_ 56 _ This he did, and going by night in the boat to watch the shore they captured a boat with twenty archers, whom they took to the Captain-in-Chief. He learned from them that they were on their way to Ormuz, where they had been summoned by Kwaja Attar, and came from a fleet that had arrived at Kishm, which Kwaja Attar had asked for from a Captain of Shah Ismail who was close by on the mainland with many soldiers. The Captain-in-Chief ordered that the archers should be taken in chains to man the pumps. Then they got into the boats and with Diogo de Mello’s vessel went to Larak island, where they landed and had a great fight with two captains and many soldiers from Persia, who were hired by Khwaja Attar. The Persians, boldly trusting to their valour and not knowing how our men fight, defended the open country fighting fiercely with swords and shields and javelins and many arrows, but our men fought with determination and used their lances to such effect that they drove them from the fields into the town, which was large, and they defended themselves strongly. But the master of Francisco de Tavora’s ship came up with fire-pots and fire-sticks, whereupon the Moors fled from the town, and many were killed or fell wounded. Dom Antonio and Martim Coelho, who were the last to arrive at the scene of battle, seeing that they could not reach the
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