_ 265 _ they thought it would be better to join his fleet rather than travel overland.” The captain asked them for news of Basra and one of them said to him: “Consider, captain, what you are doing and who you are helping, because you have been betrayed, sold and deceived. You will find out that the Gizares have exchanged correspondence with the Pasha agreeing to hand you over to him with the whole of this fleet, because they sent him the letter you wrote to them with others related to the deception they had arranged against you, and in order to serve the Turk they would give orders to take you all by force.” Dom Antão de Noronha was appalled by the news but considered it quite feasible because the Moors would try anything against the Christians, so he asked the captives if they had seen his letter and signature and they told him that they had. He summoned all the captains to his foist, gave them an account of the situation and asked them whether he should believe these men or if it was a stratagem of the Pasha to make them withdraw from there. While they were discussing this matter, Lourenço Vaz Pegado, who was travelling as one of Dom Antão de Noronha’s soldiers, and was at that time beneath the forecastle of the foist (in which all the members of the council had gathered), on hearing what the discussion was
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