30 of the enemy could hope to fight that day. The mainmast of the galleon “Sao Sebastiao” had been struck several times by cannon-balls and had lost its shrouds as well as having already suffered on the voyage, and in the heavy seas it fell, taking the mizzen with it. This was a loss that greatly encouraged the enemy to come out after our fleet(1), because they knew from experience that this galleon was the second strongest after the flagship. The next day afterAshWednesday, although our fleet was without this galleon, the best one on it, which could not take part because it had neither main mast nor sails, the Commander Nuno Alvares Botelho, set off towards the enemy. They were already approaching to attack us, having made repairs with the resources of the friendly Persian fortresses, and so the second battle began as soon as the sun came up, and it lasted until night fell, without ceasing or abating all day. Almost at the start they killed the admiral Francisco Borges and Francisco Tovar da Cunha, captain of the galleon “Sao Salvador”. Because the enemy saw that only the flagship was effective, they tried to destroy it, thinking that by doing so they would have the victory. All that day it was attacked by seven vessels, and sustained much damage to the masts and rigging, but they were no less harassed for they were hit as often as the galleon, and over one thousand five hundred missiles were fired that day on the Commander’s 1- The English account already quoted says: “To our comfort and their sorrow, we saw their veare-admirall rowll by the board her maintopmast, with part of her mainemast and also her foretopmast”.
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