The Portuguese in the Sea of Oman

_ 20 _ In great anger Simao da Cunha raised his hands to the heavens saying "Lord, it would cost you so little to give me a hundred fit men. With those I would have courage to go into the fortress. Seeing I do not have them I cannot do it, and it is a great sorrow for me. I can see now how it would have been right to have taken the fortress when it was offered in peace and how badly advised I was not to do so and in not going away when I had time," Before he should lose what, time remained, he decided to load his artillery on board together with the sick in order to save them. This was done with great effort by himself and the thirty-five who were in health, with blood streaming from their hands they put the artillery in the ships. They were too tired to put the sick on board, so they tied cords to their feet and dragged them to the shore. It was a pitiful thing to see this embarkation with the groans and cries they gave out in their affliction. A certain Moor from Ormuz helped our people much in this work and was with Simao da Cunha at the time he was the Sheikh of the island of Angar who was sailing in a terrada with forty Moors also from Ormuz. He gave much help to our men in both the previous seige and in the embarkation.

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