. The King was in his palace watching everything, and all the shore and the streets and the roofs and windows were crowded with people, because the houses in the city are of stone and plastered instead of whitewashed and have three or four storeys and are very large so that there may be two hundred persons living in one of them. When our fleet was anchored night fell, and the Captain-in-Chief sent his skiff to the other ships to tell them to be very vigilant in case the Moors should make some attack in the dark that would be in to their advantage so that in the morning all the armed men would be upon them, with slaves and lances and pikes on board. So, they kept watch, but all night everything was calm both on sea and on land. The next day when it was light the Moors saw how our ships were equipped, with so many armed men and the cold steel shining in the sun, and every ship with eight large guns below, the mouths of the cannon

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy