_ 235 _ Siqueira and Luis de Aguiar, two very experienced catureiros (cutter captains), to go right inside Basra to spy on the galleys. One of them was to bring him news of what he discovered and the other to wait there for his instructions. Meanwhile, he continued repairing and reprovisioning his fleet. Here, the king sent a delegation to Dom Antonio with a present of much greater distinction and value than had been the custom to send to the other captains-major who arrived there with their fleets, because when a captain-major came to that fortress the kings of Ormuz usually arranged for a gift to be given him of some earrings and other valuable items, depending on who he was and the fleet that he brought. It was then claimed that this was an invention and stratagem of Dom Antonio, who had the good fortune of being with Dom Diogo, Dom Antonio de Noronha and other important nobles of his fleet one day, when the king publicly sent him a gift of an expensive string of pearls, some valuable pieces of gold and silver, and some very fine carpets, both large and small, which it was said were worth between ten and twelve thousand cruzados. These he returned to him secretly that same night, so that it should be seen in that fortress how much more attention the king
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