to be at the entire charge of the expedition.  To enable him to perform this, he put many rich men to death and seized their wealth.  Among others he strangled Mir Daud, king or bey of the Thebaid, and seized his treasure.  It might be said therefore that this fleet was equipped rather by the dead than the living.  It consisted of 70 sail, most of them being large gallies, well stored with cannon, ammunition, and provisions; on board of which he embarked 7000 soldiers, part Turkish janizaries and part Mamelukes; besides a great number of choice sailors and galley-slaves, many of the latter being taken from the Venetian gallies then at Alexandria, which were seized in consequence of a war breaking out between the Turks and the republic of Venice.

Solyman, who was both a tyrant and a coward, set out from Suez on the 22d of June 1538, ordering four hundred of the soldiers to assist at the oars, and as they resisted this order as contrary to their privileges, he put two hundred of them to death.  At Jiddah he endeavoured to take the sheikh, but knowing his tyrannical character, he escaped into the interior.  At Zabid, after receiving a rich present, he put the sheikh to death.  He did the same thing at Aden; and arrived at Diu about the beginning of September 1538, losing six of his vessels by the way.

When Badar king of Guzerat was killed, one Khojah Zofar swam on shore and was well received by the Portuguese, being the only one of the kings retinue who was saved on that occasion.  For some time he seemed grateful for his safety; but at length fled without any apparent reason to the new king of Guzerat, to whom he offered his services, and even endeavoured to prevail upon him to expel the Portuguese from his dominions, asserting that this might be easily done with the assistance of the Turks.  By his instigation, the king of Guzerat raised an army at Champaneer of 5000 horse and 10,000 foot, to which Khojah Zofar added 3000 horse and 4000 foot in his own pay.  Getting notice of these preparations, Antonio de Sylveira who commanded in Diu, used every precaution to provide against a long and dangerous siege.  Khojah Zofar began the war by attacking the town of the Rumes[209] near Diu.  Francisco Pacheco defended himself bravely in a redoubt at the place, with only fourteen Portuguese, till relieved by Sylveira, and Zofar was forced to draw off his troops, being himself wounded.  Immediately afterwards Ali Khan, general of the Guzerat army, joined Zofar with all the army, and Sylveira thought proper to evacuate all the posts beyond Diu, that he might be able to maintain the city and fort; but some vessels and guns were lost in the execution of these orders.  In consequence of these losses, and because there were many concealed enemies in the city who only waited an opportunity of doing all the evil in their power to the Portuguese, Sylveira deemed it expedient to evacuate the city, giving his sole attention to the defence of the fort.  Ali Khan and Zofar immediately took possession of the city, and began to fire upon the fort with their cannon.  Lope de Sousa, who guarded the wood and water belonging to the garrison, had several rencounters, in which he slew many of the enemy without any loss on his side, except being himself severely wounded.