_ 317 _ where they were, they only found a few miserable tents and very little else. As they were not carrying any further orders, they distanced themselves from the army without any disaster befalling them. When Dom Antonio saw that the fortress was destroyed and that there was nothing more to be done there, he decided to move on to Basra, as directed by his standing orders, to support that king, who was waiting for him in order to attack that fortress, which was under Turkish control, with his allies. For that purpose, he sent the ocean-going ships to Ormuz with the guazils of Ormuz and Moghistan and their companies in them. Meanwhile, he embarked with all his men in 18 foists and set sail. On reaching the far end of that Strait, a storm blew up one night which separated nine ships from his. These sailed on with another nine until they reached the mouth of the River Euphrates, where his six ships had stationed themselves to wait. There he dismissed some Arabs who were accompanying the king of Basra's ambassador, whom he had brought there with him from Goa with letters for the king and the Gizares, in which he informed them of his arrival there, and that he was waiting for their message to know the manner and order that he was to adopt in attacking that fortress.
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