_ 246 _ they began to slacken all the hawsers so that it would not dive to the bottom and it started pulling them outside the bar, because it had such enormous strength. It went on thrashing from one side to the other and always dragging the terranquin. The monster spent so much time doing this that it ended up exhausted. Then the Moors rowed back inside dragging it behind them as far as the [Mukallah China) cove where they secured it with cables to the shore. A crowd of people gathered and helped to haul the monster to the water’s edge, where they cut it up because they could not pull it ashore. The foists that had gone to spy on the galleys brought a message to the captain-major here that they were leaving the small islands of Sohar, twelve leagues from Muscat. At this, he gave orders for the fleet to hoist all flags and set sail in their pursuit. At nine in the morning of 25 August they were sighted in line-ahead rowing from the land, with a wind on their prows. They sailed to meet our fleet among the islets which were two leagues from Muscat, off the cleanest and most beautiful beach that exists on the entire Arabian coast. The captain-major went to attack the galleys with the oared ships in the vanguard, and the caravels just behind them. The galleons were scattered over the sea and as
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