_ 213 _ Hurrying on his way with this news he and Ali Khan reached the country house of Malik on the 24th of June, where they set up their camp. They soon prevented provisions from going from the mainland to the city, whose inhabitants were so fearful that they began to flee. When Khwaja Safar learnt from them that the loopholes at the bastion in the Turkish quarter were not finished and that the cannon would not be deployed. One Wednesday before dawn the 26th June he made an assault taking four thousand men under his command. He arrived so suddenly that his men climbed the wall which had not yet been demolished and killed some Portuguese on watch there. The cries of these men woke the officials in the Customs House and other Portuguese who were twenty in all, and they hurriedly took refuge in the bastion in their nightshirts. There they defended themselves with musket fire so bravely that the attackers were not able to enter, mainly because Antonio da Silveira soon came to their aid and forced the enemy back Khwaja Mafar was hit by a musket shot in the hand and he therefore returned to Malin s country house where he found himself badly wounded.
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