_ 212 _ of the situation of the fortress at Diu, declaring that there had never been a better time to cease it than then. They were agreed and soon sent word to Ali Khan to make war on Diu with five thousand horsemen and ten-thousand-foot soldiers. Because he was old Khwaja Safar would be his companion and for this honour that he was accorded he raised a thousand Turks and three thousand Pujirati foot soldiers at his own expense. With those of Ali Khan they would have nineteen thousand men, and they duly set off for Diu. Antonio da Silveira learned of this, and he told the nobles and leading men with him. He ordered Francisco Pacheco captain of the bastion in the Turkish quarter to sleep there each night, because it was finished and earth milled up to the first storey, which was twenty spans high. Five large cannons were brought there, one liao, an iron falcao, an espera and two metal camelos. Then he ordered the loopholes to be made for the firing of the guns and also the launching of the ships which he had beached in order to use them for the defence of the river. Whilst occupied thus fire broke out in the fortress in the house of an unmarried woman and burnt sixty dwellings. When Khwaja Safar heard of this, he took it as a good omen and told his people that that fire had burnt all the munitions that the Portuguese had there.
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