The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 68 _ King’s palace, and it was possible that the King would be up there to watch the fighting. When morning broke the next day the terradas appeared round the point of the city with their masts lowered, laden with archers with Turkish bows and armed with swords and javelins and shields, all growing very fast, with loud shouts to which the Moors on the ships replied with more shouting and bells, drums and trumpets and firing many guns. The flagship’s boat was commanded by Duarte de Sousa with thirty men of rank. The Captain-in-Chief ordered him to fire, and he shot at the terradas with a camello and hit them and made a stubble-field of seven or eight of them which were shot to pieces, and the Moors were left swimming. Jorge Furtado, who was in João de Nova’s boat with twenty men, did the same, and so did Afonso Lopes da Costa’s boat, in which was Ayres de Silveira with another twenty men. These ship’s boats engaged with the terradas which were all coming on together, and made great havoc among them, more than fifty were broken up but others arrived to shoot off clouds of arrows which fell on the boats, but they were frightened by the artillery and rowed away to take shelter among the Moorish ships.

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy