_ 320 _ Antonio's knowledge and took them to his ship, where they were well received. They recounted that they were Christians whom the Pasha had freed and they thought it better to join that fleet than travel overland. When asked for news of Basra, one of them said that he should consider what he was doing and to whom he was coming to give aid because he had been deceived and betrayed by the Gizares, who had exchanged correspondence with the Pasha (agreeing) to hand over to him the captain-major with his entire fleet, and they had sent the letter he had written to them with one of their own, in which they gave an account to the Pasha of the deception that they had arranged, and that in order to perform this service for the Turks, they would give an order to seize all the carracks. For a while, Dom Antonio was disconcerted by the news, but did not consider it impossible because it was quite normal for the Moors to use tricks against the Christians, so he asked the captives if they had seen his letter, and they told him that they had. He summoned all the captains to his galliot and asked their views about whether credence should be given to what these men had said or if it was a trick of the Pasha to make them withdraw from there.
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