_ 174 _ freely offered from the arch of the mihrab, a hatred of the setting up of the cross seized the hearts of the Muslims. The bell’s crowlike clamour (gurab-i naqus) accompanied the nightingale in the melodious chant of the call to Muhammad’s prayer. Religious fervour inspired a certain number of troops from Ormuz to drive these infidels, by whatever means possible, out of these lands. As it was not possible in an open manner to raise against them the swarm of opposition and war and to destroy them at a single blow, they resolved to fall upon them when they were not expecting such a thing and to wipe out the filth of their existence. An individual, wicked by nature and without faith, an infidel at heart and Muslim by word, who knew about the affair, informed the infidels.(A) Immediately the latter were ready and armed for war. After combats and massacres on both sides, the infidels took to their ships and, at sea, seized the reins of empire and domination. They deployed all their efforts to harm the people of Islam and to torment them. (A) The secret reinforcements of Cojeatar were revealed to Albuquerque by an important Muslim merchant (mouro), ‘Coje Abrahem’ (Cast., II/67, p. 363; Góis, II/34, p. 118 and II/35, p. 119), the enemy of Cojeatar (Barros, II/2-5, p. 69). This Hwaga Ibrahim was mentioned in the minutes of the inquiry opened in 1508 by the viceroy Almeida as one of the privileged contacts of Albuquerque (CA, II, p. 159).
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