_ 44 _ brought it remained, and it was very expensive. He said that Khwaja Attar had finished the keep and made it very strong, and that the people of the city wanted to kill him because he had been the cause of all their sufferings; and Rais Nuruddin wanted him killed because he had thrown his sons out of the city, and he was in such a condition that he might do him much harm. The Captain-in-Chief sent away the Moor with honor, and told the Captains the news, and it was agreed that they should go straight to Ormuz /876/ without stopping anywhere; and the Captain-in-Chief set sail, ordering the Captains to start blockading the city as soon as they arrived, which they did. When Khwaja Attar saw the fleet arrive, he at once ordered all the boats in the city to be filled with ordinary people, and they were taken to the mainland and told they should not return, so as to avoid being burned by our men. When Khwaja Attar had heard that our fleet was coming back, he had two strong bulwarks made in the King’s palace and blocked off many streets and made ready to defend the city. One of the renegades had been in Kalhat, and at night he had made bold to go on his own and talk to one of the boys of Diogo de Mello’s ship, who made him flee; and he had at once got in a terraquim, which with sails and oars reached Ormuz in four days, and he gave Khwaja Attar news of how few soldiers there were in the fleet, and how
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