_ 135 _ de Melo was going to attack), making them think that our men were Arabs. Once they agreed on this plan Diogo de Melo went aboard a small terrada with three or four of our men, as well as two of the Arabs. He left at night and came to a place between Qeshm and the mainland, where four large terradas came to meet him. These formed part of a fleet of forty which had come to rescue Ormuz and which came from Julfar. The Arabs whom Diogo de Melo had brought told the others why he had come. As there were many of them and he could not put up much resistance, they killed him, and it wasn’t possible to find out how although it was later said that his little terrada had been sunk. and he had drowned with his men. When the commander-in-chief learnt of it, he was very sad and handed the command of Melo’s ship over to Antonio de Noronha. Having learnt that the Julfar fleet had come and was near, he ordered some men to go and fight it namely, Dom Antonio in his ship, Martin Coelho in his, taking the charges along, Francisco de Tavora also in his ship, and Nuno Vaz de Castelo Branco in his pinnace. They left on the 23rd of October in search of the fleet, which they knew was anchored at the island of Qeshm.
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