_ 284 _ front of the fortress was hemmed in from coast to coast. Two large cannon were placed above the terraces of the king’s quarters, because the entire fortress was completely exposed from there. With these positions established in the manner that we have described, the Turks began to bombard the fortress at every point, with great fury and ferocity. The fortress returned their onslaught in kind. As the walls were made of adobe the stone balls from the heavy guns became embedded and stuck in them in such a way (half in half out), that even if they had been put there by design it could not have been done with more perfect precision, and they have remained there until this day. The captain wanted to inform the viceroy, so he had a foist rigged out, which was beached at the foot of the fortress, and he dispatched Pero Fernandes de Carvalho in it. Four days into the siege the latter set off from the fortress at night, rowing until he reached the other shore of Moghistan and from there he followed the coast as far as Cape Jask, from where he took the regular route. Because the foist might encounter some difficulty, he dispatched another two days later, in which he sent a resident of Ormuz named Cosmo Alvares, who took the same route.
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