_ 266 _ about, said in a loud voice that “All that was needed was the captain- major’s signature to be shown to the Italians to see if they recognized it and if it was like the one on the letter they had seen”. This was heard on the upper deck where the council was taking place and it sounded a good idea to everyone, which would be confirmed especially if all of the captains, D. Antão de Noronha among them, put their signatures on a sheet of paper. They summoned the youths and gave them the paper filled with their signatures, for them to identify the signature on the letter they had seen. They both ran their eyes over the signatures, came to Dom Antão’s and said that that was the one they had seen in the letter, because it was written in very fine Latin script. Whereupon everyone took what they said to be true and that the Gizares had plotted treachery against them and they agreed to withdraw to Ormuz, which they did immediately. When they arrived there, Dom Antão ordered the ships to be beached and repaired and he had the soldiers paid and gave orders for them to be fed. A short time later a Moorish merchant, who had passed through Basra, arrived there. He revealed the ruse that the Pasha had used against us, whereby he made us withdraw, about which he was more than a little proud.
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