_ 322 _ us whereby he made us withdraw, about which he was more than a little proud. After the report arrived in Constantinople, which the Pasha of Basra had sent to the Turk about what Piri Reis had done in Muscat and Ormuz; that he had left with three galleys and that a powerful Portuguese fleet, which had gone to the relief of its fortress, was in Ormuz, another piece of news arrived that a second Portuguese fleet belonging to Pero de Ataide, was at the mouth of the Strait of Mecca. As the Grand Turk feared that these fleets might make further advances because that Strait was defenseless at that time, he decided to send fifteen galleys, from among those that Piri Reis had taken to Basra, to guard and defend it. On learning this, Moradobec (Barbarossa/Khair-ed-din), a former captain of El Katiff, who at that time happened to be at court, anxious to heal the rift that he had created by relinquishing that fortress so hastily to Dom Antão de Noronha, used his influence on the Turk and managed to persuade him to entrust him with that expedition. The latter dispatched him forthwith with an order to commandeer fifteen of the galleys that Piri Reis had taken to Basra and to go with them to guard the Strait of Mecca.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy