_ 209 _ 15,000 men and many terradas and other craft. When Piri Reis arrived there with the galleys, he was to lay siege to the fortress of Ormuz but not raise it until he captured it. Piri Reis immediately sailed on to Suez and spent the whole winter until July preparing the galleys for departure. News about this began to circulate throughout the Strait, but there was no more certainty about it than what foreigners generally told them, and had already reached Ormuz by May, when it was impossible to inform the viceroy. Dom Alvaro Noronha the captain of that fortress, who wanted to know the truth about this matter, sent Fernão Dias Sefar, an old soldier of great dynamism and honesty, in a light craft to sail to the coast of El Shihir to await the ships that were on their way from Mecca to Qishm, (Camfar) and all the other ports, and to find out for sure if there were any galleys, how many they were and if it was known where they were bound. Fernão Dias stationed himself in that port of call and received word from some boats, which confirmed that twenty-five galleys had already been launched in Suez, and it was generally reported that they were going to put in at Basra. He brought this news in June to Dom Alvaro, who promptly ordered all the food, water, firewood, timber,
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